Cooks win 1 st time up

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 498, 10 August 1993, Page 9

Cooks win 1 st time up

by

jenelle

Frewen

Cooking students from Waiouru's school of Catering and Transport pulled off quite a coup recently, winning four medals at the Rotorua Connoisseur's Festival. The students entered the competition with only two months of training behind them and last week completed the Army's introductory catering course - the nineweek Band Two Cook's and Steward's Course. Despite none of the students having had any previous experience in cooking competitions, they proved themselves to be extremely competitive, with Dvrs Ray Horton and Norman Pirie winning gold and silver

respectively in the margarine sculpture section. Dvr Anna Jarvis gained a bronze medal in the cheese board section, while Dvr Stefan Hartel also won a bronze in the Open Main Course section for his venison dish. The venison was soaked in oil and garlic, seasoned, then rolled in parmesan before being seared in a pan then oven-baked. The competition was very strong in this section with Dvr Hartel having to compete against chefs from the Sheraton Hotel and Rotorua's top restaurants. The secret of his success: "Venison must be rare," Dvr Hartel said. Dvr Pirie described the

two-day competition as "an excellent learning experience" because it gave the class a look at the way other chefs cooked. The competition also showed how valuable the Band Two course was in providing the techniques and skills which are used for all types of cooking, said Dvr Horton. The competition had around 20 categories, broken-up into both hot and cold items, with contestants in the hot dish sections having an hour to prepare and cook two portions. The cold items such as the margarine carving could be prepared in advance. Dvrs Norton and Pirie estimated that they spent 50-hours outside work time to

make their winning wizard and dragon sculptures. Following the success of the Rotorua competition it is planned that cooks from the Catering Wing will enter cooking competitions in both Auckland and Wellington later in the year.