MIT and Unitec Level 5 Diploma in Cookery students, Craig Lucas, Head of School, Hospitality, Tourism and Service Industries (furthest right), with eight visiting chefs from Pacific nations and New Zealand chef Peter Gordon ONZM (sixth from the right)
In Brief:
- MIT and Unitec cookery ākonga (students) worked alongside sixteen New Zealand chefs and eight visiting Pacific chefs, for Ocean of Flavours dinner.
- Students gained hands-on experience with Pacific ingredients, techniques and the pace of a professional kitchen, learning directly from leading chefs.
- The event also created valuable industry connections for students, with nine Level 4 Floristry ākonga contributing tablescapes for the event.
Presented by Pacific Trade Invest New Zealand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Pacific Cooperation Broadcasting Limited, the event brought together sixteen New Zealand chefs and eight visiting chefs from Fiji, New Caledonia, Tonga, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
New Zealand chefs included the likes of former MasterChef winners, Karena Bird and sister Kasey Te Awa-Bird, Nadia Lim, Michael Meredith, Chef and owner Mr Morris, and Metita, SkyCity Executive Chef, Patrick Ikinofo, to name a few.
“I think what’s really good for the students is that they’re working with some of New Zealand’s best and famous chefs,” says Peter Gordon ONZM, one of the country’s most distinguish culinary masters.
“If I was a student and I had this opportunity to be in a kitchen with twenty-four amazing chefs … I would have jumped in it.”
Gordon says the exchange of knowledge was not only between students and experienced chefs. The New Zealand and visiting Pacific chefs were also learning from one another.
An example he pointed to was a traditional Papua New Guinean technique being demonstrated by Chef Israel Gapi, where heated rocks were placed into a pot to cook chicken, taro, greens and coconut.
It was the kind of knowledge students could encounter in the kitchen that they “probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn otherwise”.
Level 5 Cookery student Zaira Kenese says the scale of the kitchen was initially daunting.
“It was nerve-wracking at the start but actually it’s very interesting to see how everyone works in the kitchen.
“It’s like an eye opener to see how many techniques and ways that people work in the kitchen and how we get along in the kitchen too.”
Chef Peter Gordon with Level 5 Cookery student Deashya Eti-Hafa
Working with visiting Pacific chef Denzel Sumsum on a dessert recipe that was new to her, Zaira says the experience had quickly changed from nerves to excitement.
“I just feel very stoked that I’m here. Great opportunity.”
The pace of the kitchen had also reinforced the importance of multitasking, consistency and taking initiative.
“Keep yourself busy, keep doing whatever needs to be done, ask lots of questions.”
That hands-on experience was also different from what fellow student Albert Patuki had expected when he arrived.
“I thought it would just be like a demonstration type learning, but we’re all in here, so it’s good,” he says.
Working alongside Chef Lynda Song, from New Caledonia’s Hotel Koulnoué Village, he picked up a quicker technique for preparing prawns and saw first-hand the attention to detail involved in the process.
Another Level 5 Cookery student, Oskar Van De Westerlo, 18, says being around chefs he looked up to had added another dimension to the experience.
“Some of these guys I look up to, being alongside well-known chefs around New Zealand will give me more motivation to continue.”
He described the opportunity to learn in this environment as unique.
“There’s too much to take away from, because it’s such an amazing experience.”
For Des Harris, Executive Chef at New Zealand International Convention Centre, the value of bringing so many Pacific culinary traditions into one kitchen was in exposing students to both their similarities and differences.
“Each of the countries have their own very unique subset of flavours and techniques and a lot of it can be similar but a lot of it can be very different,” he says.
“Even I will come to something like this and learn something. That’s the great thing about cookery. You’re always going to learn something with all different experiences.”
Des Harris says seeing young people become engaged in this process was one of the rewarding parts of events such as Ocean of Flavours.
“When you see young people kind of inspired and you can see that spark and you kind of see that they’re learning and they get it.
“The success for me, it’s all about attitude. Because cookery is just a bunch of skills, a bunch of skills that we learn and hone and perfect,” Mr Harris says.
“The students I’ve seen just really have good attitude.”
Head of School, Hospitality, Tourism and Service Industries Craig Lucas says the opportunity came about after AUT approached the school about involving Māori and Pacific cookery students.
The experience for the students as “mind-blowing” with what they gained extending beyond what they learnt in the kitchen.
“Connections, connections, connections. Whilst they learnt a lot in a short space of time in the kitchen, it was the conversation and networking that they did that was even more valuable,” Mr Lucas says.
Nine Level 4 Floristry ākonga were also involved in preparing tablescapes for the event, using locally grown flowers and working to the requirements and turnaround of a live industry event.
