Riding the celebrity chef wave is the talented Saint Kentigern College cooking duo, Rebecca Roberts, Year 12 and Alex Southwick, Year 11 who recently cooked up a storm to win silver at the 2014 National Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge.

The 90-minute MasterChef style Auckland regional competition held at the Manukau Institute of Technology saw students from eight Auckland secondary schools preparing and presenting artistically designed entrees with New Zealand-grown leeks as the principal component. The requirement for the main course was to contain at least three New Zealand-grown vegetables, one of which had to be a potato, and a chicken breast with the skin on and bone in.

No cooking competition would be complete without celebrity chef judge and restaurateur, Simon Gault who, along with chefs John Campbell, Jono Beattie and Jack Perry were at the ready to judge the variety of flavours, textures and presentation of the dishes.

Mr Gault said he was seriously impressed. ‘It was better than many make on MasterChef, you guys are on fire,’ he said.

As the minutes ticked by, Rebecca and Alex’s entrée of pan-seared scallops with crispy pancetta, served with cock-a-leekie sauce and braised leeks was completed well on time. For their main, they skilfully cooked up French roasted free range chicken with cauliflower puree, potato gratin, braised baby onions and pickled seasonal vegetables to impress the judges to award silver.

The students’ Food Technology teacher, Mrs Susanna Pattison anxiously stood on the side-lines supporting the team of two and was very pleased with their overall result.

‘Rebecca and Alex were professional and competent and I was very proud of the effort they put in and how they performed on the day,’ she said. ‘They had not cooked together before but three practice sessions prior to the competition gave them the confidence to know they could do well.’

The National Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge was developed by industry leaders wanting to showcase the highly skilled profession and long-term career opportunities in the hospitality industry.

The hype and competitive spirit worked well towards encouraging students who have a flair for hospitality to seriously consider it as a profession at a much earlier stage in their academic career.

Food Technology at the College

The College has superb, industry-standard facilities for teaching Food Technology in the Jack Paine Art and Technology Centre. NCEA Levels 1-3 Food Technology is a demanding course structured to scaffold the learning and pressures that students can expect to experience during tertiary study. In Levels 1 and 2, students work with a food technologist to develop innovative new products that are fit for purpose as a result of extensive sensory analysis, market, consumer and technical research. During their final year, students synthesise their knowledge of food design and development in order to engage with an actual client. They are expected to solve problems with critical and original thinking, leaving the course with an extensive portfolio and basic industrial experience.

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