Winning culinary medals after only four months
Eleven medals were won by Whitireia students at The 2008 Wellington Culinary Fare event at Westpac Stadium from 16th to
18th of May. Members of the team went on to assist the New Zealand national Culinaire Team in their presentation dinner
for 180 on Saturday night.
Three medal winners were in the first four months of their course. “Our students develop their own dishes, says
programme tutor Sonya Martin. Its their hearts that put it all out there.”
Amy Pang, Elisha Starmand and Clinton Snowling started studying cookery in February. “We’ve been staying late after
school, working on dishes in between classes and work says Amy. Alongside our regular assignments, practicing over and
over to get the dish right and within the one hour time frame of the competition.”
Clinton Snowling says on his first attempt it took 5 hours to make the pasta dish he took to the competition. With
repeated time trials he got the time down to 50 minutes to present the required ‘plate of four’. On competition day he
made the presentation with no seconds to spare, the first two presentation plates only just in his hands as the final
gong sounded.
“The hardest thing is waiting to start says Elisha Starmand. You don’t really sleep the night before. The whole
experience is proof of the worth of the hours, early starts, its all worth it. I’ll hang the medals on our living room
wall”.
Amhy Pang won a gold medal for her hot chicken broth and a bronze medal for her pina colada flan. Elisha Starmand won a
silver medal for her Baileys and chocolate flan, covered in a strawberry jelly, banana, saffron and poached pears. She
also won a silver in the soup category. Clinton Snowland won a silver medal with his gravlax on pasta nero dish and a
silver medal for his salmon entrée.
The other Whitireia winners trained in a diploma course at the Whitireia Kapiti campus. They are:
Robert Erasmus
Jocelyn Fletcher
Jamil Hammoud
Pamela Prior
Eva Wright-Stevenson
Jeanette Van Kradenburg
Administered by the NZ Chefs Association, this competition attracts around 1000 entries annually.
ENDS