Larissa One Of Top 9 Apprentice Bakers

News Release

Thursday 10 May 2012

Larissa One Of Top 9 Apprentice Bakers

UCOL student Larissa Rzoska has been named as one of the country’s Top 9 apprentice bakers.

She is one of nine finalists in the annual Weston Milling competition to find the best apprentice bakers in New Zealand. The competition is supported by the Baking Industry Association of New Zealand.

Larissa will join the eight other finalists at a two day training course with baking professionals at Heavens Training Facility in Napier before going on to the final bake-off at the Fine Food Show in Auckland on 18 and 19 June.

The training course will include an event in Napier on Tuesday 15 May organised by the Baking Industry Association to allow employers and training providers to meet the Top 9.

Larissa, who is completing the six-month Certificate in Bakery and Pastry Level 3 at UCOL, was intrigued by the process required to reach the finals. “I had to bake a three braided white loaf, a fruit strudel and an American chocolate brownie. The entry conditions are quite strict for competitions like this. For example, the brownies had to be a specific size and cut a certain way.” When the entries were baked and carefully packed by Larissa, they were couriered off to Auckland for judging.

Thirty nine year-old Larissa left school at 15 without a formal qualification and is new to tertiary education. She says she is learning a lot from her UCOL lecturers and Chef Lecturer Mark Smith who nominated her for the competition and will accompany her to the finals in Auckland.

But Larissa didn’t have to start from scratch when she began the certificate programme at UCOL: She says her love of baking came from her mother. “I was trained at the kitchen bench with Mum. Now it’s one of my greatest pleasures that my own 11 year old daughter is learning from me at the kitchen bench. She loves it and she’s already talking about following me into formal training at UCOL.”

The six month Certificate in Bakery and Pastry Level 3 programme covers the basics of baking and pastry production, including how to make breads and dough, hot and cold desserts and pastry goods and is offered in Palmerston North and at UCOL Wairarapa. Students also learn how to produce commercial volumes of baked goods and pastry to be sold in retail shops or restaurants.

Larissa intends to seek a bakery job in Palmerston North when she has completed the programme.

ENDS

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