WHS students celebrating success at cooking competition
Whanganui High School students have had a great year so far winning multiple awards at both the NZ Chefs Hospitality regional competitions held in New Plymouth in June and in the recent UCOL schools hospitality competition on Friday 17 August.
Photo: Standing – Aylssa, Britney, Caitlyn, Andrew and Glachyus. Seated – Kelahn, Linda Hardcastle and Aragorn.
Linda Hardcastle, HOD Food and Nutrition at Whanganui High School, said “the students gained 8 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze and three Participation Certificates from the UCOL competition.”
Aragorn Cavanagh was the overall winner of the UCOL competition, winning gold with distinction – a perfect 100/100 score for his black forest cupcakes (the first time this has happened) - as well as gold in the omelette category and a silver for his white bread loaf.
One day he would like to have his own restaurant, but in the short term he will be gaining cooking experience in the new bakery and kitchen on the corner of the London St roundabout.
Other winners included Kelahn Te Awhe who teamed up with Aragorn for the omelette and an individual gold for his bread. He also gained a bronze for his cupcake which was a healthy one with broccoli and cheese and no sugar. Aylssa Bourne achieved gold for her carrot cupcakes and Andrew Wong gained gold for his BBQ cup cake and two bronzes for his omelette and bread. He also achieved silver in the Regional completion for his cheesecake. Glachyus Quennell-Toia won a bronze for his omelette and “a burnt hand.”
Britney Walsh won the Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge regional event in New Plymouth with a tomato terrine and chose Caitlin Butlin (who came second with a tomato ice cream) as her team mate to represent Whanganui/Taranaki at the national finals in Auckland on September 4. As a team, Britney will be preparing four entrees and Caitlyn will be doing four mains. They will be helping each other as time allows in the 90 minutes they have to get their plates up for judging. Caitlin also won the cupcake static class in these competitions.
The students not only love cooking but also do cooking at home including making dinner for their families. But they did admit to being very nervous before the competitions, even when they made their cupcakes the day before in school. There were a few flops – such as not fitting into the time frame required and not flipping the omelette correctly. One student fessed up to being an egg short and wasn’t aware that he could have asked for another.
UPDATE: local students who have taken out wins from Tuesday’s competition are: Aragorn Cavanaugh and Kelahn Te Awhe from WHS, Jamie Reid and Charlotte Stevens from Whanganui Girls College and Tania Moller, Bailey Rink, Benjamin Dotirce, Maddy Howell and Jemma McQuillan-McKee from UCOL Trades Academy.
River City Press 6/9/18