Three Otago Polytechnic Central Campus culinary students have continued a winning tradition by achieving a top-three ranking in the annual Nestle Toque d'Or student culinary competition.
Freda Zhang, Sam Farr and Kayla Green won silver in last Thursday's event in Auckland, Central Campus chef tutor Bill McDonald said. Thirty students took part in the event.
Zhang and Farr, who are level 5 diploma of cookery students, did the cooking part of the competition and Green, who is studying level 4 certificate of cookery, ran the front of house.
They had three hours to cook and serve a three-course menu, which included dishes such as a boudin of salmon with a pea and parsley veloute, slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with a tomato coulis and a medley of desserts that featured mango and lime water ice and sour candyfloss.
The panel of judges was led by high-profile chef Darren Wright, of Christchurch, and WorldChefs president Thomas Gugler, of Germany.
Otago chefs also performed well at the New Zealand Hospitality Championships in Auckland at the weekend, with
Fifi Leong (Vault 21, Dunedin) winning gold medals for her beef and desert dishes, Sam Sykes (Sherwood, Queenstown) silver for each of his beef, salmon and vegetarian dishes and Thomas White (Vault 21) silvers for his salmon and desert in the training section and bronze in knife skills.
