AUT chef students cook for charity
AUT’s culinary arts students had the very special opportunity recently to prepare a delicious three-course meal for 150 guests at a charity gala dinner.
On Thursday 28 September, Canteen Aotearoa - the national cancer charity that supports rangatahi impacted by cancer, held their 35th Anniversary Gala Dinner in the WG Foyer at City Campus. The catering was a collaboration between the AUT Events team and the School of Hospitality and Tourism’s culinary arts team.
Led by culinary arts lecturers Geoff Scott and Arno Sturny, staff and students from our Diploma in Culinary Arts, Bachelor of Culinary Arts and Diploma in Pâtisserie programmes volunteered their time on the night, preparing canapes, entrée, main and dessert courses for guests.
Geoff says he took on the event because it is a cause close to his heart and he saw it as a great opportunity for his students to be involved in an event of this scale.
“For most of my students this was the first time ever that they have cooked for more than 10! Cooking for a large number of guests as a chef involves a whole set of different skills – so this was a brilliant opportunity to learn how a ‘big’ kitchen works, to gain a new insight into cooking for large numbers and perhaps most importantly, giving up their time for a such a worthwhile cause.”
Geoff then approached Arno, who teaches pâtisserie, to ask if he could get involved and look after a plated dessert dish.
“Our students in Year 2 of the Diploma in Pâtisserie develop and present their own plated dessert dish as part of one of their course assessments. We decided we would choose the best and most suitable dessert dish and then ask if the student would like the opportunity to recreate the dish for 150 guests,” says Arno.
Jaime Essex was chosen to present her dish (pictured below) - a rum and coconut cake with charred pineapple, coconut ice-cream, passionfruit curd, and macadamia crumble. However, as the dish was made for a fine dining environment, she had to re-develop her dessert and think about the practicalities of serving it to a large number of guests.
Arno explains that while teaching in a purpose-built kitchen within a nurturing teaching environment is the essence of learning the basics, nothing teaches you more than a realistic environment. “Jaime took it on as positive challenge, redeveloping her recipes and re-considering the final plate up. We then got three more students to help her with preparing the desserts on the night. All students involved were extremely proud to be able to participate.”
Canteen Aotearoa CEO Nick Laing says, “it was fantastic to have the support of AUT and the culinary arts team to help us to celebrate the 35th year of Canteen and to help us to raise some money to support the services that we provide to rangatahi impacted by cancer.
"There was a really nice synergy, having young students supporting an organisation that supports their peers. We really appreciated the generosity of all who were involved and many of our guests commented on how spectacular the food and service was."