Oct 14, 2010
North Shore International Academy (NSIA) has won yet another Training Excellence Award at the New Zealand Culinary Fare on 24 August 2010. This year’s achievement sets NSIA apart as the only tertiary institution in New Zealand to have maintained a track record of winning this award for five consecutive years – a clear indication of the quality and high standards of its training, and the enthusiasm and passion of its students and trainers. NSIA students proudly brought home 9 Gold, 16 Silver and 23 Bronze medals. Nine of these were top prizes in 9 categories, many of which were in the hot kitchen category of the competition.
These were not easy wins as students’ competed with a large number of competitors from other institutions and organisations including top New Zealand restaurants and hotels. With approximately 1000 competitors participating in 60 different competitions, this mega event may very well be the world’s largest Salon Culinaire. NSIA believes this achievement sets a high benchmark above industry expectations and in turn increases the expectations of quality in educational outcomes for tertiary education providers in this field.
“Every competitor is a winner” was a favourite turn of phrase for Roger Mail, the MC of the competition, and also an NSIA tutor “as participating in such a competition takes a lot of guts, confidence and determination”. Les Taylor, the team leader at NSIA’s city campus who has taken students through this process several times says that “competing at this level requires hours of preparation and a high level of dedication” which he believes is a “good foundation which develops a strong work ethic in students’”. Sabra Kellas, NSIA’s career services consultant believes participation in such competitions builds students’ confidence levels which can be instrumental when they later enter into the workforce. “The competition also creates an opportunity for students to meet potential employers and get some industry experience”, she said.
Lucia Cheong, a Korean student who won the top gold medal for margarine carving said that her experience was an eye-opener to her as to what practice, determination, hard work and patience can lead to. “Prior to the competition and the training I received at NSIA I did not know anything about margarine carving and my first few attempts turned out to be very poor looking sculptures. Now I know I have a talent and I am very proud of the sculpture I made at the Fare which took a total of 14 hours over a period of three days to complete!”
For gold medal winners Shota Matsumura and Takuya Lijima from Japan, their achievements demonstrate their skills and abilities which they believe will be instrumental when they seek career opportunities in the future. “I will be sure to include the medal as one of my achievements in my CV” said Matsumura and encourages other students to participate in next years Fare.
CEO of NSIA Eddie Yuan was particularly proud of his students’ achievement and the professionalism, passion and high standards they demonstrated. He was also grateful to NSIA’s dedicated team of tutors and staff who played significant roles in mentoring and coaching these students to success. “Students’ success is always very meaningful to NSIA” said Eddie Yuan “as it is indicative of the enthusiasm and commitment of our teaching and support team”. He emphasised, “We know this commitment because many staff members gave their personal time to ensure that students were well prepared for the competition and taken care of at the fare”. In a later conversation with another member of the industry, Eddie said “This year’s participation at the New Zealand Culinary Fare was particularly meaningful to NSIA, our winning of the Training Excellence Award 2010 was dedicated to Otto Groen QSM and regarded as a fulfilment of one of his last wishes – to win again.” NSIA looks forward to participating again in next year’s fare and raising the quality in the education benchmark a notch higher.
Top Prize Winners
| Winner | Award |
Category |
| Zheng Wei Hong | Gold - Top Prize | Glazed Fruit Plan |
| Chen Xiu Ying | Gold - Top Prize | Chocolate Dessert |
| Zhuang Yun | Silver - Top Prize | Soup |
| Gupta Avinash Kumar | Silver - Top Prize | Pasta Dish |
| Lim Su Kyung | Silver - Top Prize | Live Dessert |
| Lee Seung-Kyu | Bronze - Top Prize | The Classics |
| Bodalkhande Nitin | Gold - Top Prize | Wine & Food match |
| Lee Ye Won | Bronze - Top Prize | Lamb & Beef Dish |
| Lucia Cheong | Gold - Top Prize | Margarine Carving |
The New Zealand Culinary Fare is an annual event organised by the Restaurant Association of New Zealand in association with the Hospitality Standards Institute and with the support of various sponsors.