Looking Ahead
...to the W&F event 2018
Inbound international tourists and New Zealand's tourism experience are a hot topic at present. For those of us working with food, there is a question around how the ingredients grown and produced in New Zealand can be more integrated into the tourism story. It's all very well to say we have fabulously fresh seafood or exceptionally tender beef or lamb but it seems to me that we need something more that just fine produce. We need to create some new iconic dishes that can become the must taste, must eat and must experience for tourists visiting this country.
With this theme in mind, our 2018 W&F Celebration will include a Kiwi Cuisine Cook-Off Competition to provide a new platform for cookery innovation. The W&F will start on Saturday 18 August and run over three days with a series of events. Last year's enormously successful Foodography dinner, where you snap your own six course menu, will feature on Saturday 18 August. The New Zealand Sommelier of the Year Awards and Dinner along with our Wine Tasting Room, wine seminars, cooking demonstrations and hands on classes will be the focus of Sunday 20 August. The Kiwi Cuisine Cook-Off will take place on Monday 21 August. More details to follow soon....
A future at sea with NZ School of Food & Wine
With the Volvo Ocean Race yachts set to depart from Hong Kong to Auckland and the America's Cup Challenge another major topic of discussion, careers in yachting have never been more relevant. Over the years, many of our graduates have gone on to work as chefs and stewardesses on superyachts around the world. A recent visit from Joey Meen of the Professional Yachting Association (PYA) has confirmed our ongoing accreditation for these programmes. Looking ahead, a number of our programmes will be able to be cross-credited to the PYA certificates.
Briar Meades completed the Foundation Cookery programme in 2016 and recently was in touch with her news.
I've been working as a chef on a superyacht for the past 14 months. The yacht is based out of Miami and we cruise all along the East Coast of America and up to New York where the yacht docks for the American summer. I've even been able to cruise right past the Statue of Liberty! Then during winter we cruise around the Caribbean spending most of our time in St Martin and St Barts. Currently we're docked in the Bahamas and cruise all round the many small islands. I've been able to travel to so many amazing places so it makes all the hard work really pay off.
During our busy seasons which is March-May and June-September we do a lot of guest trips with up to ten guests. A normal day for me would be preparing a cooked breakfast for all guests then lunch and in the evening I will make canapés then a dinner of starter, main and dessert. I also cook lunch and dinner for my crew. An average trip is around two weeks. Provisioning is a huge part of my job and can be very difficult if we are on a tiny island out in the Bahamas! So organisation is so important and being prepared. I've learnt so much since beginning my career as a yacht chef and I look forward to what the future holds. I love my job and wouldn't be here without the skills I learnt at NZ School of Food and Wine.
