Weeks of intense training has paid off for NZMA’s Roselle Rawhiti, overall winner of the mocktail competition at last weekend’s Auckland Regional Culinary Fare.
Roselle Rawhiti, overall winner of the mocktail competition at the Regional Culinary Fare.
The 19 year old Level 3 hospitality student was thrilled with her results, and is now more motivated than ever to bring home gold at the upcoming nationals. “It was great. I was expecting to get a good score – but I was very surprised to actually get the top score,” said Roselle.
“I guess it was thanks to the three weeks of training I did every day after school, in the lead up to the competition, and also the fact that I didn’t let my nerves get the better of me on the day.”
Roselle and her fellow competitors had 20 minutes to prepare a Virgin Mojito and a Shirley Temple, and were assessed on a range of categories including taste, presentation and technique.
Thirteen students from NZMA’s Auckland South Campus competed in the event, which was held at AUT on June 28 and 29. Between then they earned an impressive ten medals.
Meanwhile last Thursday and Friday NZMA Waikato students battled it out at the tenth annual Waikato Culinary Fare, which took place at Wintec. More than 380 students from across the region took part in a range of cookery and hospitality challenges. Six of the eight NZMA competitors came home with medals.
NZMA’s Director of Domestic Operations Will Horridge was delighted with their success.
“Both the Auckland and Waikato competitions produced great results for NZMA students, and that all comes down to the students’ hard work and also the support and commitment of their tutors,” he said.
“These competitions have been excellent preparation for the nationals and have hopefully given the students the confidence to succeed at the next level.”
The New Zealand Culinary Fare kicks off next month at the Vodafone Events Centre and runs from August 17 – 19.
