Culinary students gain experience in top Auckland restaurants

Culinary students at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology are in the enviable position of learning from some of New Zealand’s most experiences chefs – and now three promising students have further expanded their hands-on learning by gaining work experience in some of top Auckland’s most exclusive restaurants.

Pooja Chand, Crystal Rutherford and Jeremy Moses were placed by Toi Ohomai tutor Lee Pearce at Belotta and The Sugar Club (Pooja), Masu (Jeremy) and The Grill (Crystal). The students raised the funds needed for their two week stay in Auckland by cooking and selling food at the Student Market, held monthly at the Windermere campus in Tauranga. 

Jeremy says the experience has helped cement his decision to move to Auckland once he graduates in December.

“It was an amazing experience – at the end I was able to go round the whole kitchen and learn lots of different things. If you’re on work experience you have to get in there and ask for the opportunities.”

And Jeremy can add an Asian delicacy to his repertoire: 

“I now know how to make pork and kimchi dumplings from start to finish!”

Toque d’Or silver-medal winner Crystal is also heading for Auckland in the New Year.

“Real kitchens are very intense environments. I feel ready to take it on now though and am trying to line up a job at the moment. I’d love to go back to The Grill.”

Fellow Toque d’Or silver-medal winner Pooja is hopes to find work in Rotorua after her experience working at The Sugar Club and Belotta. Both restaurants are owned by Peter Gordon whom Pooja was lucky enough to meet briefly. 

“He was really nice,” she says. “I enjoyed working in his restaurants – at Belotta I was on the deep fryer and at The Sugar Club I learnt how to make linguine pasta from scratch. I can’t wait to get started with my own chef career!

And with time spent in such top restaurants, these up and coming chefs are bringing plenty of experience to the table!