Newsletter: Exploring Careers, Regional Blind Wine Tastings, Sausage Class
Greetings,
I am always fascinated to talk with people about what they do and how their careers evolve, often in strange and curious ways.
Recently, I met Petra von Minden, who now works for Peter Gordon and Alastair Carruthers at Homeland. Petra spent over 17 years working for the Michelin-rated restaurant group of Japanese Chef Nobu Matsuhisa and Robert De Niro. When first offered a job in a faced-paced restaurant serving 350 guests each night, Petra commented:
‘I felt that I did not have the skills to work at that level but realised that so often Kiwis sell themselves short. And I started and learnt fast.’
I asked Petra if she would come and talk to our students about her career and share some inspiring stories. What a fascinating presentation about how one career step leads to another. Read more here.
Tori Haysom offers another interesting career pathway. Tori competed our Certificate in Cookery and went on to study the Certificate in Professional Wine Knowledge. Tori has worked in restaurants using her cookery skills, and communication skills on the floor. She moved into wine retail at Glengarry and is now a top-rated fine wine consultant for Dhall and Nash, a wine importer and distributor. Tori recently hosted a tasting of wines from the Loire Valley in our Travel by Glass collaboration with NZ Sommeliers. Look here.
Blind Wine Tasting Events are now confirmed for Wairarapa, Queenstown and Auckland with other venues to be announced soon. See more details below.
The winter releases of New Zealand's fine wines are underway and our collaboration with NZ Sommeliers and Wine Professionals offering the Monday Wine Tasting Club from 4- 5.30pm is working well. It's educational, fun and social.
Our Winter cooking class options include Handmade Sausages and Artisan Dumplings.
The High School Holiday courses run again in the July holidays. Introduction to cooking which includes Food Safety 20666: Cafe cooking 101. Customer service and an introduction to bar service: Mocktails & Bartending. And there is always School holiday Barista (Part One) available.
And finally, June Hay passed away on 15 May 2023. For those of you who knew June, I have prepared this post.
With best wishes,
National Blind Wine Tasting Competitions
The New Zealand Wine Tasting Competition is a new opportunity to bring people together to taste, learn and evaluate wines.
Teams of 4 people are presented with a series of 8 wines (4 white and 4 red) and asked 5 questions about each wine. The winning team from each regional will travel to Auckland for the final on Sunday, 30 July 2023 to compete for the National Trophy at the New Zealand School of Food and Wine.
Wairarapa: Tuesday 13 June followed by dinner in the Martinborough Town Hall
Queenstown: Tuesday 19 June, 5-7pm at SkyCity Queenstown
Auckland: Sunday 23 July 3 - 5pm at NZSFW
Handmade Sausages
Join us on a day of true craftsmanship.
Sausages are a hearty, winter food and learning to make them is a genuine craft which has a long tradition in many parts of the world.
In this class, you will work with pork, beef, and lamb and spice up with a range of spices and aromatics. Learn what makes a great sausage and the different categories ranging from German emulsified sausages to Spanish chorizo.
After preparing the sausages, we will cook up a batch to feast on and you will also take some home.
Artisan Dumplings - One day workshop
Who doesn’t love soft and flavoursome dumplings? The Artisan dumplings course begins with a preparation of classic dumpling pastry which you then roll, twist and shape to make delicious, fresh dumpling parcels filled with flavoursome stuffings.
