Hello everyone,

And in what appears to be a rough and tumble world right now, it feels good to applaud the achievements of so many people driving our hospitality businesses in New Zealand.

Recently, I attended the Cuisine Good Food Awards and was thrilled to see our alumni, Larissa Muller awarded the Best Sommelier and Chef Cory Campbell of The Grove awarded Cuisine Chef of the Year for his outstanding cuisine. Cory always welcomes our students on work placements into his kitchen. In Queenstown, I had an outstanding dinner at Toast & Oak, the inspiration of chef & sommelier Giulio Barducci, with the goal of creating a unique gastronomic and wine destination for Central Otago.

At NZ Sommelier of the Year Competition, with 14 sommeliers, including three guest international sommeliers, Suraj GC of the Park Hyatt Auckland took the trophy. Andre Tremaud of The Grove won the Junior Sommelier title.  In the kitchen Chef Finn and the Level 4 cookery students prepared the canapés and Awards Dinner with the hospitality and professional wine students, under the guidance of Franck Laruelle served the dinner. Here are some photos.

At the Final of the Blind Wine Tasting Competition Derrick's Backyard won by a margin of 257 points (very close in the Kahoot world) and only on the last question, snatching the lead from Hawke's Bay Team lead by Sue Fox-Warren and Yvonne Lorkin. Only a few points behind In 3rd place, was a group of NZ School of Food and Wine Professional Wine students, who were also helping with the event management and called themselves: Franck's Help. Congratulations to Helen Evans, Axel Jones, Serenity Temu and Abi Griffin. View the winners and the wines.

Over the next months, we are busy as cranking up with lots of courses and then calming down as head into December.

For people wishing to enrol for full time courses in February 2025, we encourage you to email us and register as places are limited.

With best wishes,

Celia Hay

Upcoming courses

Certificate in Classic Cooking Micro-Credential

We would like to inform you of our upcoming intake for the Certificate in Classic Cooking Micro-Credential in October. This programme draws on the French culinary tradition, preparations and cooking techniques but also embraces an Asian influence to reflect ingredients and techniques popular in contemporary New Zealand. 

Session Dates:

10 Weeks, Wednesday and Thursday Evenings: 4pm - 8pm

• 9-10 Oct to 11-12 December 2024
• 30-01 April/May to 2-3 July 2025

Location/Campus Address: Level 3, 104 Customs St West, Viaduct, Auckland, 1010.

For more information and to register please click here.

School Holiday Café Cooking 101

Our popular STAR-Funded High School course School Holiday Café Cooking 101 is now available to book. This is a great introductory three day course that helps high school students gain the skills to get started with café cooking. 

Session Dates:

Wed, Thu, Fri, 1:00 pm - 5:30 pm

• Evening: 2, 3, 4 Oct 2024 (1:00pm-5:30pm)

To book please view here.

Take a look at our wine programmes