Students learn New Zealand culinary arts | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

Whanganui UCOL's Chinese culinary students got a lesson in creating quintessential Kiwi food yesterday - potato and pasta salads.

Thirteen students from Guangzhou, China, will spend a year in Wanganui learning the art of cooking western-style food for their National Certificate in Hospitality, level 4.

They have already finished a three-year diploma in Chinese Cooking rom the Guangzhou Vocational School of Tourism and Business.

The students have been under the instruction of UCOL culinary arts tutor Gina Wagstaffe for the past few weeks, starting with the very basics of western cooking - sauces, soups
and stocks.

Ms Wagstaffe spent six weeks with the students at their school in Guangzhou earlier in the year preparing them for their time in New Zealand.

Things were very different over there, she said.

Even doing the dishes in the West was a different concept for them - using detergent was just not something they did.

"It was quite a culture shock when looking at the school," she said.
While she was there, Ms Wagstaffe taught some western cooking, and evaluated the students' skills in preparation for their stay.

It was part of Chinese culture to discuss food, so the students would often discuss faults in their cooking themselves, which was helpful when teaching them, she said.

"Their knife skills are brilliant, there is a bit of a language barrier, but the more they practise the better they will be. They are really enthusiastic, friendly and supportive of each other."

Eventually the hope is that the students will be able to experience a range of western dining situations, like cocktail functions and buffetsand see how they  are conducted
here.

Three of the students, Ken, Fred and Kelvin - their "western" names, said the pasta and potato dishes weren't the hardest they had made, but they still had a few problems.

Fred's mayonnaise split, and he had to learn how to fix it.

Kelvin said he thought western dishes were similar to Chinese cooking in that they usually contained a mix of sweet and sour, but very different in that westerners
sed the oven a lot to cook, which was very unusual for them.

"We also ate a lot more meat in New Zealand," he said.

All three students thought Wanganui was a beautiful town, and very different from Guangzhou.

"There's too many cars in Guangzhou, and the weather is not nice. Here you can see the sky," Fred said.

The students were taking their dishes home for their host families - if they didn't eat them first.