The biennial culinary competition to test the cooking prowess of technical university students across the country ended in Accra Thursday, with a level 200 hospitality and management student of the Koforidua Technical University crowned the overall best winner for this year’s edition.
Miss Victoria Armah was presented with assorted culinary products, a certificate and a four months industrial internship offer with the Labadi Beach Hotel under the supervision of the first Ghanaian Chef, Rutherford Opoku-Boahene.
The biennial event, organised by the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council (USAPEC) saw Miss Armah and nine of her colleagues tasked to prepare a main meal and desert with USA chicken and eggs, thus qualifying them for the awards.
The heads of departments at the various universities were honoured for their role in shaping the students on their journey to becoming chefs.
Prior to the awards ceremony, students from nine Technical Universities in the country numbering from 80 to 100 underwent a two days intensive workshop on culinary arts under the guidance of renowned American chef, Mr David Bonom and Chef Rutherford Opoku-Boahene and his team from the Labadi Beach Hotel.
The participating schools included Cape Coast, Tamale, Bolga, Ho, Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Koforidua and Sunyani Technical University.
Addressing the media, Chef David Bonom expressed excitement over the student’s ability to think outside the box and be able to add some uniqueness to their skill whilst commending them for their eagerness to become successful chefs in the future.
He stated that the goal of the training was to sharpen the skills of the students in culinary and also provide them with a taste of Western recipes that they can use in their kitchen when they become chefs and excel in any part of the world, they find themselves in the future.
“As a chef, you always want to think outside the box at home and it’s like you want ideas you just don’t want to eat the food that you’ve grown up with. You want to eat food from all over the world,” he said.
He appealed to all Technical Universities to enhance their curriculum to accommodate a bit of foreign education on culinary arts as the current curriculum limits the students to only recipes in Ghana.
“I just think that the technical schools are doing a great job. I’d like to see them broaden their curriculum a little bit because right now they teach them all the skills but it’s kind of like, based on things that they do over here and I’d like to see them pulling some more things from outside of Ghana, just to give them a more well-rounded education,” he explained.
Ms Armah commended the USAPEEC for providing her with the opportunity to compete with equally talented students as she would leverage the knowledge acquired during the workshop and competition to become a great chef.
She added that she aspired to become one of the best and most sought-after chefs in the world, whilst urging all students not to look down upon themselves, but strive for excellence.
BY JESSEL LARTEY THERSON-COFIE
