SKYCITY Apprentice Chef Heading to the Worlds

SKYCITY Apprentice Chef Heading to the Worlds after New Zealand Win

Following on from his success at the Auckland Regional Youth Skills event in May, SKYCITY Auckland Second Year Apprentice, William Mordido has taken out the top prize in the cooking section of the New Zealand World Skills Competition held in Christchurch 5-7 July. Winning the national event in his class will see William heading overseas to represent New Zealand in the World Skills Final held in Liepzig, Germany as a member of the Tool Black Team in 2013.

The competition was extremely difficult and designed to show the contestants experience, skills and stamina over the two day event. On the Thursday William had to prepare, cook and serve six covers of the following over a seven and a half hour period;
• Chicken liver Parfait, plated entrée size and had to use ingredients from a common table
• Six Portions of Beef and Lamb, using three cooking methods, three portions had to be plated, and three were on a platter for silver service
• Create a cheesecake

On the Friday, William had to complete the following tasks over a seven and a half hour period;
• Plate six portions of quail which had to include raisins, farce, sauce and or a dressing.
• A Mystery box challenge which contained a side of Akaroa Salmon and scallops plus ingredients from the common table. Competitors had to use two different cooking methods when preparing the meal.
• Create three miniature desserts using chocolate, fruit, a sauce and Garnish.

The Youth Skills competition is an annual event across all industry trades and fosters the best apprentice talent from throughout the country. Team members are compromised of all trades including plumbers, carpenters and of course chefs.

“When my name was called for the Gold medal, the feeling was very surreal. Winning first place was a very gratifying experience and all the hard work and time sacrificed to train had paid off. I now have the opportunity to travel to Germany to compete in the International competition which I hope will open more doors for a successful career” says William.

William was mentored by two SKYCITY Chefs, Roberto Manuel and Peter Ray, both of whom have spent many hours training William outside of their normal working schedule. Results from the 2012 New Zealand event continues a great track record that SKYCITY Auckland has at the event, showing both the calibre or chefs and the training culture within the business. This is the second SKYCITY apprentice both Peter and Roberto have trained at this level in recent years.
ENDS

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