Lecturer nourished by overseas travel

19 June 2013

Lecturer nourished by overseas travel

A dedicated Whanganui UCOL Cookery Lecturer has used the money from a staff award to travel all the way to India to learn about Indian cuisine to bring her knowledge back to New Zealand.

Gina Guigou (née Wagstaffe) has been with the polytechnic since 1991, and last year she won UCOL’s Alan Furness Award for excellence in teaching and learning. The prize was $5000 and was to be used for activities or resources which would further her teaching and learning interests.

UCOL has students from over 30 different countries currently studying across its campuses, and Mrs Guigou works with the international student cohorts at Whanganui UCOL.

“I’ve done a bit of travel and relate well to other cultures but had never been to India, and, of course, food intrigues me,” she says.

Mrs Guigou says she had many suggestions from colleagues regarding what to do with the prize money and what she decided upon was a trip to India to visit Whanganui’s own Tony Smith, former part-owner of restaurant Cameron House, who was setting up a Crowne Plaza Hotel in Greater Noida.

“While I was over there I spent time looking at the setup of the new Crowne Plaza Hotel, had Anzac Day breakfast with the High Commission, visited a local training institute, spent a day in the Hilton kitchen, found people doing home-cooking, went out to rural communities, and did a one-on-one cooking class.”

“I wanted to find as many ways as possible to appreciate the food, ways of getting that real cultural experience.”

She says there were countless surprises along the way.

“Everything is masala, or spicy, even popcorn and a lemon drink I came across. Hotels have to be incredibly conscious of food safety and also power use. Nuts are freshly grown, mutton is actually goat, and Papadums are often dried out on the road.

“They put more ingredients in everything, more garlic, tomato, onion. Interestingly, because there is a greater range of flour and milk products than in other parts of Asia, India can also reproduce the quality of pastries found in Europe.

“The biryani rice over there is much longer, and I found out you can tell that it is fully cooked when it stands up.

“It was really great to see mace flower in its real form, rather than as powder.”

For those interested in chef training or hospitality, Whanganui UCOL offers programmes such as a Diploma in Professional Chef Practice, National Certificates in Hospitality (Cookery), and a Certificate in Hospitality. In particular, there is a mid-year start for the Diploma in Professional Chef Practice.

ENDS

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