The oven gloves will be off when Palmerston North and Whanganui UCOL Culinary Arts students contest against each other and ten other teams, for the prestigious Nestlé Toque d’Or ‘golden hat’ title at the National Culinary Fare next Monday 24 August. oven mitt, double oven mitt

        UCOL Chef tutors and Team Managers, Mark Smith (Palmerston North) and Claude Baudet (Whanganui) are no strangers to the cut and thrust of culinary competitions.

        This will be Mark’s third attempt to manage his Palmerston North based UCOL team to Toque d’Or gold. “We have gained two silvers in the past two years,” he says. “This time we are aiming to bring home the team gold.” Claude has coached teams from Whanganui UCOL at five previous Toque d’Or events, winning the team gold in 2004. “We do particularly well for a small institution,” he says.
 
        Each Toque d’Or team consists of two student chefs and one ‘front of house’ server. The servers are trained by UCOL hospitality lecturers and are judged separately from the chefs. Both components of the entry have to attain top honours to win a team gold.

        In their role as Team Managers, both Mark and Claude have spent considerable time planning their team’s menus and both Chefs agree it is critical to design their competition menus with their team members’ talents in mind. “I don’t expect them to do the impossible,” says Claude.