AFTER a gruelling four-day battle at Culinaire Malaysia 2009 – the country’s most prestigious culinary and F&B service competition – the team of students and chef lecturers from Taylor’s University College’s School of Hospitality & Tourism (TCHT) emerged with an outstanding haul of five gold, five silver and 10 bronze medals.

Competing in a total of 24 challenges, the 25-member team outdid some of the region’s top culinary and food and beverage professionals, as well as their peers from various colleges and universities. The TCHT team was made up of 18 Diploma in Culinary Arts, Diploma in Hospitality Management and Bachelor of Hospitality and Tourism Management (Hons) students and seven chef lecturers.

TCHT defended its championship in the Dream Team Challenge thanks to the efforts of Ammie Khoo, Loke Jia Foong and Ng Shen Ni.

Calling themselves The Thrivers, the trio had to assume the roles of chef, server and bartender respectively, and prepare a “modern-day bistro/trendy” food and beverage experience for three diners within two-and-a-half hours. They did not only impress their guests and the judges with a delectable four-course menu and good service at their ‘Charms Bistro’, but also with the stylish uniforms they designed.

Yen Ning

“We’re ecstatic to win the Dream Team Challenge – our seniors won in 2007. The endless hours practising and constant discussions with our lecturers were all worthwhile. The entire process was challenging, but a good learning experience,” Shen Ni shared.

In the newly introduced category of Nyonya Heritage Team Challenge, team Cilantro (comprising TCHT’s lecturers Chef Norrizan Ramudin and Chef Souji Gopalakrishna, and students Gwee Tze Qian and Lee Lin Yi) won the gold medal for their colourful spread of mouth-watering authentic Nyonya dishes.

They whipped up a spread that included acar awak, sambal belacan, chap chye, ikan jenahak asam pedas, inchee kabin, ju hu char, nasi goreng cincalok, otak otak, bubur cha cha and onde-onde.

“This victory was certainly a sweet one!” said Chef Norrizan. “We knew that the key element in this challenge was the authenticity of the cuisine, so we devoted a lot of time to research and master the right techniques in preparing Peranakan food. We were praised by the judges both for our authenticity and wide variety of dishes.”

In the Pub Challenge: Mocktail Category, students Steven Heng and Lai Yen Ning won a gold medal each for their impressive techniques, skills and knowledge in creating and presenting two non-alcoholic drinks – the first being a popular international mocktail, and the second being an original creation.

From left: Chef Souji, Tze Qian, Chef Norizzan and Lin Yi present their Nyonya cuisine.

Steven also bagged the coveted Excellence Award Mocktail for accumulating the highest overall points with his winning mocktail “Breeze of Orient” – a concoction of nutmeg and pineapple juice, and Monin coconut syrup.

Culinaire Malaysia is a bi-annual national challenge jointly organised by the Malaysian Association of Hotels, Chefs Association of Malaysia and The Malaysian Food & Beverage Executives Association. It is held in conjunction with the Food & Hotel Malaysia (FHM) and aims to cultivate world-class chefs and F&B personnel in Malaysia.