Great Chefs Student Success
An excited applause broke out at the Great Chefs event in the Angliss Restaurant as chef Max Nuntawat Chanyalikit revealed, "Tonight's menu is the winning menu from my final competition for MasterChef Thailand!"
For over 25 years, the renowned William Angliss Insitute Great Chefs program has provided our Foods and Hospitality students with the opportunity to work alongside highly respected and recognised chefs including Guy Grossi, Gary Mehigan and Angliss alumni Karen Martini. Events students have also been involved with the front-of-house experience including event styling.
The recent Great Chef dinner was led by current Angliss Certificate III in Commercial Cookery student Max, who also won 2019 MasterChef Thailand.
Inspired by Thailand's street food and incorporating a range of culinary techniques, the dishes were elevated for a global fine dining experience enabling guests to experience Thai food in a new light. "The highlight of the Great Chefs dinner was the presentation of Thainess through my cooking," said Max.
His menu for the evening included an appetiser of tiger prawn and cured scallop with a Thai-styled seafood spicy spicy sorbet and for main, sous-vide salmon and eye-fillet steak with coconut foam and red curry sauce.
The dessert included beautifully plated mango mousse, mango passionfruit ice cream and pandan microsponge. "Many people who visit Thailand want to try the Mango Sticky Rice but tonight I have innovated the dish by combining my techniques together with what I have learnt from William Angliss Institute, resulting in the creation of something new,' explained Max.
Asked how he felt feel working alongside his peers in preparing, plating up and serving the dinner Max said, "It was truly remarkable because this is the first time they have worked together without prior rehearsal. All the students were highly devoted to the task that they were assigned to. I am confident that they will be successful in becoming chefs after they graduate from William Angliss Institute."
According to Director Education Chris Harris, the idea of a student taking on the role of Executive Chef, with their classmates forming the kitchen brigade, requires the support of teachers to succeed. The teachers need to be ever-present facilitators, both ensuring the culinary skills and techniques of the brigade are correct, but also advising the student chef on their management style.
In this type of environment Chris said, 'Something else happens, which the education literature calls peer learning. In short, the students use their diverse skills and levels of development to teach and learn from their classmates. The role of our skilful teachers is to facilitate this exchange of knowledge and skills, and to validate it. This improves the students' communication, empathy and other 21st century capabilities to add to their skillsets and management tool kits."
Since commencing in 1994, more than 100 Great Chefs have participated in the Great Chefs program, including William Angliss Institute graduates and many who have employed apprentices from the Institute.
Even though Max is a MasterChef, he understood that he has more to discover and decided to study at William Angliss Institute. "I chose to study here because I wanted to learn to cook in a variety of styles and build my skills in kitchen management. To improve my expertise, I am also researching food safety and other food theories. Within the next five years, I hope to be a culinary teacher at a university and run my own business."
Our Great Chefs program is as close as students can get to experiencing the fast-paced nature of professional kitchens and restaurants. It is exciting and new for them to be part of such a big function with a celebrity chef.
Professional Cookery teacher Gabi McCarthy said that the students were enthusiastic and worked well in supporting each other as a team. "The students did a brilliant job to help produce the dinner," she said.
"Max kept the team going by being calm, very organised and communicating clearly how he wanted the night to run. He commanded himself in a quiet assured manner, drawing all the elements of each dish as he described them, to provide a visual aid. He had a captive audience!", added Gabi.
The learning experience extended beyond the kitchen with hospitality students also gaining experience running the front of house service including wine matching and fine dining customer service. Diploma for Event Management students were also involved with the front-of-house experience including event styling.
Guests at the dinner included representatives from our partner ELICOS schools, international student accommodation providers and international education agents from Melbourne, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. Many took advantage of the Angliss Restaurant viewing windows, having a front row seat to observe the action in the kitchen.
You can visit Max's Instagram maxamillionz and following his Chef journey.
Enrolments are currently open for the July intake. Visit Foods, Hospitality or Events to enrol, contact us at enquiry@angliss.edu.au or call +613 8595 5334
