UCOL Diploma in Cookery Student Zach Meads took out the title of Commis Chef of the Year at the 2017 New Zealand Hospitality Championships in Auckland last weekend. Meads claimed gold medals in the entrée and main course classes, along with a silver medal for his dessert. His combined results saw him win the Commis Chef of the Year category.
Meads started the competition with a desert consisting of coconut Malibu mousse, lime jelly, mango crèmeux, lime macaron, and coconut snow. Next he had to make a vegetarian entrée, going with a smoked tofu and cheese panna cotta, with picked vegetables, watercress puree, mushroom ketchup, and beetroot gel. On the second day, the challenge was a beef main course, so he produced a roasted beef sirloin with garlic mash potato, mushroom cigar, baby onion, red wine jus, baby broccolini, and carrots.
Meads was delighted to be named Commis Chef of the Year, after coming in second in the 2016 competition.
“It feels really great to win, especially after coming second last year,” he said. “It’s worth all of the hard work. I was quite nervous at the start because of all the work a lot of people had put in to get me there, but after a while things started to flow and I was having fun.”
UCOL Chef Lecturer Mark Smith, who has been coaching Zach for competitions since 2015, was immensely proud of his student.
“I’m a very proud man. There was a bit of pressure going into this and to pull it off was amazing and a big relief for me. Zach has been a pleasure to train and he deserves this title. He has worked very hard to get where he has. It’s been an awesome effort.”
Zach’s win tops off a journey that started in 2013, when he did a week-long UCOL Baking course while in school, before progressing through UCOL’s Cookery, Baking, and Hospitality programmes.
