Newsletter: March 2021

Autumn greetings,

We watch captivated by the spectacle of those impressive America's Cup yachts foiling at 40 knots across the Hauraki Gulf, and at the same time, it's hard not to have a salutary reflection on the last 12 months.

Almost to the day, we were celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the New Zealand School of Food and Wine with special wine tastings, cooking classes, forage and gastronomic dinner for over 75 guests + our students. Many of our Christchurch team, including Lois, Philippe and Victoria had come up for the weekend. My mother-in-law, June Hay had also joined us from her retirement home in Christchurch. By Sunday 15 March, I was getting pretty nervous about Covid-19 and rather than have June stay in the North Island for a holiday, she returned home the next day. A few days later June's rest home went into lockdown and I counted the 14 days to see if we too had a NZSFW Covid Cluster. Fortunately not! See below some photos as we recalled the 10th Anniversary of the Christchurch Earthquakes.

We all understand and appreciate that we are very fortunately to be living in New Zealand and certainly in Auckland, we have learnt to make covid-contingency plans. For us, teaching about cooking, hospitality and wine, we have been able to continue delivering our programmes online and I am very proud of that achievement - even last week, with only a few hours notice of lockdown, we were able to get our student back in the virtual classroom and continue baking from home... Chef Finn is now a gifted online chef...even taking his camera (on the laptop) into the heat of the oven to show students how his baking is progressing. (See photos below).

I too, have managed to deliver many hours of online sessions from culinary history (we do an historical timeline from Marco Polo to Molecular Gastronomy) to drawing thermometers (online, in excel) to explain the different temperatures, from the freezer to the fridge through the danger zone and to a safe internal temperature for cooked chicken. It was very fortuitous that my son, Oliver Hay, returned from his superyacht chef adventures last year and could apply his computer systems engineering skills to help train us and our students how to learn in the digital world.

I am also very happy that we have been able to pivot and offer the Certificate in NZ Wine as an online micro-credential for people to join, from their homes around the country, as we taste the wines together while learning about our palates.  I do include a section on New Zealand's Wine History: from James Busby (resident of the Treaty House at Waitangi and co-author Ti Tiriti) who planted grape vines and made wine at Waitangi. Other lead players include phylloxera, Romeo Bragato, the Dalmatian winegrowers of West Auckland and on to the business innovation that has created a $2B export earner for New Zealand. This is a very impressive story.

NEW ZEALAND WINE GUIDE, GOURMAND AWARD WINNER

NEW PROFESSIONAL WINE & BEVERAGE QUALIFICATIONS 

Gain the WSET® qualifications while studying the NZ Certificate in Professional Wine Knowledge Level 5 (over 12 weekends) or  Diploma in Professional Wine Management Level 6  online & classroom-based teaching programme, spread over 2 Semesters.

Students will gain a thorough understanding of international wines and spirits  along with destination and digital marketing concepts, business knowledge and sales and communication skills. 

Free Fees and Student Loans available.

Semester 1: 17 April - 11 October 2021 (Level 5)

Semester 2: 6 November 2021 - 24 April 2022. 

Click here for more information.

Read more in this article by Joelle Thomson.

REMOTE COOKING DURING LOCKDOWN 4.0