AUT - Hospitality and Tourism News
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Hospitality and Tourism News
- Lights, camera pastry! (January 2013)
- Service Excellence in the Hospitality Industry: Experience from Asia's Hotel Industry (January 2012)
- Event Management students hear from experts (October 2011)
- Next in the The AUT Winemakers' Series - Mahi (July 2011)
- Piko enters Monteith’s Beer and Wild Food Challenge (May 2011)
- Culinary Lecturer Exchange offers a taste of something new (May 2011)
Lights, camera, pastry
AUT Pâtisserie students wowed onlookers with their end-of-year showcase. Read more >>
Lights, camera, pastry!
January 2013
It was lights, camera, pastry at AUT University's Piko Restaurant late last year as patisserie students showed off their skills in their end-of-year and ice cream showcase.
Certificate in Patisserie and Diploma in Patisserie students had spent three full days making 144 different items for the end of year showcase says senior lecturer Renny Aprea.
Students also spent three days preparing and making a variety of unusual and inspired ice cream flavours for the annual ice cream showcase.
Both were hosted by the School of Hospitality and Tourism.
The end-of-year showcase had a film and movies theme, and saw hundreds of people come through the doors to marvel at the finesse, technicality and creativity of the students.
Think cake, chocolate, bread, pies, mousse, cookies, cupcakes, fruits, popcorn and more.
The ice-cream showcase saw students making flavours like bacon, banana and maple syrup and balsamic vinegar, strawberry and cracked pepper.
The showcases were a culmination of the learning by the students over the course of the year.
Service Excellence in the Hospitality Industry: Experience from Asia's Hotel Industry
A hospitality industry roundtable discussion- Time: 3pm, Friday 27 January 2012
- Venue: Four Seasons Restaurant, AUT University Auckland City Campus
- RSVP: Contact Margaret Linzell-Jones, no later than January 25, 2012. mlinzell@aut.ac.nz
The purpose of this Roundtable is for Professor Kaye Chon to share his experiences of the Asia’s hotel industry including detailed observations and analysis of service quality management. Case studies to be presented include such brands as Shangri-La, Aman Resorts, Peninsula, Mandarin Oriental and Banyan Tree. The Roundtable will also cover such topics as:
- Creating positive service culture
- Developing service quality monitoring system
- Promoting a goal-driven service organisation
- Institutionalising service quality
About Professor Kaye Chon
Professor Kaye Chon is the Dean and Chair Professor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is a recognised authority in tourism studies and education and leading academic in the fields of Hospitality and Tourism Marketing, Hospitality Management, and Convention Tourism.
Professor Chon has achieved international recognition for his university teaching and research including receiving the FTA Hospitality Humanitarian Leadership Award in 2003, and the UNWTO Ulysses Prize in 2011, commonly known as the "Nobel Prize in Tourism".
He has also served as the former Chairman of the International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators, the Vice Chairman of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s Education Council, and is currently Chairman of Pacific Asia Travel Association’s Education and Training Committee.
Professor Chon has authored or edited ten books and published over 200 papers in academic and professional journals.
Tourism Symposium a success for teachers
A focus on producing the best possible tourism graduates for New Zealand’s largest export industry has seen secondary schools and a tertiary education provider in Auckland join forces.
With the help of AUT University, a goal of forming an Auckland Tourism Teachers’ Association is one step closer.
AUT hosted a successful Tourism Teachers' Symposium in November, held at the School of Hospitality and Tourism which saw tourism teachers from all over the Auckland region come together.
The overall goal of the symposium and the reason AUT was interested in being involved was to raise the profile of tourism as a subject in secondary schools.
"There is a mismatch between tourism at secondary school level and how it is taught at tertiary level and we wanted to help address that," says Megan Roberts, Programme Leader for the Diploma in Travel and Tourism at AUT.
The symposium was put together by Dr Hamish Bremner, Associate Director of the NZ Tourism Research Institute at AUT, and Julia Tod, Rangitoto College teacher in charge of tourism and professional development.
Attendees the opportunity to participate in learning and teaching workshops as well as hear from a range of speakers including AUT Professor of Tourism Mark Orams (pictured).
Industry speakers were also prominent with presentations from Air New Zealand (who sponsored a prize for the symposium) and AA Tourism.
Tod says as a tourism teacher herself she was passionate to see a tourism networking association get off the ground and approached AUT about providing a venue.
She says tourism as a subject, although popular, is not attracting the top-grade students she would like to see, so giving teachers in the region a chance to hone their skills and learn from one another was really important.
"In my personal opinion, which was very much the focus of the symposium workshop, I feel it is important for us as educators to be delivering challenging, credible tourism classes, which help transition students onto tertiary education."
Feedback from the symposium was very positive says Roberts, and she believes the symposium was a great start.
"Anything that we can do to encourage students to study tourism at a tertiary level while also helping them transition is fantastic."
Tod says the next step for the teachers involved will be to formally establish an Auckland Tourism Association and continue with the achievements of the symposium.
Event Management students hear from experts
October 2011
A team of people responsible for the opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup took time out last week to talk to AUT University Event Management students about what it was like working as part of the biggest sporting event ever to hit New Zealand shores.
The RWC Opening Ceremony Forum was open to all events students and was coordinated to help the students get an understanding of how the opening ceremony came together.
The students heard from John Baxter, the AV content director, Robin Rawstorne, the director of design, Desiree Matchett who was the cast coordinator as well as an AUT student and Angela Hicks, stage manager along with the ceremonies coordinator and one of the performers.
Lexie Matheson, the programme leader for event management and Tatjana Ratsdorf an event management lecturer initiated the forum.
"The forum's aim was to provide the audience with a well rounded perspective of the RWC opening ceremony from design, stage management, operations and cast.
At the end of the forum, as a result of the first hand experiences that are being shared by the forum speakers, participants should have an understanding of how this world class opening ceremony came together and what it feels like to be involved in such an event," they said.
The students were shown a DVD of the ceremony and talked through different aspects of its set-up and design right through to the final night when everything had to come together.
All of the speakers said the opening ceremony took a lot of work with Desiree Matchett saying "it was two months of journey for 20 minutes of production".
She took a semester off to take on the role and said it was a fantastic opportunity to be a part of.
"This has been the biggest and best thing I’ve been involved with and these are the people that you might be working with in the future.
Next in the The AUT Winemakers’ Series - Mahi
July 2011
The AUT Winemakers’ Series continues on August 26 with Marlborough Mahi's vineyard.Hosted at AUT ’s Four Seasons restaurant, Mahi winemaker, Brian Bicknell, will take diners through an interactive culinary journey featuring five premium wines from the vineyard matched with a sumptuous five course degustation menu prepared by some of New Zealand’s best chefs teaching at AUT.
The evening is an informal one allowing you the chance to talk with the winemakers and sommelier before or after the meal.
The AUT Winemakers' Series 2011
Cost: $95 per person
Time: 6pm arrival for a glass of bubbles, dinner commences at 6.30pm
Venue: AUT University Four Seasons Restaurant, 55 Wellesley St East, Auckland City.
Bookings: Places are limited to 60 people so please book now. Contact Four Seasons on (09) 921 9932, or email Four Seasons to book your place.
>> View the latest Winemaker's Series brochure 
(1 page/82KB)
| Date | Wine region | Vineyard | Winemaker |
| 6 May | Waiheke | Stonyridge | Ethan McDonald and Chris Ward (Viticulturist) |
| 24 June | Hawke's Bay | Esk Valley | Gordon Russell - NZ Winemaker of the year 2007 |
| 26 August | Marlborough | Mahi | Brian Bicknell |
| 28 October | Martinborough | Murdoch James | Carl Fraser |
Piko enters Monteith’s Beer and Wild Food Challenge
24 May 2011
Ever tried a wild goat pie? Well now is your chance. Piko has entered the 14th annual Monteith’s Beer and Wild Food Challenge and the restaurant is inviting people to come down and try the pie.Head Chef Culinary Arts Matt Farley said his inspiration came from wanting to “showcase a wild, hunted and uncommonly used meat that is challenging to the palate and customers perceptions”.
The dish, named Celtic Rack and Pinion, will be served with a Monteith's Celtic Red Beer during the course of the competition from June 3 until July 3.
The competition, which challenges restaurants, bars and cafes to compete against one another to create New Zealand’s ultimate wild food dish matched perfectly to a Monteith’s beer.
"I wanted to showcase a wild, hunted and uncommonly used meat that is challenging to the palate and customers perceptions," says Matt.
As Piko is a training restaurant, the second part of my inspiration involves expanding student horizons. This dish brings together valuable and unique experience in preparing different meats, cooking styles and balancing texture and flavour with beer."
The public will be playing a part in the competition too, patrons that try the dish can vote to help see Piko become one of the top two ‘People’s Choice’ finalists or one of five ‘Expert Judging’ finalists that will compete in the hotly contested live Cook Of final in Auckland on August 1.
For more information, visit the competition website.
Culinary Lecturer Exchange offers a taste of something new
5 May 2011
For 30 days in November and December last year, AUT University culinary lecturer John Kelleher swapped places with Phonganan Sirisaengphaiwan of Suan Dusit University (SUD), Bangkok.
The Culinary Lecturer Exchange is designed to foster educational relations between AUT and SUD culinary departments by promoting educational developments and mutual understanding.
“I got to help out by serving lunch to handicapped students as well as stay in a Buddhist temple in Ratchaburi province to cater for High School students that were on a religious retreat.”
Some of his other highlights include:
- Attending World ASEAN Skills competition
- Viewing the King’s Birthday celebrations
- Judging for the Thailand Culinary Academy that selected competitors to compete at international culinary competitions in 2011
- Attending the Loy Karatong festival and the Ayutthaya Cultural Festival
- Dinner at Nahm (chef patron David Thompson)
While at AUT, Chef Phonganan Sirisaengphaiwan entertained onlookers at AUT with his vegetable carving demonstration (pictured).