Celia Hay's school and Jimmy Phan's KOTO teach the valuable "new" skill of cookery.
Photo Elizabeth Clarkson/styling Kate Arbuthnot
My generation learnt to cook. Back then, every intermediate school had a suitably equipped cooking room, and once a week we’d don aprons and hats and cook or bake something useful or tasty to take home to the family. Unfortunately, a few years later, most schools abandoned this practice in deference to the “coming technological age”. Who made this decision? Did they think people would abandon eating, too? And did they believe the sci-fi writers who thought our nutritional and pleasure needs would be met by little pills?
I recently attended two fund-raising dinners that focused on teaching children the “new” and useful skills of cooking, each for entirely different reasons and both commendable. Celia Hay started her New Zealand School of Food and Wine in Christchurch more than 16 years ago to train local and international students in culinary skills and wine appreciation, and provide a course that gave them commercially recognised qualifications. The school, housed in a building in central Christchurch, awaits decisions about how the city rebuilds and restructures itself after the earthquakes. In the meantime, Hay has moved the business to Auckland, where she recently organised a dinner to raise funds to give a number of Christchurch children a break.
Working with affected schools in Christchurch’s eastern suburbs, she takes groups of these children, about 20 or 30 at a time, on a hired bus to visit the Duvauchelle Store and Cafe, which she owns, overlooking Akaroa Harbour. It’s a great opportunity for the children to get out of their dismal environment and enjoy a day out that also involves cooking – they get to make chocolate chippie cookies, a pizza for lunch and some ciabatta bread to take home to their families to show off their newly acquired skills. However, transport alone sets Hay back a minimum of $1000, then there’s the cost of ingredients and staff wages. Thus the $10,000 raised in Auckland will allow many more children to escape for a day and enjoy a cooking lesson.
The other dinner I attended was held at Cafe Hanoi in Auckland’s downtown Britomart precinct. It raised more than $18,000 for Vietnam-based KOTO (Know One, Teach One), an impressive result and one that was much appreciated by Jimmy Phan, who in 1999 started a sandwich shop in Hanoi. Over subsequent years Phan employed a number of disadvantaged youths and has grown his business into a 200-capacity training facility with an internationally accredited hospitality programme. More than 300 recruits from the streets have graduated from the two-year intensive programme in life skills, English language, and hospitality and cookery training. With a 100% success rate in finding jobs for their graduates in restaurants in Vietnam and around the world, KOTO has a worthy agenda.
While in Auckland Phan confirmed that the work is not just about vocational training. “The kids themselves are the biggest inspiration for me to do this work. We bring children together to become part of our family. Kids who have never had any family. There’s so much joy from seeing them thrive and develop, and take pleasure in things like maybe their first birthday cake ever at age 19. To do this we channel all the money from our restaurants into the programme and rely on corporate sponsorship and fundraising.”
An important part of the programme is the inclusion of personal development. There’s a New Zealand connection here: Virginia Holloway, who formerly managed a lodge in Russell, is KOTO’s catering manager. Holloway says although the unskilled trainees often start out feeling insecure and with low self-esteem, they blossom as they develop confidence through their newly acquired knowledge. If you can get children cooking, it can open the door to a career path or at the very least provide life skills that will enable them to care for themselves. There’s a real sense of achievement, too, when they create a meal that they can share with others. Here are two simple but elegant dishes from KOTO’s menu, each illustrating the fragrant and fresh nature of Vietnamese cuisine.
WOK-SEARED SQUID WITH TOMATO, LEEK, DILL AND GINGER
- 800g squid tubes, fresh or defrosted
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 small leek, finely julienned
- 3 medium fresh Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1 brown onion, cut in half and sliced
- 3 spring onions, finely julienned
- 1 large knob fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh dill
To prepare the squid, place the tubes on a board with the broad end of each pointing towards you. Working with one tube at a time, insert a knife into it, cutting it open along the right-hand side. Open up the tube and score the surface at a 45º angle, making cuts 1–2cm apart in a criss-cross pattern. Then cut each tube into 8 rectangular pieces. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok until very hot. Add the squid and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the leek, tomato, onion, spring onion and ginger. Stir-fry, tossing well for 2 minutes over high heat. You may need to add a little water to keep the dish moist. Stir in the fish sauce, garnish with the chopped dill and serve immediately. Serves 4. Wine match: chardonnay
SWEET SAGO AND MANGO SOUP
- 100g sago
- 600ml water
- 1 large ripe mango
- 200ml coconut milk
- 200g milk
- 100g brown sugar or palm sugar
- crushed ice, optional
Put the sago in a saucepan with the water and bring to a gentle simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it sticking on the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat, and strain (the sago, quite transparent at this stage, may seem to have disappeared, but it will be there in the sieve). Tip the cooked sago into a clean bowl and add enough cold water so it does not stick together. When it is completely cold, strain again and place the sago in a second bowl. Meanwhile, prepare the mango. Peel carefully and cut half the flesh into tiny dice. Purée the other half. Add the coconut milk, milk, mango purée and the sugar, stirring together gently. Finally add the diced mango and then chill well. (In Vietnam this is a popular street food, served with crushed ice stirred through it as roadside stalls lack refrigeration.) Serves 6 in small bowls for dessert.