Jonathan Kapp - Student Testimonial

A year at Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine

“In 2017 I was a student at Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine under my lecturer Chef Jackie Cameron. As new students in January 2017 we did not know what we were getting ourselves into. ”

We started off with an outing to the Wayfarer Trout Farm as well as having a few cooking classes in between and slowly developed our team as the students of 2017 and would later become best of friends to the point where we feel like family.

As time progressed the innocent beginnings slowly turned to the reality of what the industry was really about. Chef Jackie would slowly but surely start to mold us into the professional chefs we are today. As students we were exposed to an enormous amount of new skills to learn from cake icing, to learning French, to different events that would really push our skills.

We did a number of functions, participating in different roles to help teach us how to run a restaurant smoothly and effectively. If our job for a particular function was to work in the hot kitchen we would be working beside Chef Jackie. As a Chef, Chef Jackie was a very strong figure in the kitchen with great attention to detail and would push us to reach our full potential, she would know better then us as to where that limit may be and as students were often surprised at what we could truly accomplish.

I found the functions to be extremely beneficial, as it would help prepare me for the industry. There was a fantastic balance of theoretical learning as well as practical learning. We would go through theory notes with a fine toothed comb and talk about what we had learned in class. This was very helpful for me as it aided me in earning a distinction for most of my theory tests.

On the theory side we would also do costing’s of dishes we would create to help us see the reality of what food prices cost and learn about the balance of expenditure and profit in the food industry. We would participate in team building activities and outings which all added to the experience at school and would later start to open our eyes to the true potential of this industry so goes the old saying “everyone needs to eat”.

As the year went on Chef Jackie would start to expose us to really large events serving between a hundred even up to a thousand people. We were often terrified of what would ensue at these events but Chef Jackie would have this look in her eye that said we can do this and in the end she was right because we always came out the other side better and stronger.

It was an invigorating feeling participating in a large event as there was a huge sense of accomplishment. As a lecturer Chef Jackie had a very strong but careful touch on how she would deal with situations as she is a woman that sticks to what she believes in.

My experience at Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine can not be summed up in one letter but all I can say is that it was one of the best decisions I have made to commit to this course and thanks to Chef Jackie I feel that I can really make a difference and always push the boundaries of my capabilities. It was an incredible experience and I even miss being in school to this day.