The road from intern to chef

Meet Rafeeq Blakenberg and Emile Truter...two young students at Boland College (in Paarl) who spent several days interning with Monte Christo Miqlat in our Drakenstein Food Center towards the end of 2011. These two young men are enrolled in the 3-year Hospitality and Catering program at Boland College where in addition to time in the classroom, they are required to acquire 4,000 hours of practical experience. In their 'classroom' courses, they study topics like Catering Theory, Sanitation and Safety, Knife Skills and Applied Management. In this latter course, they learn how to start a restaurant business, how to manage costing, food purchasing, stock taking (inventory), menu planning and more. The students shared that their knife skills have improved a great deal from interning at the Drakenstein Food Center, mostly because the ministry received a ton of tomatoes and a bin of carrots while they were here. They were the ones that cut all of them up.
Under the watchful eye of our Food Center Manager, Marvin White (picture right with the students), the interns also learned about baking and how to do things like de-boning a chicken, with the end result being chicken fillets. Marvin shared that Boland College does a good job of teaching theory. But he likes to give interns and students the real world background, so that when they get out on their own in the 'cooking world' they can handle whatever comes their way.
When asked what their favorite part of the 'practicals' was, Emile said he just likes to be out practicing away from the school. Rafeeq, on the other hand, said his favorite part is plating the food. He said that the plate is the place where he can be creative, use his imagination and allow the food to explode with color. The students certainly were creative with the plates pictured here.
Although these were the first interns to have spent time in the Drakenstein Food Center, Marvin feels it will be the first of many. Marvin would like to see Boland College continue to take hands with Monte Christo Miqlat by sending more interns because he feels that it is good for students to get the type of experience like they can get here. This is the ground basis for getting experience with banqueting. We are the only institution in town where they can get that experience.
Marvin shared that he sees natural born talent in these 2 students...that they have a natural feel for food and keen instinct to cook. We wish the very best to Rafeeq and Emile and hope to have them spend additional 'practical' hours with us in the next 2 years.