Back in March, six students from Central Midlands Senior High School — Charlee Taylor, Bob Warrell, Gus and Jack Crawford, Diesal Burman and Veeda Rapley-Edwards — participated in Djinda Ngardak, a four-day program that offers Indigenous students from across WA the opportunity to receive training from some of WA’s top chefs. Students were provided with the opportunity to develop their culinary skills with modern cooking techniques using traditional and locally sourced ingredients.
This year, the destination was Crown Perth! The camp was held in conjunction with the World Indigenous Tourism Summit, which aims to provide opportunities for Indigenous people in tourism and bring people together from diverse parts of the industry.
Jane Keeffe, Food Science Technology teacher at CMSHS, said this was a once in a lifetime experience.
“During the program, catering company Fervor taught the students the importance of sustainable seafood, and how to cook dishes with chilli mussels, deep fried barramundi and salt crusted baked fish,” said Jane.
“The students were able to work in the Crown’s kitchens, alongside Yoda and Liz from Fervor and the Crown’s Executive Chef Sean Marco and his team, across two days preparing finger food. They were thrilled to find their food presented to conference guests at an Indigenous dance on the Crown’s lawns that evening.
“And the culmination of all of this — they contributed to the Summit’s 600-head Gala dinner held in the Crown Ballroom. The students were presented to the conference and, for their efforts as part of the program, were given a standing ovation by the conference guests – an overwhelming experience.”
Student Veeda said, “Crown was great – it was so luxurious and fancy! The kitchens were huge and very busy – there were different sections that were cooking just one specific thing. There’s a separate kitchen for pastry, one for hot meals and one for cold food, and another for desserts.
“The chefs we worked with were so happy to have us there – they were so helpful to guide us through the whole course.
“We got to help with preparing and organising some of the ingredients. Bob seared some fish fillets, I had to organise food from the freezer ready for the oven. Gus, Jack and Diesal helped put some poke bowls together. It was really interesting to see how much of the dinner was done ahead of time.
“On the Gala Dinner night, we met Ernie Dingo who was the MC for the night. We all had our photo with him. Once our jobs were done, all the Djinda Ngardak kids were introduced to the whole gala dinner. Six hundred people gave us a standing ovation which was just crazy to be applauded for our hard work!”
Jane said,“We are so grateful to Summit Fertilisers for their significant donation, as well as the Lions Club of Moora and Iluka Resources. Their contributions allowed this wonderful experience to happen.”
