On 11 December 2019, Marco Panhölzl, the Austrian national champion and WorldSkills 2019 contestant for culinary arts at the Skills Olympics in Kazan, visited the AkadGym.
The 20-year-old chef de cuisine, pâtissier and confectioner is the current Austrian junior national champion for culinary arts and ranks on place 4 worldwide. At the moment, he is training for the Culinary Olympics 2020 in Stuttgart and preparing for the Master Craft Examination. In the European Qualification Framework a Master Craft Diploma is equivalent to an academic Bachelor‘s degree. In fact, Marco will be the first Austrian pâtissier and confectioner to graduate as a Bachelor.
In his talk Marco stressed the importance of English and intercultural competence for people working and competing on an international level. In his practical demonstration, our students could watch Marco use liquid nitrogen and other elements of molecular cuisine, as he prepared an extract of the dessert he cooked for WorldSkills 2019. In the tasting session, students volunteered to assist Marco as ‘commis de cuisine’ and helped plate and serve the desserts for everyone to taste and enjoy.
‘It was great meeting Marco and we hope he will come and visit us at the AkadGym again soon; maybe with a starter or, even better, a main course for us to taste’, said Thomas of class 2e jokingly, and laughing as he was making sure to get the last crumbs of his desert onto his spoon.
Maximilian Nitschke, 8a
Students interested in culinary arts can enrol for the elective module ‘Off to Uni: Survival Cooking for Students’, when they are in the upper-form. This ‘AkadGym University Survival Cooking Course’ is a co-operation with Westminster Kingsway College in London, where Jamie Oliver started his career. It gives students who are planning to go to university after their Matura school-leaving exams the opportunity to learn the basic cooking skills and nutrition knowledge for a healthy and balanced diet for when they live away from home.
Christian Lutsch
