As Pt Erin Pools in Auckland opened for the summer season, they were ready for more than just local swimming crowds. Staff from the Freemans Bay community pool were armed with the know-how to serve up lower fat hot chips to their visitors. A few weeks ago they were taken through The Chip Group’s free online training program and empowered to help improve both their cooking skills and the health of their community.
The combination of both new and seasoned staff were intrigued by the training, which focused on every aspect of deep fried chips. Training and Education Manager – Kate Underwood, worked with Asit Sen the new Sales Rep from Mr Chips to give them some hands-on practice and get them excited about serving better chips.
Participants watched the ten short video session covering every aspect of deep frying from portion size, oil temperature, chip size, oil type, cleaning the fryer and more. They all really enjoyed the training and were quite shocked about how technical cooking chips really could be. “We generally would just throw the chips in the oil and wait for them to float. Then we figured they must be ready,” mentioned Hayley, one of the Pt Erin Pool Managers who had worked at the pools for a number of years.
Over the next few months as ravenous swimmers visit, they will get the chance to put their knowledge into action and show off their new frying techniques. The chip workshop was all part of their in-house staff training day, where they were also learning about how to make espresso coffee from a local Auckland Roastery.
Getting to these types of community centres is a great opportunity for the Chip Group to help empower those cooking the chips to provide their customers with healthier and better tasting product.
It is great to have the support from our industry members, such as Mr Chips to help facilitate and engage training opportunities like these, with a wider range of customers, operators and community groups.
Kate Underwood
Training and Education Manager
The Chip Group