NZ ARMY PUTS THE WORD OUT ON CHIP GROUP TRAINING

The New Zealand Army is the latest organisation to encourage its catering staff to head online and complete The Chip Group™ Online Training.

The Online Training has become a pre-requisite to the Healthy Eating Action and Training (H.E.A.T.) course completed by NZ Army catering staff, a Unit Standard that aims to increase knowledge of basic nutrition in commercial catering.

New Zealand Army Catering, Operations and Plans Warrant Officer, Phillip Russell, said the H.E.A.T. course is part of an internal training programme for Army chefs.

“Army staff involved in catering undertake the H.E.A.T. course NZQA Unit Standard.”

Phillip said The Chip Group™ Online Training was discussed by Army representatives at a H.E.A.T. course held in Wellington in April.

“A decision was made by Army Caterers attending the course to recommend that all catering staff at other Army camps do the Online Training as a pre-requisite to Unit Standard 13343.

“The Chip Group™ Online Training was recommended to us by our H.E.A.T. trainer – Nutritionist Pip Duncan. We were keen to find out more so we all went online to complete the Training,” Phillip said.

“It aims to increase knowledge of cooking practices such as understanding what happens to food when it is cooked and how to maintain frying mediums such as oil.

“After discovering how useful it was we immediately notified the other camps.”

Phillip said the Online Training is unlike any other training initiative he has undertaken and believes it fits perfectly with the Army’s chef training programme.

“The Online Training is fantastic as it gives a straightforward overview of everything that chefs and caterers ought to know about cooking chips and using a deep fryer.

“Not only does it show you what best practice frying involves, it also develops a better understanding of why it is important and what happens to food during this cooking process.

“It’s also incredibly user-friendly and because it is online it’s ideal for use within the Army because our staff are so widely spread geographically across a number of camps and bases.”