Rice cooking competition held for poly students (20/11/08)

Story: Jennifer Dornoo

The Catering Department of Accra Polytechnic last Monday emerged the winner of the first National Rice Cooking Competiton held among all the eight polytechnic institutions in Ghana.
The one-day contest organised by the polytechnics in partnership with the USA Rice Federation (USARF) and Continental Commodity Trading Company (CCTC), saw delegates from the various polytechnics using US rice to create original recipes that were tasty, healthy, appealing and well presented.
Some of the dishes were Rice Paptart, Rice Aprapransa, Rice Bread Rolls, Rice Kebbe and Rice Balls Suprise.
Close on the heels of winner Accra Polytechnic came Koforidua Polytechnic and Kumasi Polytechnic taking the second and third places, respectively.
Dishes such as Aprapransa, biscuits, kish and cake, all prepared with rice, by students of Accra Polytechnic scored the highest marks in the categories of tastiness, health, appeal and presentation of the dishes.
Ms Roselyn Quarcoopome, who represented Accra Polytechnic, was rewarded with a four-burner gas stove with oven, a 50- kilogramme bag of rice and cash of GH¢200.
Mercy Nana Boateng, who came second for Koforidua Polytechnic, took home a table-top refrigerator, a rice cooker and a 50-kilogramme bag of rice.
Third was Simon Opoku Nyame from Kumasi Polytechnic, who had, as his prize, a set of ice chest, a rice cooker and a 50 kilogramme bag of rice.
The three winning polytechnics received a deep freezer each and trophies for their institurions. The other participating polytechnics each received a set of cooking utensils and 50 kilogramme bags of rice with souvenirs from CCTC.
Also in the competition, Koforidua Polytechnic won the prize for the most innovative, while Kumasi Polytechnic won the most hygienic category, with Accra Polytechnic winning the best table layout. Koforidua Polytechnic won the best side attraction category with Jollof cake.
According to a representative of USARF, Ms Jennifer Wadie, the main objective of the competition was to support the development of young talents from the various polytechnics to feed into the growing hospitality industry in Ghana.
She said judges for the event were drawn from the hospitality industry in Ghana and were made up of seasoned men and women with proven track record in catering.
She said the programme would be an annual one.