Targeted at second and third-year students of the 10 technical universities who are future chefs, the ongoing training programme seeks to provide hands-on training to these students to help complement the protein mix of Ghanaians using poultry products.

Event Manager for USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC), Rose Queiroz, in a Citi News interview underscored the importance of the training programme to technical university students.

She expressed satisfaction with the reception and interest of both schools and students in participating in the programme since its inception.

“We started some fourteen years ago and we used to promote using cooking competitions with women’s groups and we decided afterwards to reach out to students and it has been overwhelming because the schools are always willing to attend and participate.”

An internationally renowned chef from New York in the United States of America, Chef David Bonom, who took the students through the training also highlighted the importance of impacting students with knowledge of poultry products and how to fuse poultry in their culinary which he said is inexpensive and a healthier protein source and option.

“It is very important for culinary students to learn these things because they are the basis of knowledge and we teach you about different proteins especially poultry because it is healthy that they can bring out to their restaurants because you can do a lot of things with chicken. Poultry is very inexpensive and very healthy and fits so well for low budgeting.”

Following the two-day training program USAPEEC will give the top 10 students from their respective Technical Universities an opportunity to compete against each other to find the ultimate future-chef. Each institution will have two (2) representatives, the best student doing the cooking and supported by a runner to battle it out in the kitchen.

The students will be tasked to prepare a main meal with U.S. chicken and a dessert with U.S. processed egg products. The competition will be led by a highly esteemed local chef Rutherford Opoku-Boahene. An esteemed group of local chefs and catering professionals, including David Bonom, will judge the contestants and put every bite through a taste test to select the winner.

The campaign will be wrapped up at a gala dinner and awards evening to honour the participating students and their institutions. The winner of the America Chicken Cooking Competition will receive a four-month internship with Labadi Beach Hotel as well as culinary products for him/herself while the Technical Universities will also receive sponsored prizes.