Two of Canberra's best known Catholic schools are putting aside their traditional sporting rivalry to join forces and cultivate the domestic arts, cook up a storm and raise money for a good cause.
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Yes, on Wednesday, September 17, Year 11 and 12 hospitality students from Marist College Canberra and St Edmund's College will team up to cook and serve a three-course gourmet feast at the Southern Cross Club in Woden to hone their skills and raise money for the charity "HOME".
This, unlike MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules, The Biggest Loser, The Block or Survivor, is not a competitive event; nobody is going to get voted off the island bench, sent home in a Toyota or dropped into the fondue.
"We thought it would be a good idea to foster a spirit of co-operation between the students from the two schools," Marist hospitality teacher Elizabeth Smith, who also introduced hospitality to St Edmunds way back in the early 1990s, told Gang-gang.
Ms Smith has worked closely with St Edmund's teacher, Dean Parkes, to come up with a menu the lads will be working together to prepare for an estimated 250 people.
"They will be working in the Southern Cross Club kitchen and the meal is being served in one of the principal function rooms. This is all about a real-life, hands-on experience that will show them just what hospitality is about."
Ms Smith, who credits the latest round of cooking shows with raising awareness of and interest in the kitchen arts, says it will be good for the students from the two schools, which are usually in hot competition with each other, to work together to prepare, plate up and then serve first-class cuisine in a pressure-cooker environment.
This hasn't gone down totally well with some of the old guard however. "We're upset to hear of competition between Eddies and Marist," a couple of old boys, one from each school, currently working at the Canberra Times, told Gang-gang. "They really should be belting each other up on the footy field and stealing each others' girlfriends …"
Ms Smith, who may well have taught one or both of our recalcitrant neanderthals at some point in her career, disagrees.
"My understanding is this is the first time students from the two schools have worked together [on a cooking challenge]," she said. "It is all about collaborative learning. Dean and I have worked closely together and we have had a lot of support from companies and groups who are helping provide the food for the night. We are very happy with this as every cent we make over our basic costs is going to HOME, the charity."
HOME, just in case you haven't come across it, is a Queanbeyan-based accommodation facility that provides a supportive and loving home for 19 men and women with mental illness, who cannot live on their own or are at risk of homelessness.
It helps to bridge the gap between institutional care and unsupervised independent living where, unfortunately, past experience has shown people can fall through the cracks.
HOME does not receive a penny in government support (surprise, surprise) and although residents pay for their utilities and contribute $195 a week an additional $160,000 is needed to cover running costs every year.
The long-term plan is to pull together sufficient funds to make HOME financially self-sufficient in the next 10 to 15 years.
The meal itself will be a bargain. For just $60 a person, less than you would pay for a halfway decent main in some of the hostelries in this town, guests will be served an entree of grilled pear salad with chocolate balsamic vinaigretteand winter beet aioli; a main course of chicken ballontine with a melange of winter vegetables, broad-bean puree and champagne beurre blanc and a wonderful dessert consisting of individual chocolate mousse cake candles surrounded by a salted caramel sauce and hazelnut praline garnished with chocolate flame and gold dusting.
It sounds irresistible to me!
Tickets are limited and can be obtained by contacting either St Edmunds on 6239 0630 or Marist College Canberra on 6298 7200.