End of Hospitality Era Exciting

New Zealand’s first training restaurant open to the public, ‘Mellor’s’ at Otago Polytechnic, has just closed its doors for the last time after more than 30 years of operation. The restaurant has wound up in preparation for the Hospitality School’s relocation to the Forth St Campus where a brand new restaurant will take its place.

Otago Polytechnic has a long history of hospitality education. It introduced its first part-time basic cookery classes, designed for those already working in the catering industry, in 1966. Three years later the country’s first block courses aimed at caterers in the tourism trade were launched.

In 1977 a training restaurant, previously only been open to students and staff, was opened to the public. This despite protests from eight local restaurants concerned at the competition. The restaurant was christened Joseph Mellor’s, celebrating one of the Polytechnic’s most famous graduates, following a naming competition in which such suggestions as ‘Polyfiller’ and ‘Polywantacracka’ were cast aside!

The School of Hospitality moves from its Tennyson Street premises late this June when it will usher in a new, exciting phase of hospitality education in Otago. The new premises are purpose-built within the Harbour Terrace Student Centre and be home to upstairs-downstairs cafeteria Ozone, Ako Espresso, new training restaurant ‘TECHnique’ plus a range of teaching facilities, each designed to offer Otago Polytechnic hospitality students a truly unique range of opportunities to hone their craft. Not to mention providing a great range of food and drinks for the hungry Polytechnic community!

“We are going from one training kitchen at Tennyson Street to two brand-new training kitchens at the new Centre” explains Tony Heptinstall, Programme Manager for Cookery at Otago Polytechnic. “There will also be a new production kitchen for the restaurant complete with a specialist patisserie section. Cameras will be mounted in all of the kitchens – potentially, diners could be watching their meals being prepared on a screen in the restaurant.”

The kitchens will be equipped with gas stove-tops and electric ovens as is standard in most commercial outfits. The production kitchen has been designed to be smaller, emulating the more compact environment of most restaurants, yet both training kitchens will be larger and better equipped than previous facilities.

“In the future we will be using these kitchens to offer general interest cookery classes and demonstrations to the public’ Tony adds.

TECHnique is due to open in June complete with brand-new purpose-built bar, and it will be ‘business as usual’ for students of the cookery programmes who spend between five and eight weeks working in the training restaurant each year.  Hospitality management and café and bar students operate the front of house for services that include degustation-style dinners and a-la-carte lunches. However, according to Dion Hyde, Programme Manager for Hospitality Management, there are opportunities for the restaurant to increase its offerings.

“We anticipate demand for restaurant bookings to be strong in this new location, so will explore the option of opening longer hours with paid staff” he explains. “In addition these fantastic new facilities are perfect for weddings, student and staff functions, small conferences and cocktail parties. We have a full caterer’s license so will be able to offer a range of out-catering services and off-site functions.”

Ako Espresso has been open for several months and continues to serve premium coffee and speciality drinks from its street front position on Harbour Terrace. While the back of the bar has been used as a makeshift kitchen during the construction process it will soon be home to baristas-in- training.

 “This new facility gives the hospitality team and our students a greater opportunity to be in a community environment and the opportunity to be open more often,” says Noelle Liddy, Head of the School of Hospitality. “We really encourage students and staff to use facilities and welcome members of our community as well.