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Sajin Joseph

Cookery Graduate

UCOL Cookery Graduate Sajin Joseph in his chef uniform.

Sajin Joseph gained valuable work experience while studying cookery at UCOL.

Sajin had always been interested in cooking, and saw New Zealand as the perfect place learn.

“I wanted to come to a country that had good education. Looking at the institutions, it was more economical to study here compared to Australia or Canada. New Zealand also looked like a good place to stay and settle down.”

He was drawn to study Cookery at UCOL’s Whanganui campus because he knew would get a quality education while living in a smaller city. 

 “UCOL is a great place to study. Whanganui is a small town and it’s cheaper to live there compared to other cities. There are also good restaurants where you can apply for part-time jobs.”

“I enjoyed the training at UCOL. The programme was really beneficial for me. Coming from India, I wasn’t familiar with European or New Zealand cuisine, which I learnt at UCOL. I got a really good education, and the tutors are really experienced.”

While studying, Sajin worked part time at a Japanese restaurant to gain some industry experience.  He started as a kitchen hand before being promoted to chef de partie, or line chef.

“I didn’t want to just study. I wanted to get into the industry to learn and gain more experience.” 

“It was a different experience because I hadn’t done Japanese cooking before. It also gave me the experience of working in an à la carte kitchen, so I was used to it when I did the work experience part of my UCOL programme.”

Sajin says the biggest highlight while studying at UCOL was undertaking work experience at Logan Brown in Wellington.  He valued the experience of working in a fine-dining restaurant in a big city. 

“It was an awesome experience because I’d never seen a kitchen like the one at Logan Brown. It was so busy and had a big variety of food and ingredients. I saw ingredients I had never seen before. It’s fine dining at its best and everything is cooked to perfection.”

While at Logan Brown. Sajin rose to the challenge of working 12-hour days in a pressure-filled environment. He made such a great impression that he was given fulltime work for the summer break. 

Sajin has recently started working as a chef at Marlborough’s Scenic Hotel. He’s excited to launch his career and keep developing his culinary skills. 

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