Culinary student shows he's got the chops

Lai Jia Yi had to manage his time carefully to succeed in the CAA competition, but all his hard work paid off when he emerged champion. Photos: The Star/Shaari Chemat

Last November, Lai Jia Yi’s life became very, very hectic. The 20-year-old culinary arts student from HELP University had just registered for the 9th Nestle Professional Culinary Arts Award (CAA) and needed time to practise his cooking skills. But he also had an internship at a major hotel in Kuala Lumpur which took up 12 hours of his day, five days a week.

So on the two days of the week that he was free, he didn’t sleep in like most young students would have. Instead, despite the weary ache in his bones, he pushed aside the addictive tug of sleep and woke up bright and early, splitting his time between studying French (he intends to pursue extra culinary training in France) and intensively practising and honing his cooking skills in the kitchen for six hours a day.