Deborah Coddington looks at the controversy in the Wairarapa over the plan to put a Cordon Bleu cooking school into Martinborough. The school would be part of UCOL.
Unfortunately Deborah doesn't ask the most obvious question. Why in an area with a population of less than 500,000 are we proposing to build a second cooking school with international connections. We already have an absolutley fantastic cooking school with strong international links at Weltec (headed by probably New Zealand's best chef).
How much public money is going into the proposed Martinborough venture? Would it not be better spent making the already excellent school at Weltec even better?
The Hive understands that this a classic case of public policy gone wrong. Worried about the numbers for the Wellington Regional Strategy a year or so ago, a deal was done to get the three Wairarapa Mayors on side. These important and logical questions would stop being asked and the Wairarapa could get its project so long as the three Mayors got in behind the rest of the strategy.
Well of perhaps lesser importance, we would also like to know why UCOL has decided to go the Cordon Bleu route? It is a joke in many culinary circles.
