Transformasi
Nasional 2050 (TN50)
Apa Harapan Orang Muda
BH 20.01.2016
Ekonomi - Muncul pemacu, pendahulu industri digital
dunia
Pendidikan – Silibus anjal, berorientasikan inovasi dan
industri
Alm Sekitar – Bebas karbon, dijana tenaga boleh
diperbaharui
Kehidupan Bandar – Bandaraya pintar, sistem hubungan,
keselamatan teknologi tinggi.
Luar Bandar – Desa berorientasikan industri, prasarana
terbaik.
Jati Diri – Identiti nasional berasaskan kaum.
Uncovering Young Talents
Costley: The competition is a great
platform for Hilton staff to test their skills and push themselves.'
Hotels are finding competitions a good way to unearth new talent within
the chain. Hilton's F&B Masters is one such competition that has gone
regional.
The Star/Taste/Thursday, 19 January 2017
WORKING in a hotel can be challenging -
long hours, endless work and perennial service with a smile (even when you
don’t feel like smiling). And when you’re just starting out, moving up the
ranks can seem like a goal post too far to even bother with.
“There are many employees and no one could
really outshine the other,” says Giritharan Panchaka- ran, or Giri, a
mixologist at Hilton Kuala Lumpur.
Then Hilton introduced the F&B Masters
in 2013, a now-annual competition designed to uncover young talents within the
Hilton group in South-East Asia.
The competition was such a success that
it has now been expanded to other regions like Australasia, China and Mongolia,
and Japan and Micronesia.
Last year, Giri was one of three Malaysian
winners at the Hilton F&B Masters South-East Asia regional finals - the
Malaysians made a near clean sweep of the five categories being contested,
namely, culinary arts, pastry, baris- ta, mixology, and sommelier.
The South-East Asian competition is open
to junior and mid-level Hilton employees in the region (and India). Last year’s
competition saw 724 participants from 40 hotels, who created a total of 1,100
new recipes in their bid to emerge victorious!
In Malaysia, participants have to first
compete at hotel level, often beating their own colleagues (and sometimes
superiors) to get to the national level, where they have to edge
out other Malaysian Hilton employees competing in their category, before
eventually making it to the regional level.
After their wins, Giri and fellow winners
Loo Sze Hong (who won in the sommelier category) and Abdul Halim Jahari (who
won in the culinary category) each bagged educational trips to Scotland,
Melbourne and Tokyo respectively, to learn more about their craft - the icing
on their triumphant cakes.
To prepare for the competition, the
participants practised intensively - before and after their long working
hours, often seeking out the help and advice of seniors who became like mentors
to them.
Some even took time off work to train more
intensively, such as Halim, who took a week off work to sharpen his routine.
This element of practice works to the
benefit of both the hotel as well as employees, who end up boosting their
skills and building their confidence.
“When people practise, they get better,
and when they get better, the customer obviously benefits,” says William
Costley, Hilton’s vice president of operations, South-East Asia and India.
“The participants refine their skills and
it also gives them something to do aside from their day job. And a lot of
people love that challenge.”
Costley finds the competition a great way
to foster team work.
“It’s amazing how people get so much
closer as team members, because they have a common objective,” he muses.
An added advantage of this internal
competition is the leg up participants get in their own industry. Halim was
promoted to sous chef after his win, while both Giri and Loo say they have
gotten more recognition in the industry, and have been offered jobs. They
however chose to remain in Hilton and say they see a future with the
organisation.
“We see Hilton as a really good platform
for us to grow and become more recognised because it’s easy to travel within
the group,” says Giri.
“This competition provides a platform for
staff who may be talented, but perhaps can’t show off those talents within
their hotels. In the competition they can really shine, and it is a chance for
the bosses to see what they are worth, and to make their career grow from
there,” he adds.
Costley agrees that the competition helps
identify talent within the hotel chain, and says that they have observed that
most of the winners share similar traits which have made them successful, which
in turn, means the hotel keeps an eye on these individuals and keep: them in
mind for future positions.
“It’s about aligning their expectations
and giving them opportunities to grow in hotels. We’ll keep them in mind for
job opportunities and new hotels - there are many ways to reward great work,
he says.
Costley adds that given the success of
the competition, there is now the possibility that the South East Asian F&B
Masters winners could go on to another level of competition with the winners
from other regions, which means a much wider pool of Hilton talents will be
competing for glory, and creating a more challenging environment for those
looking to compete.
“It’s being discussed, but we haven’t
finalised it because of logistics. I’m ever the optimist, si I would like to
think that it might happen soon,” says Costley.
Meanwhile, the Hilton F&B Masters
2016/2017 edition has kicked off, and although Giri, Loc and Halim are no
longer compet ing, they have taken on mentorii roles to groom others within the
organisation to prepare for the competition.
“I had a great opportunity to shine at the
last competition and would like others to have a chan to taste some of that
glory too,” says Giri.
Children Are Sweet Enough
Are you aware of how much sugar your child
is consuming?
Adopt these five simple methods to reduce
sugar in a child's diet.
THERE’S sugar everywhere we turn. A typical
child’s day starts with either a peanut butter and jam sandwich or sugary
cereals for breakfast, and then on to biscuits and fruit drinks for snacks,
muffins and cupcakes for tea, ice cream and cake for dessert. And if that’s not
bad enough, children are given lollipops, cotton candy, chocolates and fizzy
drinks ever so often.
Despite the increasing rates of child
obesity in Malaysia, sugar intake among Malaysian pre-schoolers is still high.
Parents must realise that sugar is not a food group and should be avoided.
While most sugary foods can be easily recognised,
a lot of the sugars consumed by children are hidden in the food and beverages
they take. Even some milk contains added sugars! According to the Malaysian
Dietitians’ Association, all packaged beverages contain added sugar, even
those marketed for specific health benefits, unless stated otherwise. Many of
the beverages contain very little or no nutrients, and instead have food
additives and colouring.
These beverages are not just bad for a
child’s teeth but are also empty calories.
Consuming too many empty calories and
encouraging a taste for sweets may in the long runlead to childhood obesity.
In a study by Robert Lustig, paediatric
endocrinologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, published
in the journal Obesity, removing sugar from one’s diet for just nine
days can have dramatic results. His research found that the children’s
cholesterol improved and their insulin levels dropped.
The idea is to replace sugary foods in a
child’s diet without eliminating carbohydrates. The sugary food is replaced
with nutritional starchy foods while maintaining body weight and calorie
intake. Foods with added sugars can be removed from a child’s diet and replaced
with a no-added-sugar version, which can be made up from food that contains
only natural sugars.
Keeping a food diary of what your children
eat will probably shock you into reduc- ’ mg the added sugars right away.
Here’s how to get started:
1 Serve healthy drinks
Young children should only be drinking
water and milk. Reduce and eliminate fizzy drinks altogether and cut down on
other sugary drinks. It is always better to make the change gradually, so you
can start by giving them fizzy water with a little bit of juice to wean them
off. For kids who are already drinking too many sugary drinks, try weaning them
off by adding a bit of water to dilute it each time you serve them. However, do
expect some tantrums along the way, but perseverance is the key to make this
change!
2 Smarter shopping
Some of us may have started our kids on
added sugars without even realising - with growing up milk! Check your product
label to ensure that it has no added sugars. The added sugars can be spotted on
the ingredients list and come in various names such as fructose, glucose,
glucose syrup solids, maltodextrin, com syrup and com syrup solids. Learn the
names of added sugars and look out for them in the labels the next time you go
shopping.
3 Mealtimes
Cooking at home is without a. doubt the
best choice but with a rising number of working parents, this can prove to be a
challenge. Spend more time cooking over the weekend and planning the menu for
the week and freeze portions. Sauces are one of the main sources of hidden
added sugars. Once you’ve removed the added sugars from your httle one’s diet,
you’ll see how much easier it is to get them to eat whole foods such as
vegetables and fruits.
Children should eat four to five servings
of vegetables and fruits per day such as apples, carrots, broccoli, and
banana's.
4 School snack box
When your children are younger, it is
easier to control what they eat as they are not exposed yet to the daily eating
habits of other children.
The longer they stay off added sugars, the
more they will be able to appreciate healthier foods such as fruits and
vegetables. Pack their snack boxes for pre-school with fruits, a cheese
sandwich, or boiled eggs if they like it.
Cut out shapes in sandwiches to make them
more interesting. Kids love to dip! Veggies with hummus or apple slices with
yogurt are
tasty and healthy combos. There are so
many interesting ideas for healthy snack boxes on Pinterest for the inspiration
you need. As they get older, it will be harder to make that change as your kids
will come back sullen with a half-eaten lunchbox when their friends had cookies
and fizzy drinks.
5 After school snacks
More often than not, when kids get home
from school, they are hungry. It is so tempting
to just feed your kids the array of kuih that you can get easily at stalls
around, tea time when they get home from school. It is okay to let them have
their favourite snack once in a while as long as you’re keeping track of their
sugar intake for tha rest of the day. Best is to prepare the snacks ahead of
time - a simple sandwich, or in the hot weather, fruit popsicles are a good way
to get them to incorporate fruits and vegetables into their diets.
Stay away from processed foods such as ice
cream, chocolate bars, and cookies as processed foods usually contain high
amounts of sugar, which add more calories and no nutritional value.
While it is important to reduce added
sugar in have a variety of foods to keep them looking forward to meal times.
Do experiment with different types of foods as each child is different. Don’t
just remove items and limit the variety, instead replace them with something
equally delicious but healthy. For instance when you remove ice cream, let them
have a fruit popsicle made out of yoghurt and fresh fruits, or better yet, make
your own ice cream using the sweetness of fruits.
It takes a little effort but the creative
journey is fun and you’ll have the peace of mind that you're giving the best
nutrition to your family. - This article is brought by Anmum Essential, the
Formulated Milk Powder for Children with absolutely No Added Sugars
Note: Sucrose,
Glucose Syrup Solid, Corn Syrup Solid, Brown Sugar, Dextrose, Lactose,
Fructose, Honey and White Sugar are defined as ‘sugars’ and 'added sugars'
under CODEX Standard 212- 1999 and CAC/GL23-1997. CODEX develops harmonised
international food standards guidelines and code of practices. Under Malaysian
Food Regulations 1985, Sucrose, Brown Sugar, Dextrose, Glucose, Fructose,
Honey are
defined as sweetening substances. Under Australia New Zealand Food Standard
Code- Standard 1.1.2, Glucose Syrup,
Maltodextrin and similar products are defined as 'sugars'.
