Rajarshi Ray, of Silos Estate, likes to give back to the community that supports him by supporting the next generation entering the winemaking, events, commercial cookery and hospitality industry.
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The owner of the winery on the Princes Hwy just south of Berry offers a wine scholarship to a TAFE student every year.
Winners are announced at the annual Celebrity Chef Dinner at Destiny’s Restaurant, Bomaderry which gives commercial cookery, events and hospitality students practical experience working with the best chefs in Australia.
Mr Ray supports the annual dinner in many ways. With the scholarship he encourages some of the emerging talent that is really putting the Illawarra and Shoalhaven on the map as wine and food destination.
TAFE selects the annual scholarship recipient from the best students.
There is a scholarship for food where a student gains invaluable experience working with a celebrity chef. And another for wine that provides a whole wine-making life-cycle experience.
“They come out and spend five days with us. They experience harvest, wine-making, manufacturing bottling, labeling, packaging and they do retailing by attending the markets in Berry with us and experiencing the cellar door as well. They get a good overall view of the whole process. They spend a whole day out in the vineyard attending vines, doing grafting and planting vines,” Mr Ray said.
Last year’s recipient Hannah Stubbles said it was a wonderful opportunity and a chance to learn so much and gain a greater understanding of wine production.
“In 2017 I graduated with a Diploma of Events. The teachers and staff at TAFE nominated me. I have worked in hospitality for a while now and this is the industry I wanted to get into. Now I am doing event styling with an event company and I am doing restaurant and waitressing work as well. It is really good. It has helped me appreciate the whole process. There is an art to it and is really interesting to learn from people like Raj who have so much experience”.
Ms Stubbles eventually wants to run her own event styling company as well as a cafe and restaurant.
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