Not so much about creating some of the world’s finest dining experiences, but about how to treat their staff.
The duo are known for their fiery on-screen temperaments and intense, often abusive, kitchen behaviours.
Otago Polytechnic academic leader and principal lecturer Chloe Humphreys and Food Design Institute senior lecturer Juliane Tautz were recently named award winners in the 2025 Te Whatu Kairangi Aotearoa Tertiary Educator Awards, for their work as champions of inclusive and positive wellbeing in culinary workplace practice.
The duo have grasped the opportunity to tackle the often toxic culture of kitchens that is sometimes glamourised by television celebrities.
Ms Tautz said their teaching style had a "ripple effect", because the students modelled leadership in workplace wellbeing, with their own trainees and staff.
"It’s great to see how the high-pressure hospitality industry is already evolving, and focusing more on the wellbeing and development of staff, to create better kitchen cultures," she said.
The judging panel said the values that grounded their teaching methods, and the reflective learning methods they used, had brought new understandings of workplace leadership and wellbeing that were supporting both transformation and high-quality service to the industry.
Melissa McLeodPublic health physician and kaupapa Māori epidemiologist Associate Prof Melissa McLeod won a Kaupapa Māori Individual Award, and School of Arts, Languages and Cultures associate professor Dr Antonie Alm won a General Individual Award.
The Otago quartet are among 27 tertiary educators from across the country named in this year’s prestigious awards, which recognise outstanding and sustained teaching excellence across the tertiary sector.
They will be officially presented with their awards at a ceremony in Wellington, on November 5, where the recipient of the Prime Minister’s 2025 Educator of the Year Award will be announced.
