Seven chefs selected by the Chefs Association and chef-de-mission Graham Hawkes and sponsored by Anchor Food Professionals, the food-service arm of Fonterra, would compete at Erfurt in Germany
Invercargill-based Hawkes was involved in previous New Zealand teams to the Culinary Olympics, which is the only other event in the world allowed to use the word olympics.
“Our early efforts were like an OE of UK-based NZ chefs, road-tripping to Germany and cooking lamingtons and cheese rolls,” he told guests at the farewell feast in Auckland.
“We have earned another crack at it through successes by NZ teams at other world events and with Fonterra’s help we are going to make this a serious, very competitive entry.”
The event from October 21 to 26 would host more than 2000 chefs from 40 countries in a very demanding programme, including culinary art and hot kitchen events.
In the culinary art section, fine-dining dishes were prepared and displayed cold to judges, using gelatine and aspic to give the appearance of being fresh and hot.
It was not something done much in NZ and the team chefs had been practising the skills, he said.
In the hot kitchen events three courses had to be served to judges and paying guests.
The NZ events in Germany were already sold out.
Regional banquets around NZ since last year had also helped the chefs, all of whom gave their time voluntarily, to select their ingredients and recipes and work together.
Those events had been very successful in showcasing chefs’ talents to younger people.
Although the dishes for Germany were kept secret, they would contain NZ lamb, beef, salmon, and vension.
Chefs would try to take ingredients and flourishes in flight luggage but if they did not get past European Union biosecurity, NZ exported foods would be sourced in Germany.
Fonterra global food service director Grant Watson said NZ had some phenomenal culinary talent and after a 28-year absence Anchor Food Professionals was delighted to support the team in putting that talent on the world stage.
The team comprised award-winning chefs Corey Hume of Blanket Bay Lodge in Queenstown, Darren Wright of Chillingworth Road, Christchurch, Ganesh Khedekar of NZMA, Auckland, John Kelleher of AUT, Auckland, Mark Sycamore and Stephen Le Corre of Ara Institute of Canterbury, Christchurch, and Richard Hingston of Christchurch Casino.
