Restaurant Competition Sets World Class Standard

Restaurant Competition Sets World Class Standard for NZ Hospitality

The 14th annual NZ Culinary Fare found winners in over 60 individual competitive classes, covering all aspects of culinary skill and food and wine service. Classes included Restaurant of The Year, Chef of The Year, Waiter and Sommelier of The Year.

Head of the NZ Culinary Fare competitions, Salon Director Grant Jackson, said the competition showed NZ has a world class hospitality offering. “This has been an intensely busy and rewarding three days. Competition has been hot and the standards very high. The results and performances here, show why and how NZ is a real force to be reckoned with on the world stage.”

Mr Jackson who was Chief Kitchen Judge in 2003/04 believes that standard setting for our restaurants and hospitality industry is more challenging than ever before. He said “the Culinary Fare is terrific opportunity to set and measure benchmarks and standards for NZ restaurants and hospitality industry but this is a complex and varied business. This year, more than ever I’ve seen that at Culinary Fare. A striking development of the maturing of our industry is the many and different benchmarks and standards set here in competition, reflecting what’s being delivered daily. 80 odd classes ran here and even within individual classes, there are contrasting approaches, style and standards. Perhaps once, but no longer, can one standard serve the huge variety of offerings and styles that NZ restaurants, cafes, bars and hotels are serving up across the country every day.”

Mr Jackson said, there is a lot of work to be done for the hospitality sector

“The big thing for me personally, is to see these competition classes as full as possible, to see youth looking at culinary arts and hospo as a worthwhile career

And for the established professionals to put the effort and resources into young people to ensure we can deliver on the growth in hospitality and tourism that we know is coming.

“I believe that it is up to all of us in this industry to attract the new and youthful talent that will be our industry’s back bone tomorrow. It’s easy to see a macro issue as too big to affect, but I believe we all need to be charged with that job. To make it so exciting that our business is attractive and irresistible to talented young people.”

The Culinary Fare is presented every year by the Restaurant Association of NZ with the support of the Hospitality Standards Institute

ENDS

See... List of Winners (PDF)

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