Judges Announced for Premier Vegetable Competition

Judges Announced for Premier Vegetable Competition

The country’s premier vegetable competition, The New Zealand Vegetarian Dish Challenge 2016, will be judged by some of New Zealand’s leading hospitality figures.

Geoff Scott, chef/owner, Vinnies and Andy Gibb, Chef tutor at Singapore’s Nanyang Polytechnic, are returning to judge this year’s competition and are joined by Chef and Life Health Foods product developer, Bevan Gray and Hospitality NZ’s Operations Manager, Tracy Scott. The team is led by Head Judge, Mark Wylie.

Mark Wylie said the New Zealand Vegetarian Dish Challenge showcases the skills, innovation and expertise of industry chefs with vegetable cooking.

“We are fortunate in New Zealand to have such a wonderful diversity of fresh, local produce and it will be exciting to see what creative masterpieces unfold this year.

“Vegetarian meals are now widely recognised and accepted as an integral part of any establishment’s menu and as an industry we need to promote and encourage chefs to keep exploring and pushing the boundaries.”

Geoff Scott sees the competition as a specific arena for New Zealand grown vegetables to take the centre stage and allow excellence to be recognised on a culinary, artistic and technical level.

“I believe the flow on effect of these innovative creative ideas is actually very powerful and this leads to these being shared, used and incorporated into other hospitality avenues and ultimately into our daily lives.

“While winning one of the awards is of huge personal gratification to the chef and has the potential to bring considerable financial rewards to the establishment, it also benefits all of those involved. With all the Challenge dishes being tested, trialled and sometimes even served in restaurants across the country, the chefs behind the scenes doing the mise-en-place and the wait staff explaining the components of the dish to their customers are all included in striving for excellence which is a very rewarding goal.”

The New Zealand Vegetarian Dish Challenge 2016 runs from 1 March to 30 April and judging criteria across the three categories of breakfast/brunch, lunch and dining/fine dining include:

• Creativity and innovation
• Originality
• Use of fresh New Zealand grown vegetables
• Presentation
• Complementary flavours
• Appropriate preparation and cooking methods

Last year the competition attracted more than 200 entries from chefs.

The three winners, announced in July, will each be awarded a New Zealand Vegetarian Dish winner plate, a Samsung 1100w-semi commercial programmable microwave and an Air New Zealand mystery weekend voucher worth $1200.

Now in its fifth year, the New Zealand Vegetarian Dish Challenge is sponsored by Life Health Foods, foodservice and hospitality distributor, Bidvest, Choice Catering Equipment and Vegetables.co.nz.

For more information on how to enter the 2016 Vegetarian Dish Challenge visit : http://www.vegetables.co.nz/competition/2016VegetarianDish

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