New Zealand Defence Force is City & Guilds Training Team of the Year 2013

Chef students, Natalie Verstegen and Blakely Kavea, along with restaurant service student J. D. Teture cooked and served their way to success at this year's City & Guilds Training Team of the Year competition.

The trio, who are part of the New Zealand Defence Force, won the title with a menu comprising:

Entrée - Potato croquette with New Zealand Dutch-style Gouda served with kiwifruit chutney

Main - Trio of Cervena Venison: smoked venison loin with kumara stack and beetroot foam, roast venison rack with a port reduction and steamed carrot bundle and seared venison loin with pumpkin puree and chocolate balsamic glaze

Dessert - mille feuille with a blackcurrant couli with Italian meringue, fresh strawberries and a sugar spiral.

The team's achievement saw them recognised as the "City & Guilds Training Team of the Year" and awarded a prize package worth $7000 at the competition's prize giving at Auckland's Ellerslie Event Centre on 20 August.

The competition's head judge Glenn Curphey, Brentwood Hotel’s Executive Chef and President of the NZ Chefs’ Association Wellington branch, says the judges were delighted with the inspirational menus and skills of the competitors.

"It is always great to see trainee members of the industry rise to the challenge," says Glenn.

The judging panel also included Michael Van de Elzen ("Food Truck" chef); Adrian Brett-Chinnery (Group Development Chef at Tanoa Group Hotels, Fiji ); Alan Brown (AUT chef tutor and the first New Zealander to be awarded the Medal in Culinary Arts from City & Guilds, London); Glenn Fulcher (Pacific Manager of City & Guilds of London) and Marc Soper (Chef de Cuisine, Wellesley Boutique Hotel, Wellington).

The restaurant service component of the competition was judged by Angela De Jong, Hospoworld, Auckland; John Snowball, Compass Services, Dunedin and Eileen Marshall, Manager, Okurukuru Wines,Taranaki.

Vegetables.co.nz Food Services Consultant Pip Duncan says the winner's dish was a great showcase of New Zealand’s fine produce.

The competition was held during the New Zealand Culinary Fare on 18 August and included training teams of two chefs and one restaurant service student from hospitality institutions from around the country.

The teams selected to take part came from Cornell Institute of Business & Technology, New Zealand Defence Force, Novotel Auckland Airport, Waikato Institute of Technology, New Plymouth's Western Institute of Technology and Villa Maria Estate in Mangere.

Each team created a menu comprising an Entrée, featuring New Zealand Dutch- Style cheese with fresh New Zealand-grown vegetables, a Main, including Cervena Venison and potato or kumara, plus at least two more New Zealand-grown vegetables, and a Dessert using two Barker's products.

The competition is sponsored by City & Guilds, Deer Industry NZ, vegetables.co.nz, NZ Specialist Cheese Makers, Barkers, Bidvest and Choice Catering Equipment

ENDS

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