Awards For Accor At Wild Food Challenge

Accor hotels picked up several awards in the recent Monteiths Wild Food Challenge 2007, where judges tasted exotic meals at restaurants all over the country.

Acacia Restaurant at Novotel Ellerslie was awarded first prize in the Auckland region for 'Best Service and Best Spirit', while Miha at Grand Mercure Puka Park Resort won the same award for the Thames and Coromandel District. The category recognises the restaurants that show the most enthusiasm and effort to embrace the spirit of the event. It was the first year in the competition for both restaurants.

Acacia restaurant employees created almost all of their themed decorations from scratch, with a lot of time, effort and creativity going towards the winning result. With a large restaurant team of 30, the focus was on friendly service with a bit of personality, and staff were given tastings of the dishes to understand what the challenge was all about. Acacia’s wild food dishes were ‘Eye of the Tuna’ - wildly marinated red-eye tuna, smoked with manuka pikopiko and watercress, citrus scented avocado oil and garlic damper, matched with Monteiths Golden and ‘Kawakawa Road Kill’ - Alpine peppered ostrich, wild mushroom earthen spud cakes with piripiri infused ratatouille, titoki berry jus and herbs, matched with Montieths Celtic.

The Miha team at Puka Park Resort also got right into the ‘wild’ spirit, with a hunting theme that gave diners a truly unique experience. Miha’s two dishes were ‘Shhhhhhhh, be vewy vewy quiet; I'm hunting wabbits, heheheheheheh’ – an entrance of Wild Rabbit and Wild Mushroom, Rabbit wrapped in pork belly with prune & horopito relish, matched with Monteiths Original and ‘There’s gold in them thar hills’ - Pohutukawa-Smoked Thar Loin with moi moi potato, watercress and pikopiko salad with molé sauce, matched with Monteiths Pilsner.

Lombardi restaurant at Grand Mercure St Moritz in Queenstown took out the top prize for Best Individual Beer & Food Match in Queenstown, with their winning meal ‘Thyme for Rabbit’ - wild thyme short-crust pastry filled with rabbit, kumara and puha pot-au-feu, served with walnut and watercress crusted rabbit loin, which was matched with Monteiths Celtic beer. The restaurant tied in first place with Surreal.

Ends

© Scoop Media