Dilmah challenges professionals to put “real’ in to High Tea

Media release: July 5 2012
For Immediate Release

Dilmah challenges professionals to put “real’ in to High Tea

Dilmah has launched a unique culinary challenge that will test not only the skills, but the traditional thinking of New Zealand’s professional chefs and food and beverage connoisseurs.

The Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge on September 18 will see 14 teams from throughout the country compete to win a trip for two to Sri Lanka and its globally recognised tourism icon, the Tea Trails.

Dilhan Fernando, Dilmah director of marketing, says the challenge will encourage chefs, sommeliers and food and beverage leaders to think about tea and its role in gastronomy.

While wine and food matches are widely accepted, tea gastronomy also demonstrates the sophistication of tea when matched or combined with food. Just like wine, Dilhan says, tea has terroir, meaning it is influenced by the altitude, soils, climate and atmosphere in which the tea was grown.

High Tea has become extremely popular in New Zealand with five star hotels and restaurants offering sophisticated versions and others a variety of styles as they seek to cash in on the trend. High tea has seen the renaissance of the three-tier cake stand and cup cakes, along with scones, cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches to tartlets.

Dilmah NZ’s tea trainer is offering tea gastronomy tips and advice to professionals interested in learning more. Follow him on Twitter (www.twitter.com/teatrainer).

In the Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge teams will create a contemporary high tea and present it with flair. They will prepare a hot tea, a hot tea mocktail, a chilled tea cocktail and a chilled tea mocktail to serve with savoury and sweet afternoon tea food items and a sweet and a savoury food item that uses tea to flavour.

“A real high tea can genuinely enhance a guest’s experience by offering a sensory journey,” Dilhan says.

Dilhan will be joined on the judging panel by TV’s “Master Chef Australia” guest chef and owner of Sydney’s Flying Fish Restaurant Peter Kuruvita and internationally renowned Black Hat chef Bernd Uber.

The two members of the winning team will receive a five-day trip to the Tea Trails and also have the chance to present their Real High Tea to the Dilmah family and special guests. During a two-day stay in Colombo they will also serve their winning Real High Tea at the Hilton Colombo Dilmah t-Bar.

They will also attend a Charitea Dinner at Euro Restaurant on September 19, where Executive Chef Simon Gault will present a four course dinner to help raise funds for a culinary school being started by the Founder of Dilmah Merrill J Fernando’s MJF Foundation.

The culinary school is to help train amputee victims of the Sri Lankan civil war and others living with disabilities for work in the hospitality industry in Sri Lanka.

Ends.

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