Thursday, 27 October 2016 10:31

Anchor team takes silver

Written by 
NZ Anchor Food Professionals team bring home silver from the Culinary Olympics. From left to right: Stephen Le Corre, Richard Hingston, Darren Wright, Corey Hume, John Kelleher and Mark Sycamore. NZ Anchor Food Professionals team bring home silver from the Culinary Olympics. From left to right: Stephen Le Corre, Richard Hingston, Darren Wright, Corey Hume, John Kelleher and Mark Sycamore.

The New Zealand Anchor Food Professionals’ team of chefs has taken out silver at the 2016 Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany.

The team won the silver medal in the all-important Hot Kitchen section with their New Zealand-focused menu of salmon entrée, lamb loin main course, and South Pacific-inspired dessert.

This comes on top of winning two bronze medals in the cold Culinary Arts section two days earlier. Pastry chef Ganesh Khedekar created a chocolate centrepiece featuring Gollum which was a huge drawcard for the crowds.

Fonterra’s director of Global Foodservice Grant Watson, who’s with the team in Germany, congratulated the team and says the silver medal is thoroughly deserved.

“It’s been 28 years since a New Zealand last competed in the Culinary Olympics here in Germany. What they’ve accomplished is nothing short of amazing. Their hot dishes were exquisite and loved by the 110 guests and judges who were at the dinner.”

Fonterra’s global foodservice business, Anchor Food Professionals, sponsored the team to compete at the Culinary Olympics through a shared love of creating great food, using top quality ingredients.

Prior to heading to Germany, the team honed their skills and the menu at a series of regional ‘feasts’ up and down the country, while also practising for their cold table presentation.

NZChefs’ president and chef de mission to the New Zealand team, Graham Hawkes, says the team is thrilled with the result.

“The chefs have put everything into this competition. The food they served up to a sold out service really wowed the guests and the judges, and gave them a real taste of New Zealand,” Hawkes says.

The chefs who competed in the Hot Kitchen section at the Culinary Olympics are Steve Le Corre, Mark Sycamore, John Kelleher, Darren Wright, Richard Hingston and Corey Hume, aided by kitchen technician Anita Sarginson.

The first Culinary Olympics was held in 1900 in Germany, when four countries competed but has grown to more than 2000 chefs from 40 countries serving up their best for the judges.

Fonterra Global Category and Innovation manager Keith McDonald, who’s handled logistics for the team in Germany says the chefs have run on adrenalin and very little sleep since arriving there.

“Every minute has been spent driving perfection in their dishes so to take out silver against other countries’ teams that spend all year travelling from competition to competition is a fantastic achievement. These guys have definitely earned this medal,” McDonald says.

“And in 2020, we hope to be back for gold,” adds Hawkes.

The overall winner for 2016 was Singapore.

More like this

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

"Our" business?

OPINION: One particular bone the Hound has been gnawing on for years now is how the chattering classes want it both ways when it comes to the success of NZ's dairy industry.

Farmers' call

OPINION: Fonterra's $4.22 billion consumer business sale to Lactalis is ruffling a few feathers outside the dairy industry.

Wasted energy

OPINION: Finance Minister Nicola Willis could have saved her staff and MBIE time and effort over ‘buttergate’ recently by not playing politics with butter prices in the first place.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter