Young Auckland chef Chris Webb and his waiter partner Leanne Ayre won the New Zealand section of the ‘Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge 2012,’ with an array of teas, tea cocktails and mocktails and gastronomic delights.
They won a trip for two to Sri Lanka and a gold medal, endorsed by the World Association of Chef Societies (WACS).
Volker Marecek and Benjamin McManus of Langham Auckland, and John Kelleher and Nicole Gomes of AUT University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism also won gold medals.
The AUT team was the first school to enter the contest.
Dilmah Founder Merrill J Fernando and his son Dilhan were so impressed with the talent of Kelleher (a professional lecturing in culinary arts) and Gomes (a student) that he awarded them each a trip for two to Sri Lanka.
The two teams will get to study tea gastronomy at the Dilmah School of Tea, which also works with L’Institut Paul Bocuse in France.
Four other teams won silver and four more won bronze medals.
Works of art
Webb, a junior sous chef at Kermadec Ocean Fresh, created a menu for contemporary high tea that included smoked lemon and poppy seed macaroons with salmon and goat’s cheese. He carried the macaroons into the presentation room on a plate, smoke swirling under a glass lid.
That was just one of the memorable moments in a day with 11 teams from various parts of the country competed to create and serve to judges their interpretation of a contemporary high tea.
There were scones and sandwiches, but in the main, the food items presented were works of art. They were cleverly matched with carefully brewed hot teas, or tea cocktails and mocktails.
Dilhan Fernando (Dilmah), Peter Kuruvita (Flying Fish Restaurant, Sydney) and Bernd Uber (Black Hat chef) were among the judges.
The New Zealand event followed similar events in Australia and the Challenge will go throughout the world.
More than tea
The Challenge aims at experienced chefs and food and beverage professionals, although another contest for consumers is being held online.
Tea gastronomy is trending internationally.
In Auckland, one hotel’s afternoon tea is constantly booked out and another that offered a deal on an online voucher site was surprised to have 2000 teas booked in just two hours.
But tea gastronomy is not just about high tea.
New Zealand Master Chef Simon Gault took 150 people on a tea-inspired gastronomic journey at his Euro Restaurant in Auckland on September 19.
ChariTea for charity
The five-course dinner included tea smoked caprese, wagyu tea gazpacho, green pepper corn and foiegras ice-cream with Earl Grey tea candyfloss, Sri Lankan chicken curry and sencha green tea panna cotta with mandarin tea sorbet.
Gault hosted the dinner to raise funds for the MJF Charitable Foundation, established by Merrill Fernando.
When Gault went to Sri Lanka for the Dilmah Chef and the Teamaker Challenge two years ago, he was so moved by the children and the Foundation’s work that he pledged to help raise funds for a project.
The ChariTea Dinner, which included an auction, raised more than $50,000.
The money will be divided between a scholarship for a trainee New Zealand chef to go to Sri Lanka and for the development of a MJF Foundation Culinary Centre in Sri Lanka, expected to open next March.
-From a Press Release
Photo :
The winning team from Kermadec Ocean Fresh
At the ‘ChariTea’ Dinner at Euro Restaurant (from left) Dilhan Fernando, Simon & Katrina Gault and Merrill Fernando
