A young Christchurch chef served up the best savoury dish at the Fonterra Foodservices “Proud to be a Chef” Australasian final last month.
Zane Neustroski is in his third year of a chef’s apprenticeship at Christchurch Polytechnic and works at Restaurant Pescatore at The George Hotel in Christchurch.
He was awarded the top accolade in Melbourne with a dish of seared snapper and mussel custard, braised vegetables and pickled oyster mushrooms. The judges said it was beautifully prepared and well-balanced with great texture.
The finalists were given four key ingredients with which to build a savoury main and sweet dessert dish to present to the judges the following day.
Mr Neustroski’s ingredients were snapper and mussels for the main, and orange and hazelnuts for the dessert.
Contestants were able to think about their creations overnight then had three hours to prepare the two dishes from scratch.
Mr Neustroski says he took inspiration from the new skills he learned during the three-day competition and his surroundings in Melbourne with the aim of “putting together something worth eating.”
He was one of 32 finalist trainee chefs from New Zealand and Australia to be put through their paces with a series of master classes during the three-day event, then given a list of key ingredients with which to make a main and dessert course the next day as part of the competition.
The overall competition was won by New South Wales apprentice chef Sonja Dawson.
The three other New Zealand chefs who cooked their way to the international final were Lyle Robertson from Auckland (who studies at AUT and works at Euro), William Mordido from Auckland (who studies and works at SkyCity) and Zac Saunders from Lower Hutt (who studies at WelTec and works at Gusto Bistro).
The four Kiwis had an all expenses paid trip to the Melbourne final where they were wined and dined at award-winning restaurants and received hands-on mentoring and master-classes with world leading chefs including Philippe Mouchel (PM24), Pierrick Boyer (Le Petit Gateau Patisserie and RACV Club), Adam D’Slyva (Coda) and Peter Wright (National President Australian Culinary Federation).
Once the competition was over, Neustroski stayed on in Melbourne and secured several days work experience at several top restaurants.
And now the race for the Golden Hat
Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) students will join young chefs from 11 other culinary schools to compete for top honours in the Nestlé Toque d’Or competition.
CPIT students were unable to compete at last year’s competition after the February earthquake damaged their building.
Chef trainer, Dennis Taylor, said last year they had no access to their training facilities.
“CPIT was in the red zone. There was immediate damage to the school facilities, so we were out of action for around six weeks,” he says.
Having won the competition 13 times before, Mr Taylor said the team was more determined than ever to take on the competition.
“This will be one of our hardest years at Nestlé Toque d’Or because when you miss a year, you can lose momentum. However, this year’s students will be back with an even stronger attitude and a determination to take back the title.”
The other culinary schools who have signed up for this year’s event are Auckland University of Technology, NorthTec, Universal College Of Learning, WelTec, Hospitality and Tourism Training Centre of the Cook Islands, Manukau Institute of Technology, AorakiPolytechnic, Otago Polytechnic, Culinary Institute of New Zealand, WaiarikiInstitute of Technology and the Defence Catering School.
