Aspiring chefs should compete at festival
Over the years I have been a supporter of anything that encourages young people to extend themselves, to learn new skills and create a future for themselves.
And when the opportunity arises to take part in a cooking competition, I think every young or aspiring chef should jump at the opportunity.
One such opportunity coming up soon is the 2024 Te Pūkenga Festival Chef cooking competition. It is being held in Marlborough as part of the Havelock Mussel and Seafood Festival on March 16, in the NZ King Salmon culinary tent. This community competition is open to all ages and all abilities, with the focus being on creating a kai moana dish highlighting New Zealand-farmed king salmon and/ or New Zealand green-shell mussels.
The festival has been running for about 20 years and has become an important part of the Havelock seafood story. The festival is about more than mussels. There is live music all day, and there are food and drink stalls.
Recently, I sat down with Chris Fortune, who is organising this year’s competition and who is also the culinary arts tutor at NMIT, to find out more about the competition, especially about who can enter and what’s involved.
Fortune has a long background in the hospitality industry. His passion for great food includes setting up the farmers market in Marlborough and establishing the Farmers' Markets New Zealand organisation, which he chaired for several years. He also helped to establish the Marlborough Community Gardens and has published several very successful food books, including The Kiwi Sizzler Smoking Book, a cookbook I have a copy of and refer to regularly.
With his extensive chef experience, I think we have the right person guiding our young people into a food career. Fortune got his start at the famous Sugar Club restaurant in London, where he worked alongside New Zealand chef Peter Gordon, known as the “godfather of fusion cuisine”.
He has worked for hotels, cafes, convention centres, restaurants and on superyachts around the world and in 2003 won the New Zealand version of Gordon Ramsay’s hit television show, Hell’s Kitchen, which thrust him into the media spotlight.
Fortune told me that sharing his cookery knowledge has always been hugely important to him.
“I wanted to share our passion for food. So my wife, Tina, and I packed the kids into a van and spent several years travelling around New Zealand delivering a couple of courses we developed, Teens Can Cook and Kids Can Cook. We visited and taught in ... schools all around New Zealand.”
His philosophy is: Keep it local, keep it fresh, keep it honest. He says he is excited by the young people coming through the NMIT culinary arts course.
“I love it when I see a spark in someone, someone who has maybe struggled to find a purpose in life and then discovers the wonders of turning humble ingredients into something really special. And that’s what the Te Pūkenga Festival Chef cooking competition at the Havelock Mussel & Seafood Festival is all about.”
This is the second year the competition has taken place, and Fortune has been able to convince some of the country’s top chefs to help judge the competition and run some classes.
Last year, Simon Gault was the featured guest chef. This year it is chef Zennon Wijlens, the co-owner and head chef of Paris Butter in Auckland. The festival website says Wijlens is “a culinary maestro whose innovative spirit and commitment to excellence have propelled the restaurant to the forefront of Auckland’s dining scene”.
Wijlens was named the Cuisine NZ Chef of the Year at the 2023-24 Cuisine Good Food Awards.
There are two divisions in the competition: under 18 and over 18. The organisers would love to see entries from kids who love food and cooking at home. You can enter your signature dish online, and then those will be filtered down to find four entrants in each division to prepare their dish on the main stage in front of a live audience. If there are more than four great cooks and dishes, the selection process will include a cook-off at NMIT.
The winners will be announced on stage on the day. As well as a trophy, winners will get a goody basket.
If you have a favourite kai moana dish and want to test your skills, as well as get advice and encouragement from some of New Zealand’s top chefs, check out the Havelock Mussel and Seafood Festival website for entry details: havelockmusselfestival.co.nz.