Handling the kitchen heat
Manawatu¯ ’s finest chefs have gone toe-to-toe in a battle to be crowned the best in the region.
Ten chefs packed into the Ambitions learning kitchen at UCOL in Palmerston North yesterday afternoon to compete for the Manawatu¯ Hospitality Awards chef of the year title.
All entrants were given a mystery box of ingredients, from which they had to create an entree and main.
Thirty minutes was dedicated to planning, with the chefs then having 90 minutes to create four portions of each dish.
The ingredients included potatoes, tiger prawns, salmon, Brussels sprouts, a whole chicken, rhubarb and soba noodles.
Combining the prawns and salmon in a dish was popular, with many chefs putting them on top of the noodles.
But there was plenty of variation on show, from salmon tartare to chicken done three ways.
One chef even managed to knock out a dish of pan-fried gnocchi in the timeframe.
While some chefs had plenty of time to spare, it was down to the last seconds for others.
Competition organiser Reuben Leung Wai said the format, also used in national competitions, required no food to be served by the chefs until they had been cooking for 45 minutes.
‘‘That gives the opportunity to get it done, but also ensures they are doing some work.’’
The mystery box ingredients were designed to give options, but also demonstrate the chefs’ skills, he said.
‘‘Of course, you also need things like potatoes, onion, pumpkin.
‘‘Then you need a protein. ‘‘Chicken is quite good because you have to break it down and get four portions out of it – and they all have to be even.’’
The cook-off was very different from a working kitchen, especially as the chefs were stationed facing another competitor.
‘‘You can often look up and see what the other person is doing, and you might think ‘oh, that’s really good’,’’ Leung Wai said.
The key to winning was not making things too complicated.
‘‘When you first get the ingredients there is the temptation to use them all, but you don’t have to use them all.’’
The standard of the Manawatu¯ competition had gone up every year, with entrants including Andrew May from Amayjen and Brew Union’s Grant Kitchen, Leung wai said.
Amayjen was judged one of New Zealand’s top 100 restaurants by Cuisine Magazine, while Kitchen has won various industry awards.
The emerging chef of the year competition was also held yesterday, with those chefs required to prepare four identical portions of a signature dish.
Winners will be announced at the Manawatu¯ Hospitality Awards dinner in November.