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February 2015 Vol 8 Issue 2
Auckland chef Rene Archner has turned his hand to retail beverages (see page 23)
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2 News 8 Top Restaurants & Chefs 10 Technology 13 Training & Education 14 Food Truck
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18 On Trend 21 Food Trends 22 Radar 26 QSR 30 Liquor
NEW LOOK NATIONAL CULINARY SALON SCHEDULED THIS YEAR THE former Culinary Fare, managed by the Restaurant Association for the past 20 years, will now become the National Culinary Salon this year under the control of NZChefs. The event’s new look and changes follows the decision by the Restaurant Association to relinquish hosting the national promotion. The Restaurant Association is to pursue a new member-focused strategy supporting its mostly business owner membership. RANZ has already staged a number of new member related events and CEO Marisa Bidois said its efforts would be devoted to educating and supporting business owners and encourage sector growth. The Association said it would continue to support and work closely with NZ Chefs on the competition in the future.
Over the years, NZChefs has provided extensive judging and event support for the former Culinary Fare and has been running the regional feeder salon competitions. Previously the Culinary Fare has been a restricted trade event with little public awareness. “We now believe this is a new opportunity to engage with the public and encourage new entrants into the profession,” said NZChefs president Graham Hawkes. As a result of negotiations with North Port Events, the new National Salon finals will be staged at the popular Auckland Food Show July 30-August 2 this year. The event was previously high school and tertiary based but is being changed up this year to be more tertiary and open class focused putting a new face on the event. Eight regional competitions will
2015 AMBASSADOR CHEFS NAMED
THE 2015 ambassador chefs have been named by Beef + Lamb New Zealand selected from restaurants that performed highly in the Excellence Awards assessment process. This year’s top chefs are (from left): Marc Soper (Wharekauhau Estate in the Wairarapa), Ken O’Connell (Bracken Restaurant, Dunedin), Ryan Tattersall (Cobar Restaurant, Wellington), Brad King (Bistro at the Falls Retreat, Bay of Plenty) and Reon Hobson (Pescatore at the George, Christchurch). See page 8
feed into the national as before but the national will be restricted to only 12 cooking stations that allows four wild card entries. “We are looking to highlight the premium end of the market to consumers and there will be three prestigious competitions involved. This year we will also see new competitions including curries, tapas and shared platters with more team events and of course more theatre,” said Hawkes. This year, it will be more about hospitality from baristas to bed(Continued on page 2)
Graham Hawkes
INDUSTRY EXPECTING FOUR PER CENT GROWTH DURING 2015, $8b TURNOVER NEW Zealand’s hospitality sector experienced encouraging growth in 2014 (year ended March) with rebounding consumer and business confidence playing a major part in a stronger growth trend than has been seen in a number of years. As a result, hospitality operators are cautiously optimistic about the next 12 months although trading is still competitive and it is clear that there continues to be many challenges to remaining profitable. “Overall, expectations are for another good 12 months ahead although at a slightly reduced rate of growth compared to 2014. We’re forecasting growth of four per cent and a total revenue for our sector of around $8 billion,” said Restaurant Association CEO Marisa Bidois. Managing labour costs is the top challenge facing hospitality operators. Wages continue to rise beyond customers’ expectation of price rises and that’s the challenge and balancing act that business owners must face. “ At the same time, the industry’s number three challenge is a lack of skilled employees, which can place upward pressure on remuneration. As a result of this, building and
maintaining sales volume is the next most pressing challenge,” she said. This lack of skilled employees continues to Marisa Bidois test foodservice business owners - in particular it is prohibitively difficult to recruit skilled senior positions like cafe and restaurant managers and senior chefs. “As a way to address this problem, new programmes have been initiated to engage with potential workers at an early stage (schools) and training numbers at a tertiary level have increased. The Restaurant Association is also involved in a number of initiatives to encourage more people to enter the industry and remain in the industry, including an apprenticeship scheme (Continued on page 4)
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