Art Of Dining Out

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31728, 11 July 1968, Page 18

Art Of Dining Out

New Zealanders had not yet been sufficiently educated in the art of dining out, a young English chef said in Christchurch last evening. Mr E. Mucha, of Leeds, said this was often very apparent in hotels where menus were printed in a mixture of French and English—perhaps for snobbish reasons. “In many, many cases it is obvious the customers do not know the language and so are worried about what to order or what in fact they have ordered.

“It surely is much easier to print menus in English in an English • speaking country, isn’t it?” he said.

Mr Mucha said the standard of catering in New Zealand was not too far behind that of Europe, which he believed still led the world.

' the quality of foods in New Zealand was excelelnt but more tinned and frozen foods were used in hotels than was used in Europe. For the last six months Mr Mucha has been the assistant chef at the Tourist Hotel Corporation’s Franz Josef Hotel. He has now been transferred to the Waitomo Hotel to allow him to see more of New Zealand and to get a better idea of catering Mr Mucha, who was born In Africa of Polish parents, lives in Britain. He came to the Dominion at the invitation of the general manager of the corporation (Mr E. C. Colbeck) on a two-year contract.

Mr Mucha has won national catering competitions in Britain. He went into the business at the age of 15, working as a waiter and on alternate week-ends cooking the family’s Sunday dinner. He thinks that every young man should be able to do some cooking. Mr Mucha said that when his contract ended he would like to open his own restaurant.