Two awards to Chch chef

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 4

Two awards to Chch chef

NZPA staff correspondent London Tod Fotheringham, aged 19, is only a trainee in the kitchen where he works in Christchurch but that did not stop him from carrying off two awards at a prestigious London competition for chefs. He is the youngest of the four chefs in the New Zealand team which has just finished competing at the Salon Culinaire International de Londres where more than 3000 chefs from throughout the world met to demonstrate their culinary skills. In the junior section Mr Fotheringham was awarded two certificates of merit — one for his “Supreme de Volaille” and the other for a chicken and mushroom dish. Mark Collings, aged 26, of Upper Hutt, also won two certificates of merit in senior sections for egg and duck dishes, and Anthony Smith, aged 25, of Wanganui, won one for his rabbit dish. In winning five awards over all it is the best the New Zealand team has done but there was still no medal after its fourth time at the competition in eight years. The team manager, Mr Roger Dennis, chef tutor at the Central Institute of Technology in Wellington, said he was disappointed New Zealand won no medal when the team’s standard was “well up to par.” Presentation and decoration seemed to take precedence over taste quality in a competition where there were often up to 80 competitors making one kind of dish. Mr Dennis, originally from Britain, said that one of the main problems was that New Zealand was so isolated and the competition was based on structured ways, whereas New Zealanders were used to a more open attitude to cooking, leaving much up to the individual’s interpretation. He said this gave potential for New Zealand to be leaders in the food world. “Because New Zealand is such a young country people think it is precocious to try to be leaders but there is a lot of potential for that in food,” said Mr Dennis. He believed, however, that the competition was important, providing excellent opportunity to gain experience with the team

“getting a lot out of it.” At a London reception for the team a New Zealander, -filyn Christian, who is 8.8. C. Television’s chief chef, said New Zealand cuisine had gone a long way in a short time. “The country is a long way ahead in cuisine of the rest of the world, particularly with a lot of up-and-coming young chefs and its supply of raw produce. “With the combination of questioning attitudes which Kiwis have and the extraordinary produce available there should be a lot more New Zealand chefs showing people how to cook,” he said. The standard represented at the international competition in London was largely wonderful technique and tradition, “but unfortunately not what one eats.” Mr Christian is due in New Zealand within the next few months to make six television programmes on “rediscovering the New Zealand I left behind in the mid-1968s and its new identity toC?y through food.”

He sees influences such as the European Common Market forcing New Zealand to find new products and markets leading to a new identity and approach for New Zealanders in the world. As well as having his own programme on the 8.8.C.’s “Breakfast Time” he has written a number of books about cooking. His latest, “Glyn Christian’s Delicatessen Cookbook,” is due to be published in May. For the next two weeks the New Zealand team members will be working to extend their cooking experience. Messrs Fotheringham and Mark Gregory, aged 22, of Wellington, are working at the Ritz Hotel. Mr Collings, who is joint owner of the Bombay Bicycle Bar and Bistro in Upper Hutt, will travel to Switzerland where he once worked, and Mr Smith will go to France. Mr Fotheringham said he would have to consider returning to work in London for more experience.