Wairakei Resort’s Anu Lakmal retains title of New Zealand Pastry Chef of the Year
Wairakei Resort’s Head Pastry Chef Anu Lakmal has reclaimed his title of New Zealand Pastry Chef of the Year for the second year running in the 2018 New Zealand Hospitality Championships held at ASB Showgrounds 11 – 14 August.
Induruwage Lakmal Anuradha – known as Anu – was the man to watch after winning gold and silver medals in each of his classes to claim the title of 2017 Pastry Chef of the Year.
The competition had the same three classes in 2018, a chocolate showpiece and petits fours (small bite-size desserts) that were to be made ahead of time and transported to the competition, and four plated desserts prepared live in front of the judges within an hour.
Once again Anu did not disappoint delivering pieces of edible art that allowed him to take two golds, a bronze, retain the overall title of 2018 NZ Pastry Chef of the Year and stake his claim as one of New Zealand preeminent dessert chefs.
“For the Chocolate Showpiece we were assigned the theme of ‘Our Team’ so I created a lifelike piece that showed ants building a nest,” said Anu. “For the Petit Fours I provided a selection of sweet orange bonbons, pistachio cheese towers, salty caramel crispy rounds and lemon praline chocolate cake with lemon jujubs.”
For the live section Anu produced a dish entitled ‘Plenty of Taste’ which consisted of layers of crunchy chocolate mousse & passion cream coated in a velvet chocolate spray with a side of baked passionfruit meringue crispy, Chantilly cream, almond crumble and torched orange segments.
Wairakei Resort Head Chef Matthias Kramer said that Anu has been a vital part of the Wairakei Resort Kitchen Team.
“With his passionate approach inside the Pastry Kitchen he delivers delicious and visual appealing desserts for events and our restaurants alike,” said Kramer. “His creative flair has once again proven to be a successful ingredient in winning this year’s Pastry Chef of the Year.”
Wairakei Resort’s Pastry and Breakfast Chef Kirtika Grounder also performed strongly in the same sections as Anu, claiming a silver in the Petit Fours and bronze in the Live Plated Dessert section.
On Monday morning Wairakei Resort also had two of their coffee connoisseurs competing in the Live Barista Class of the Championships. Continuing Wairakei Resort’s fantastic run Alicia Glynn claimed a gold in this category and Smita Patil claimed a silver.
Smita Patil said that this was her first competition and while she was nervous heading in, enjoyed herself immensely.
“I learnt a lot from this experience, both during the competition itself, but also in the months practicing leading up to it,” said Patil. “I plan on going back to compete again next year and will be hoping to achieve a gold!”
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