Four in a row for Tauranga's award-winning training restaurant!

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic’s Atrium Restaurant is the recipient of a prestigious 2014 Beef and Lamb Excellence Award, making it four wins in a row for the training restaurant.

Sitting alongside some of New Zealand’s finest eateries, including The Sugar Club, Euro, Fish, Logan Brown and Shed 5, the training restaurant is the only student-run restaurant winner in the country.

Aidan Galloway, head chef at the Polytechnic, said he was thrilled with the win. “It’s awesome for our students and for Bay of Plenty Polytechnic to have confirmation that the quality of food we are delivering out of the restaurant is up to and better than the standards that are being produced in Tauranga and nationally.

“It was also great to see that Andrew Targett and his team at Elizabeth Café & Larder were award winners this year.”  Andrew (former head chef at the Polytechnic) and many of his cheffing team are graduates of the Polytechnic’s hospitality programmes.

The two dishes that clinched the award for the Polytechnic team were: char-grilled beef scotch fillet steak served medium rare on chat potatoes and steamed broccolini, with merlot jus, béarnaise sauce and parsnip shavings; and spice rubbed New Zealand lamb rump with roasted winter vegetables, feta and snow pea salad, lemon mint dressing and a shiraz jus.

What the judges said about the winning dishes:

Beef: This was a simple, but superbly executed dish. The beef was full flavoured and enhanced by excellent caramelisation. The jus was rich and well-seasoned. The vegetables were complimentary to the beef. The presentation was beautiful with colour being provided from the green broccolini, golden potatoes, béarnaise sauce, and parsnip savings. The textures were varied from the crisp parsnips, creamy soft potatoes, and al dente broccolini. The individual components and overall balance of the dish could not be faulted and is a great credit to a training restaurant. This dish is highly deserving of the Excellence Award.

Lamb: This was an attractive and well-presented dish with a good range of colour from the baby roasted vegetables to the snow pea salad. Texture was provided by the al dente vegetables contrasted with the creamy feta. The meal was enjoyable and flavoursome and easily reached Excellence Award standard.