Welcome to our blog where you can keep up to date with the news and views for anyone with an interest in the beef and lamb foodservice space. Keep an eye out for contributions from kiwi chefs who are telling the paddock to plate story through their cooking and helping to shape New Zealand’s food story.
Applications are open for the next Beef + Lamb Ambassador Chefs. This is a role that has been highly coveted in the New Zealand foodservice sector for the past 26 years. Not only for the elevation it gives to a chef’s career, but for the opportunities that can arise to network with farmers and other like-minded industry leaders.
Read MoreBeef + Lamb New Zealand are now taking applications from chefs around the country who have their eye on the coveted role of being the next Beef + Lamb Ambassadors.
Read MoreIn the lead up to International Food Waste Awareness Day, we had a chat to Greg Piner, head chef of No.7 Balmac about running a busy restaurant while keeping sustainability and reducing food waste front of mind. Greg says it all comes down to eliminating food waste and waste in general, as much as possible to begin with, and dealing with any waste they do have in a sustainable way.
Read MoreBeef + Lamb New Zealand will soon be extending an invitation to chefs to apply to be one of its next Ambassador Chefs. Plans are underway to open applications as soon as the lockdown levels allow and the hospitality industry is back on its feet, with the new culinary rock stars announced in early 2022.
Read MoreWith Father's Day just around the corner, we asked chef Tejas Nikam to take us through the basics of cooking a great steak.
Read MoreDunedin was the location for a special fundraiser which had our two Beef + Lamb Young Chef finalists Ashley and Lyall very excited! Instead of going head to head in competition mode, this time they were working together to create mouthwatering food for a cause close to the hearts of many chefs.
Read MoreWhen you talk about New Zealand’s top chefs – especially those who have held the honorary title of an Ambassador Chef – one of the consistent qualities that I have observed in each of them has been their attention to detail. This is what makes them stand out and ensures the success of an ever changing and very inconsistent foodservice world.
Read MoreAMBASSADOR SERIES DINNER: PHIL’S KITCHEN, AUCKLAND
It’s not often you get two Ambassador chefs in the kitchen together, but for National Lamb Day this year we were lucky to have a collaboration at Phil’s Kitchen in Auckland. The legendary, Phil Clark teamed up with a legend in the making - newly crowned Beef + Lamb Ambassador Chef, Sam Heaven and the result was a sumptuous 5 course feast of epic proportions.
Read More2021 Beef + Lamb Ambassador Chef, Norka Mella Munoz was head chef at Kinloch Manor & Villas when she shared one of her favourirte pairings of lamb with lentils to celebrate National Lamb Day.
Read More2021 Beef + Lamb Young Ambassador Chef Sam Heaven, designed this lamb dish to tell the diner about where he grew up. He wanted to use the products from his environment to tell the story on the plate. He grew up on an olive grove with beehives and lambs in the paddocks and has included all of these ingredients.
Read MoreBeef + Lamb newly crowned 2021 Young Ambassador Chef, Sam Heaven, took some time out from the big city lights of Auckland and journeyed to the deep south to learn a little bit more about growing lamb in New Zealand.
Read MoreIs there anything more disheartening than seeing food that you’ve worked so hard to source, create and cook going in the bin for landfill? But did you know reducing food waste from customers’ plates is one way we can do our bit to address climate change?
Read MoreOur farmers do a wonderful job of feeding the nation and the world, especially when it comes to New Zealand lamb! They started it and luckily for us we have a wealth of talented chefs in New Zealand who know how to finish it - on the plate! So what do our chefs find so special about working with New Zealand lamb?
Read MoreWhen a new opportunity appeared on Chef Norka’s radar she saw it as a step up in her career but added that it was difficult to leave Mangapapa as she had such an awesome team who she looked upon as family.
Read MoreMay 24th marks National Lamb Day and New Zealand lamb has come a long way since the first shipment left our shores back in 1882. It is widely used around the globe but how has it evolved on menus over the years?
Read MoreEver thought of cooking with sweetbreads but not sure how to start? Ambassador Chef Jack Crosti explains how to get the best out of this cut of offal and why it’s good to be using every part of the lamb.
Read MoreAs a Beef + Lamb Ambassador Chef, it comes as no surprise that Phil Clark knows his way around a cut of meat. But sometimes it takes sitting down to a four-course beef and lamb menu to really appreciate the art that is his cooking
Read MoreSam Heaven from the Park Hyatt in Auckland has cooked, carved and plated his way into the Beef + Lamb New Zealand hall of fame. Sam has won the title of Beef + Lamb Young Ambassador Chef after a 90-minute cook-off against the other two finalists – Ashley Knudsen from No. 7 Balmac in Dunedin and Lyall Minhinnick from Fleurs Place in Moeraki, held recently at Homeland – Peter Gordon’s new cooking school in Auckland.
Read MoreFor twenty-five years, Beef + Lamb New Zealand have been making rock stars out of their Ambassador Chefs and now it’s the turn of the next generation to step up and shine, as Beef + Lamb New Zealand seek out the very first Young Ambassador Chef.
Read MoreWe are delighted to announce that Provenance Meats and Shortlands Station will be supporting the 2021 Beef + Lamb Young Ambassador Chef by sponsoring a farm visit and the sharing of knowledge on their regenerative farming practices which produce outstanding New Zealand lamb.
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