RELEASE NUMBER 82|18
CORAL COAST, FIJI – Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort’s Navneet Reddy has been named 2018 Moffat Salon Culinaire Chef of the Year.
The Outrigger Fiji team won 8 gold medals, 13 silver and 3 bronze taking the medal tally to 24 over the four-day event.
Starting as a trainee chef in 2009, Navneet won Junior Chef of the Year during the 2013 Moffat Salon Culinaire and is currently the resort’s Junior Sous Chef.
He is in charge of the resort’s busiest restaurant, the Sundowner Bar and Grill, which is renowned for its extensive grill menu featuring Cape Grim beef from Tasmania, local seafood and woodfired pizzas.
“When I was a small kid, I was motivated by watching my father, who was an executive chef before he retired,” Navneet said.
“I learnt that to be a good chef and bring food to life, it has to come from the heart,” he said.
The Moffat Salon Culinaire Pastry Chef of the Year award was won by Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort’s Vikash Chetty.
“I started my career as a kitchen hand without any qualifications,” he said. “For a year I cleaned pots, plates and cutlery and the other chefs used to encourage me to study.” “For me, this competition is not about winning or losing, it’s about learning.”
“My father had a sugarcane farm but then went on to become a chef and I thank him for inspiring and encouraging me to join the hotel industry,” he said.
Reema Singh, the resort’s pastry demi chef de partie, was named First Runner-Up in the contest for Pastry Chef of the Year while colleague Shaneel Naidu won the award for First Runner-Up for the title of Junior Chef of the Year.
The awards attracted more than 300 competitors from all over Fiji and were presided over by three international judges including an international chief judge.
Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort’s executive chef, Shailesh Naidu, said the resort’s performance was a pleasing result from a very young team.
“The team delivered outstanding results and the comments from Judges were phenomenal. This year’s benchmark has been raised by the Outrigger chefs in all the major categories,” he said.
Navneet and Vikash will now represent Fiji at the 2019 Global Chefs semifinal in Melbourne.
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