Who cooks NZ’s best chips? This year the people of NZ put their favourite chippie forward and voted for the 2018 People’s Choice Best Chips…and the winner – Mr Chips Masterton.
Continuing their winning streak from 2017, Mr Chips Masterton beat out over 500 chip shops to be named reigning champion of the 2018 People’s Choice Best Chips – taking the award for the second year running! The award was announced at the inaugural Chip Fest in central Auckland on Thursday 20th September – an industry event for media, industry and hot-chip lovers celebrating all things deep fried chips. A list of the Top 15 ‘Finalists’ were also announced.
With over 3000 votes cast it is clear New Zealanders are fiercely passionate about who they think cooks the best chips. The competition was organised by The Chip Group (a division of Potatoes New Zealand Inc.) and supported by Bidfood Limited, along with McCains, Mr Chips and Talleys. Free voting took place via The Chip Group’s website and it was open to any business that cooks and sells hot chips in New Zealand.
To be eligible to win, at least one staff member must have completed The Chip Group’s Best Practice Frying training in 2018 – a free online course covering how to cook chips with less fat and sodium (salt). The winner received a range of prizes including flights and accommodation to attend Chip Fest in Auckland, an Air NZ Mystery Weekend, $500 grocery voucher, framed certificate, aprons, caps and a footpath sign along with several cartons of free chips and of course the invaluable 2018 title.
Steve Fair (owner) of Mr Chips Masterton was understandably delighted with the news… “We and our staff are feeling very proud and elated to have been voted as having the best chips in New Zealand. We’ve been in business 7 years and have never needed to advertise. The best part is receiving daily praise from our customers who have stood behind us so we can receive this public recognition award.”
Potatoes New Zealand Chief Executive Chris Claridge offered his congratulations to the winner and finalists… “Fish & Chips is a Kiwi tradition. New Zealanders love them and as an industry organisation it is our mission to help provide better frying practices. Congratulations to Mr Chips Masterton for taking out 2018 People’s Choice Best Chips Award.”
The Chip Fest event included stalls from chip suppliers – Mr Chips, Talleys, McCains and food distributor – Bidfood Limited, who supported the competition. “Bidfood are proud to support People’s Choice Best Chip Shop competition; celebrating excellence in the art of ‘chippery’. We see the people’s choice award as an integral part, because we understand first-hand how nice it is to have accolades on the wall. People’s Choice truly is the judgement of your customers, as such it is the defining call of success.” – Dan Parsons, Head of Marketing, Bidfood Limited.
With a promotional Facebook post about the 2018 People’s Choice Competition reaching over 90,000 New Zealanders – we envisage next year’s full 2019 Best Chip Shop competition (which will include mystery judging) to be a hotly contested affair. Congratulations to the following finalists…
Top 15 Finalists:
- Mr Chips, 22 Chapel St – Masterton
- Pirimai Chippy, 15 Allen Berry Ave, Pirimai, Napier – Hawkes Bay
- Oceanz Seafood Silverdale, 17 Hibiscus Coast Highway, Silverdale – Auckland
- Tommy Haddock’s, 16 Bledisloe Rd, Maraenui, Napier – Hawkes Bay
- Victory Square Fish & Chips, 176 St Vincent St, Toi Toi – Nelson
- Chip n Dayals Fish and Chips, 71 Marua Road, Ellerslie – Auckland
- Oceanz Seafood Botany, 451 Ti Rakau Dr, Huntington Park – Auckland
- Okato Fish and Chips, 63 Carthew St, Okato – Taranaki
- Ruby Bay Kitchen, 172 Stafford Drive, Ruby Bay, Mapua – Nelson
- Fish Stop, 4 Glendale Rd, Glen Eden – Auckland
- Spudz Fish and Chip House, Unit 4/1 Caslani Lane, Tauriko – Tauranga
- Sheff’s Takeaways, 714 Grey St, Hamilton East – Hamilton
- Master Fish ‘n’ Chicken, 24 Bureta Rd, Bureta – Tauranga
- Ric’s Galley Takeaways, 1 Harington Point Rd, Portobello – Dunedin
- Northcross Takeaways, 178 Carlisle Rd, Northcross – Auckland
