They chose a handful of our previous year winners from the 2013 Best Chip Shop Competition Auckland/Bay of Plenty region.

Including:

Oceanz Seafood in Silverdale.

Queen Vic Chippy in Waikato.

Greenwoods Fresh Catch in Epsom.

Oppies Takeaways in Rotorua.

It’s great to see that many of our award winning operators are still being recognised!

Check it out here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11379275

The Best Practice Frying Training was held at SuperGrans in town with the help of Community Dietician Nicki Mathieson from Tairawhiti District Health. We held a morning session and an afternoon session – which included both a seminar and a practical cooking demonstration.

Operators were shown the difference between how small changes in temperature can make a huge impact on the quality, taste and fat content of their chips. They were really interesting in hearing about our ‘Approved Oils’ and why some are better than others, but particularly how certain oils can help them save money!

For those interested who were unable to attend the session – Kate took them each through a one-on-one training session at a time that suited them.

The Chip Group would like to congratulate all of the twenty five individuals who completed training from the following stores:

• Makaraka Fish Shop
• Real Fresh Ltd.
• Lytton West Fish Shop
• Blue Wave Food Bar
• Elgin Fish & Chips
• Adi’s Fish & Chips
• Dagwoods
• Everest Fish Shop
• The Lunch Bar
• Kwangchow
• Huxley Road Dairy
• Gisborne Cosmopolitan Club
• Captain Morgan’s
• Golden Crust Bakery

If you are in Gisborne this Summer be sure to support those shops who are working hard to produce healthier, lower fat chips!

Check out the article below which made it into the Gisborne Herald.

The Chip Group Ltd

Oceanz Seafood in Silverdale scoops New Zealand’s Best Chip Shop title

Daniel and Richard Billington, owners of Oceanz Seafood in Silverdale, are officially king of the chippies, after it was named New Zealand’s Best Chip Shop. The Hibiscus Coast Highway shop beat five other finalists to scoop the title of Best Chip Shop Competition Champion 2013.

Richard Billington said that the brothers, whose parents also owned a fish and chip shop, were absolutely delighted with the accolade. “It’s taken a while for it to sink in but we’ve all got smiles from ear to ear that we have finally done it,” said Richard. “We’re looking forward to celebrating with all our crew and thanking them for the part they have played in this success.”

The competition, run by The Chip Group every second year, is a chance for chip shops to showcase the quality of their product. Oceanz Seafood Silverdale won the national title in 2009 under previous management, took the regional title in 2011 and again this year under the Billingtons’ ownership and has now scooped the top honours once more.

A key criteria for the competition was to find shops serving the most delicious chips with lower fat content. All entrants’ chips were independently lab tested and finalists and highly-commended shops had all achieved chips with a fat content of below nine per cent.

Judges said that, while all finalists’ chips were superb, Oceanz Seafood had the edge, noting: “The chips just tasted fantastic! The operators obviously used light, clean oil and drained the chips well, so it didn’t dominate the flavour.”

Judges were also impressed that the chips were not salted, with a salt sachet provided instead to provide customers with a choice, and that the 330g portion size was stated on the menu board. Entrants were also judged on chip taste, quality, shop cleanliness and customer service and many customers provided testimonials about the great quality and taste and the friendly efficient staff. Some said that they go the extra distance to buy their fish and chips at the shop.

Cooking great chips is in Daniel and Richard’s genes. They worked in their parents’ fish and chip shop through their teens and pursued other careers before returning to the industry – they took over the Silverdale shop three years ago. Richard said that high quality product and exceptional care of oil were vital to their great product.

“Every chip is different and every batch of chips is different, and you have to be aware of that and adjust your cooking methods accordingly,” he said. “Adhering to The Chip Group industry standards is really important.

Giving a very good shake and bang gives much crisper, dryer chips. When they hear the banging our customers joke that we are panel beating our chips, but it makes all the difference to the end product.” The shop also serves its chips up in cardboard trays, rather than wrapping them, which makes them easier to eat as well as reducing condensation and keeping the chips crisper.

Judith Morley-John, Food Industry Nutritionist for the Heart Foundation, welcomed the fact that all competition participants were required to have undergone and have a current certificate for The Chip Group’s free online industry training.

“The impact of training was reflected in the lower chip fat content for the forty eight Highly Commended shops (7.8%) compared with 9.9% for the 18 regional finalists winners in the previous competition,” said Ms Morley-John.

Food educator and Chip Group Chair Glenda Gourley said that the competition was an excellent way to further raise awareness in the catering industry that, by following the industry standards you can achieve the most delicious chips with the lowest possible fat content.

“The reduction in fat content this time round is awesome,” said Glenda. “Kiwis love hot chips and this gives customers confidence that the operators displaying a current Chip Group certificate really know what they are doing. The skill of the operator has a huge impact on the chip.”

The other five regional finalists were:

• Auckland wide: Greenwoods Fresh Catch, Epsom

• Waikato – Bay of Plenty: Hawkes Bay, Queen Vic Chippy, Cambridge

• Manawatu – Wellington: Fish King Takeaways, Feilding

• Nelson – Christchurch: Victory Square Fish and Chips, Nelson

• Timaru – Southland: The Naked Chip, Waimate

For further details of The Chip Group’s free online training course on how to produce tasty hot chips with a lower fat content please visit www.chipgroup.co.nz.

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Kate Underwood Training and Education Manager, The Chip Group 022 066 8711 or [email protected] or Dan Walraven Ideas Shop 027 433 6373 or [email protected]

From Waimate right up to the North Shore – each shop celebrated their hard-work and were presented awards from The Chip Group team.

We have had plenty of positive media around this years competition – particularly with the addition of the Highly Commended Awards. These are being distributed gradually throughout the country, delivered where possible or sent by post – so please be patient and we will get these to you as soon as we can. When you do receive your awards we would love it if you could take a photo of yourselves, with your award and your shop and email it through to: [email protected]! And I shall looking forward to seeing your smiling faces!

Here is a wee snippet of the images and celebrations from our Regional Winners last week…Just under a week to go now before we find out the results for our GRAND NATIONAL WINNER! Watch this space.

Photo’s in the order as below…

Northland-Northshore: Oceanz Seafood Silverdale

Auckland-wide: Greenwoods Fresh Catch, Epsom

Waikato-BOP-Hawkes Bay: Queen Vic Chippy, Cambridge

Manawatu-Taranaki-Wellington: Fish King Takeaways, Fielding

Timaru-Southland Region: The Naked Chip, Waimate

Nelson-Christchurch Region: Victory Square Fish and Chips, Nelson (Image for these guys coming soon!)

We will also be sharing plenty of photo’s of our Highly Commended Awards as they come through!

Chairperson Glenda Gourley and Kate Underwood, Training and Education Manager from The Chip Group visited Michael in Rotorua to present him with this prestigious award. The award is to celebrate that Michael has trained and inspired hundreds of operators throughout NZ to follow his example and adopt the Industry Standards for best practice frying.

“Michael gives his time enthusiastically”, says Kate. “He is a true inspiration to the industry.” Through his involvement with The Chip Group he has been able to inspire operators like himself to remove a huge amount of fat from the NZ food supply.

In Matamata alone he was able to help motivate 10 operators to remove a staggering 1711kg of fat from the Matamata food supply – find out more here. This proves categorically that if a lot of individual operators make small changes to their frying techniques then cumulative affect can have a big impact on the food supply.

This is the first time The Chip Group has made any award such as this, and is reflective of his unique contribution to better the industry.

On behalf of The Chip Group we would like to congratulate Michael and his family and staff who allow Michael to get away and share his time helping others better their businesses.

Pictured is Kate Underwood, presenting Michael Huang with his prestigious 2013 Chip Champion Award.

Hold tight chippies we are very, very close to announcing the Regional Winners of this years 2013 Best Chip Shop Competition…

This small rural town in the mighty South Waikato are first on our list! With a number of bakery, fish and chip stores and cafe’s selling chips, it is the perfect road-trip pit stop for many travellers and a popular food source for the locals. 

‘Everyone loves a good chips’ says Kate Underwood, Training and Education Manager, ‘but when you cook chips to our Industry Standards, they actually taste better!’

Champion Chippie, Michael Huang will be attending to help teach operators the importance of ‘better practice frying’ and how it can benefit their business. He is also fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese so will be able to communicate with some of the Chinese owned operations.

The Te Kuiti Makeover Training Session will take place on:

Monday 26th August at the Maniapoto House, Taupiri Street, Te Kuiti. To allow shops to open their business for the lunch rush the session will be held at 8.30am-10.30am.

If you are in the area and are interested in attending, feel free to get in touch with Kate – 022 066 8711 or Email [email protected].

Reminder – for those involved in the 2013 Best Chip Shop Competition, judging is still taking place and you will be informed of results as they come to light. Thank you for your patience.

Our first set of Chip samples have been sent off to the lab for fat-testing…We are just on the remaining Chip samples to come through and then we will be get them sent off too. 

As part of this year’s competition we are celebrating your hard-work with our Highly Commended Awards! Chips in NZ can contain up to 22% fat. But when you cook to our Industry Standards you can achieve around 7-9% fat.

Upon viewing the lab results – All Operators whose Chips contain LESS THAN 9% FAT will receive a Highly Commended Award

• These participants will go on to the next stage of the Competition, which we will keep you informed of over the next month or so.

• In addition to the Highly Commended Award we will be announcing Regional Finalists, Regional Winners and a Grand National Winner, as well as holding a Public Choice Award – via our Facebook Page.

In the mean time – just keep doing what you do best, following our Industry Standards and providing your customers with the best-tasting, lower fat chips!