Le Cordon Bleu Alumna Wins Dine Wellington Award for second year running

Shuchi Bhardwaj Graduating from Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand

Shuchi Bhardwaj, head chef of Wellington’s Neo Café & Eatery and Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand Alumna, has won VISA Wellington On A Plate’s (VWOAP) Best Dine award. This is the second year in a row that Shuchi has won the award for her world class submissions to the festival.

Chef Bhardwaj posing with last year's winning dish ‘The Flat White Project’

 VWOAP is a culinary festival that celebrates Wellington's love of food and unique dining experiences. It is one of the largest food festivals in the Southern Hemisphere, with an average of 250+ hospitality venues taking part annually. Each year the festival announces a new theme for participants to be inspired by, in order to be eligible for the Best Dine award chefs must create a dish using New Zealand’s premium produce and encapsulate the year's theme.  

This year the theme was ‘Breaking The Mould’, Shuchi and Neo Café & Eatery’s ‘Would you, could you, Wasabi Pie’ broke the mould by taking a traditionally savoury ingredient (Wasabi) and using it in a dessert. The dish was inspired by the children’s book ‘Green Eggs and Ham’.

This year’s winning dish ‘Would you, could you, Wasabi Pie’

We are incredibly proud of chef Bhardwaj and her continued success.

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