The aim of the competition is to make the videos available through our social media channels to all the ‘home’ Chefs across India who have an interest in cooking and to show them some of the Chef’s secrets to producing those extra special meals.

Cricketing legend and Chennai Super Kings Coach, Stephen Fleming is putting his support behind what is believed to be the first ‘Virtual’ Chef competition involving New Zealand products in India.

Fleming, who along with Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori, is a shareholder and ambassador of the Indian based import company, QualityNZ Imports. He believes that in these extremely difficult times that everyone needs to be supporting each other & industries that are seriously affected by the Covid19 pandemic. He said, “We’ve been operating in India now for over 7 years and some of our customers and their own employees have been terribly affected by Covid. With everyone being in lockdown, we wanted to think of a way to stay connected and give them something positive to think about and be involved in.

"Who doesn’t enjoy cooking?….and being in lockdown allows you to have a go at cooking your own meals. I’ve been using a few of the ‘Pure South’ lamb products and our seafood to cook my own favourite recipes while being in lockdown here in NZ,” he added.

The 2020 QualityNZ Culinary Cup is supported by the ‘South Indian Culinary Association’, the ‘Indian Culinary Forum’, and the ‘Western India Culinary Association’. Because of COVID restrictions, the competition is only being run in NCR, Bangalore, and Mumbai and was limited to the first 60 online applications. The competition requires the Chefs to prepare and cook two dishes from the QualityNZ range available here in India, in their own home kitchens and film the experience! Fleming was keen to point out that the aim of the exercise is to share the passion and skills the Chefs have with those of us who just love to cook at home.

QualityNZ CEO India and Emerging markets, Dr Nitin Nagrale, said, "The interest in the competition had been incredible! The places available in the competition were full within one day of the entries opening and we were well oversubscribed. It has been fantastic, and we are thrilled the Chefs have appreciated the opportunity to compete in the competition and be involved in something they are so passionate about!"

"The aim of the competition is to make the videos available through our social media channels to all the ‘home’ Chefs across India who have an interest in cooking and to show them some of the Chef’s secrets to producing those extra special meals," he added.

The competition will be judged by the Culinary Association heads, Chef Davinder Kumar, Chef Salil Fadnis, and Chef Jugesh Arora,  and Stephen Fleming himself will also play a role in the judging. Those who make the final will also need to rally up their social media contacts because 50 per cent of the judging score will be done via ‘likes’ on the videos that are posted on the QualityNZ YouTube channel. Dr Nitin Nagrale further explained, "We felt that because this competition was being designed to encourage ‘home Chefs’ across India, that they should also get a chance to vote for their favourite recipe and video, and help determine the overall winner.”

The 120 x Chef videos entered in the 2020 QualityNZ Culinary Cup videos will be posted to the QualityNZ YouTube channel on 8 June, 2020 and voting will close on the 15th June. The winner will receive the 2020 QualityNZ Culinary Cup, 50,000 rupees worth of QualityNZ lamb and seafood, and a Weber BBQ valued at over 46,000 rupees.