The winners of Weave Cacao's Mousse Masters have been selected, following a competition full of innovation and skill.
The Grand Final of Weave Cacao’s Mousse Masters competition took place on 21st of October at Elemental Cooking School in Parnell. Chef Victorine Basquin of La Petite Fourchette won the Pro Chef competition and will be taken on a life-changing trip to Papua New Guinea with Mousse Masters ambassador Peter Gordon and Weave Cacao co-founder Oonagh Browne.
The winner of the Promising Young Chef category was Shania Nickel of Toi-Ohomai Institute of Technology. She won a year’s supply of Weave Cacao couverture (40kg) and a two-day Cacao Intensive Training Course with Oonagh Browne in Christchurch.
Mousse Masters is a one-of-a-kind competition designed to captivate the food service industry, showcase the magic of Weave Cacao’s couverture chocolate drops, and celebrate the artistry of New Zealand's chefs and bakers. Weave Cacao is the world's first Pacific couverture chocolate, crafted in Papua New Guinea.
Ten Pro Chef finalists and three Promising Young chefs presented their mousse-based dishes to the judges. Peter Gordon was the competition’s Head Judge, and he was joined by food writer and cookbook author Amber Rose, chocolate expert and journalist Luke Owen Smith and Weave Cacao co-founder Oonagh Browne.
Also on the panel was special guest Sperian Kapia, leader of the Mupa community in East Sepik, PNG, one of the main regions where Weave Cacao’s beans are sourced. This was Kapia’s first-ever taste of chocolate mousse.
At the start of the competition, Kapia spoke passionately about the importance of New Zealand working together with Pacific neighbours. He emphasised that everyone in the chocolate chain, from the farmers, to the makers, to the chefs and consumers, is part of the same team.
Mousse Masters finalists travelled to Auckland from all around New Zealand, ready to present their Pasifika-themed, mousse-based dishes. In the Pro Chef category, Robert Cullen (NZICC) came second, and Ben Chapman (Embra) came third.
The judges were extremely impressed with the creativity, passion and thought that went into all of the dishes. The standard was extremely high in both the Pro and Young Chef competitions, and the scores were very close.
“It was incredible to see how much effort all of the finalists put in. I was so impressed by the story that each dessert told, and how thoughtfully they represented Pasifika culture, many with an emphasis on PNG. Tasting all that mousse was a tough job, but thankfully, somebody’s got to do it,” said Peter Gordon.
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