A team of three chefs from the region recently won gold at the Australian Culinary Federation Pacific Challenge Competition in Sydney.
Dunedin's Bracken restaurant chef Ken O'Donnell, his commis chef Blake Haines and Corey Hume from Blanket Bay Lodge, Queenstown, took on the Australians and two teams from Auckland, placing third overall.
The highest-scoring team to win gold wins the competition.
There were three golds given out, the other two going to Western Australia and New South Wales.
Mr O'Donnell and Mr Hume are part of the six-chef New Zealand team to compete at the 2016 Culinary Olympics in Germany.
Invited to take part in the competition, Mr O'Donnell said the competition was good practice for next year's endeavour.
Teams had to provide a two-course menu for 36 people under strict time guidelines and rules.
They had three hours to do basic preparation the day prior and then 2 hours to cook and 1 hours to serve.
