Bracken Restaurant owner Ken O’Connell led "Team Otago", which included Vault21 executive chef Greg Piner and Vault21 chef Fifi Leong, against 11 other regional teams from Australia and the Pacific in the competition at the Fine Food Australia trade exhibition in Melbourne earlier this week.
Mr O’Connell said he got the news late on Thursday the team had won — the first time a New Zealand team had won such a competition in Australia.
"I haven’t stopped smiling," he said.
"I woke up this morning and my wife said: ‘Why are you smiling?’
"It’s a fantastic achievement."
The team had a total of six hours of preparation time ahead of the competition on Tuesday.
Then they had to complete a service of 36 entrees and 36 mains in 45 minutes.
"It’s a lot of pressure," Mr O’Connell said.
Mr Piner said it was like winning the culinary Bledisloe Cup.
"It’s a massive deal," he said.
"The really cool thing is it’s really good for New Zealand for the culinary scene, but it’s amazing for Dunedin that a team from here has done that."
The team spent a little over two months training for the event.
Despite the achievement, the group had not had a chance to celebrate as they were back at work in Dunedin last night.
"I got off the plan, had a quiet drink and was straight into work," Mr O’Connell said.
The team collected $5000 for the victory.
Money would be invested back into preparing young Otago chefs for other competitions, Mr O’Connell said.
