NEWS RELEASE
14 November 2008

Wellington Chip Shop Named Top Chippie

So Fine Seafoods in Wellington has been named New Zealand’s top chip shop after taking out the top spot in this year’s That’s Life Best Chip Shop Competition.

Chip Group Chairperson, Glenda Gourley, said So Fine Seafoods fended off more than 400 shops from around the country in order to be crowned top chippie.

The six regional winners are as follows:

Northland to North Shore Region
Oceanz Albany
50 Greville Road
Albany
Auckland

Rest of Auckland Region
Diamond Takeaways
166 Great South Road
Remuera
Auckland

Waikato to Hawkes Bay Region
Oppie’s Fish & Chips
259 Fenton Street
Rotorua

Manawatu to Wellington Region
So Fine Seafoods – regional winner and grand national winner
2 Tennyson Ave
Avalon
Lower Hutt
Wellington

Nelson to Christchurch Region
Lyttelton Fisheries
38 London Street
Lyttelton

Timaru to Southland Region
Oscar’s
87 Centennial Ave
Alexander

Judges unanimously agreed that the overall standards of the chip shops had improved with chips sampled this year generally tasting better and having a lower fat content.

“This year, we saw an average fat content of 7.1% recorded across all of the samples for the six winning shops. This is lower than the 7.6% average for the previous year, therefore, we believe the healthy frying message is getting through,”Glenda said.

“It’s pleasing to see so many shops from around the country following the recently launched ‘New Zealand Standards for Deep Fried Chips in Independent Fast Food Outlets’. More shops are now offering salt sachets to customers instead of automatically salting them, plus certificates gained through completing the Chip Online Training modules which teach owners and their staff about the Standards, are increasingly on display in stores,”Glenda said.

As in previous years, a combination of public texting voting, mystery judging and chip fat analysis determined the 15 regional finalists from each of the six regions across New Zealand. The six regional winners and grand national winner were then chosen by a panel of judges.

Heart Foundation nutritionist, Judith Morley-John, said this year, judges were on the lookout for shops that were working towards implementing the industry Standards.

Other areas to come under scrutiny were: chip freshness and colour, shop cleanliness and customer service.

“A chip sample from each shop was sent away for fat analysis, and only those containing a fat level of less than 11 percent made the grade,” Judith said.

“This year, over 70% of the 89 finalists achieved the Chip Group’s aim of an average fat content of 9.2%. Last year only half of the finalists were able to reach this target.”

So Fine Seafoods owners Anthony Cho, who is originally from the West Indies, and his wife, Jian Huan Zhou, said they were both elated with their win.

“We bought the shop in 2003 and first entered the Best Chip Shop Competition in 2006, back then we made the cut to be a regional finalist and last year were the Manawatu to Wellington regional winner.

“It’s a dream come true to be the 2008 grand national winner of the That’s Life Best Chip Shop Competition,” Anthony said.

He said he will continue to work hard and maintain the high standards practiced in his shop to make award winning chips for his valuable customers.

The ‘That’s Life! Best Chip Shop Competition 2008’ is this year supported by: That’s Life!, Goodman Fielder, Huhtamaki, Bakels, Burns & Ferrall, Food2Go Magazine, McCain Foods (NZ) Ltd, Moffat, Mr Chips, Potatoes New Zealand, Premo Filtration, Southern Hospitality, Kauri, Alfa One, Eurotech, Burns &Ferrall, Groenz and, The Heart Foundation.

ENDS

© Scoop Media