Du Bleu Au Vert

In celebration of Wellington's biggest culinary festival, Visa Wellington on a Plate, Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand recently delighted the public with an amazing event, Du Bleu Au Vert, an exciting plant-based five-course dinner degustation matched with organic wines in a garden themed restaurant.

Traditional French cuisine is heavy on the meat and light on the plants. We challenged our chefs to change their thinking and apply traditional French techniques to the beautiful plant-based ingredients available  in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Chef Francis Motta spent a great amount of time foraging for some wild greens native in New Zealand like kawakawa  as well as growing some wheat grass in Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand campus weeks before the event.

Chef Tutor Francis Motta reflected on the service: "It was my first time to create a solely plant-based menu but I was very happy with the result. My students enjoyed preparing the food with chef Vincent and I, and they did really well with the presentation and execution."

The well-themed fine dining experience was excellently executed by Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand students under the professional guidance of degree lecturer Anita Sarginson and master cuisine chefs, Francis Motta and Vincent Boudet.

Anita Sarginson was very pleased with the performance of the Bachelor of Culinary Arts and Business students who were in charge of the restaurant service. Anita is well-known for delighting customers with surprises each time Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand runs its brasserie service and this time was no exception with the addition of secret garden, organic wine selection and hightened tea experience.


The Tea area with different table settings. Each table is themed according to the different flavours of Dilma tea.


Degree students in charge of the brasserie service.


Appetizer served at the secret garden.