50-50 restaurant owner and head chef Helen Turnbull with second chef Courtenay Charles, (left) manager John Lock, and waitress Kate Allan.
50-50 restaurant owner and head chef Helen Turnbull with second chef Courtenay Charles, (left) manager John Lock, and waitress Kate Allan.
It’s third time lucky for Paraparaumu Beach restaurant 50-50 which has won a coveted Wellington award.
The restaurant, owned and operated by head chef Helen Turnbull, won the Nova Energy Outstanding Regional Establishment award at the Felix Wellington Hospitality Awards.
The annual awards, spearheaded by the Restaurant Association of New Zealand, recognise the capital’s outstanding hospitality professionals, all of whom are making a positive impact on their local dining scenes.
People in the hospitality fraternity vote for their peers, before the top four in each category are selected, leading to another round of voting to find the winners.
So while there’s a degree of luck involved, hospitality folk know their industry well, and know the hard mahi and pursuit of dining excellence that staff at 50-50 strive for.
50-50 restaurant owner and head chef Helen Turnbull with the Felix Wellington Hospitality Awards trophy for Outstanding Regional Establishment. Photo / David Haxton
“The team and I look forward to the Felix Awards every year.
“It’s important to take the opportunity to support our peers and celebrate our industry.
“I really like how the awards build the hospitality community closer together and it makes people really think who they’re appreciating and who’s leading our industry at this time.”
She said it was extra special considering 50-50 only opened from Wednesday to Saturday.
“So not a lot of people have the opportunity to come out for dinner because we’re obviously open when a lot of people are working.”
50-50 has been operating in Maclean St, Paraparaumu Beach, for six and a half years, and has cemented itself as one of the jewels in the district’s dining crown.
“My goal, when I first opened, was to hopefully stay in business for a year, because a lot of hospitality places fold in the first year.
“So the fact that we were so well received and supported by the local community at the beginning, and has continued, is absolutely overwhelming and I feel very privileged to be here.
“I think I have the best job in the world.
“I get to cook food that I enjoy cooking, I get to teach and pass on my passion for hospitality to people who live in the Kāpiti Coast, and through that we get to deliver something it seems people really enjoy.”
Turnbull, who was a chef in various top restaurants before opening her own, was also delighted that 50-50′s second chef Courtenay Charles was nominated for emerging chef.
“Courtenay got quite a bit of recognition through competing at Everybody Eats, which is a pay-as-you-feel.
“They get donations, or things that can’t be sold in the supermarkets, and create a three-course meal out of that.
“You can go into the restaurant and pay-as-you-feel. It’s an amazing set-up.
“And last year they invited four young and up-and-coming chefs to come in the morning and create three courses out of those ingredients.
“Because of that exposure is how, I think, she would have been beautifully nominated which is really cool.”
