Meet our expert chef, Daniel Pfyl. I'm sure you will all agree that Daniel can cook for all of us, anytime, with a resume that makes your mouth water.
Daniel Rene Pfyl, born in Switzerland somewhere during the 1900s. Came to New Zealand in 1980 and soon met Leigh, a Kiwi girl. They married in 1985 and now have two sons, Matthias and Andreas.
Daniel started his chef's apprenticeship in Pontresina, near St Moritz in the Swiss Alps in 1975 at the tender age of 15. After a three-year period of living the great life in a ski resort he decided to work his way through some of the best hotels in Switzerland -- the Eden au Lac in Montreux for the summer and the Palace Hotel in Gstaad during the winter. In between that he completed a year's compulsory army service as well.
Then the travel bug got the better of him and he came to New Zealand with the THC Hotel Group, then government-owned. After an initial two years in New Zealand (Rotorua and Wellington) Daniel and Leigh started their work and travel overseas, which ended up taking them 10 years.
They started in Australia with the Hilton in Adelaide and then worked in Switzerland for two years, first at the Grand Hotel National in Lucerne and then at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel in Lausanne, the French part of Switzerland. In between they got married during a trip back to New Zealand in 1985.
From there they went back to Australia with Sheraton and then to Hyatt Borneo Management Services in Brunei, where Daniel was Executive chef to His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei.
Daniel's kitchen brigade was 60 chefs over two palaces, catering for the sultan's every need, from daily meals in his suite to air catering for his private jets. This also included royal birthday parties catering for 6500 sit-down dinners. Daniel worked in the palaces for four years. Older son Matthias was born during that time. Leigh made the wise move to come back to New Zealand to give birth and Daniel timed his holiday well.
From there they transferred with Hyatt to India as executive chef to the Hyatt Regency in New Delhi -- talk about contrast! In Delhi Daniel managed a brigade of 140 chefs who catered for approximately 45,000 meals per month over four restaurants, bars, nightclub and banquet facilities.
After a further two years in India family Pfyl decided it was time to come back to New Zealand and Daniel started work at the George Hotel in Christchurch. This was the birthplace of second son Andreas. The mountains lured Daniel to Queenstown, where he worked at the Holiday Inn, again as executive chef. Later it became the Novotel Queenstown. Daniel took on the role of food and beverage manager and opened up the new St Moritz Novotel Suite Hotel in Queenstown. Both are now Mercure properties. This somehow closed the cycle back to his apprenticeship.
Daniel then decided that it was time for a change and to give something back to the industry which had treated him and his family so well over the years. He joined Otago Polytechnic in 1999, teaching his skills to chefs and managers of the future. Daniel has specialised skills in kitchen and F&B management systems and marketing, both from the industry and the theoretical knowledge from teaching this topic at Otago Polytechnic.
Daniel has worked hard over the years to keep up-to-date with industry practices and using these experiences to advance his teaching practice. Examples are the culinary exchange between China and New Zealand for trainers in the hospitality industry travelling through China delivering practical workshops for three weeks in 2002, sponsored by the NZ Chefs Association and New Zealand Beef and Lamb. And then back in Switzerland for a bakery/patisserie workplace experience for 10 days in 2003 and in 2006 for eight weeks at the Grand Hotels Spa Resort in Bad Ragaz, near his hometown in Switzerland.
In 2008 Daniel completed the Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Learning and Teaching (Level 7) and in 2010 the Bachelor of Applied Management (Food and Beverage). In February 2012 he was the recipient of the staff award for excellence in teaching, made in recognition of excellence in teaching in Otago Polytechnic's education programmes during 2011.
We are very please to have Daniel contributuing weekly to our Wine and Food Guide, and will be sure that you will enjoy the wonderful recipies he brings to the table.
Take a look at Cooking 101 which is a sample of all of Daniel's recipes.
