Commentary from Chef Kathryn Taylor

After being announced Wellingtonian of the year back in November, Father Des Britten has now been made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in this year’s honours list.

Father Britten was honoured for his services to the community after giving 17 years service to the Wellington City Mission. He stepped down from the top role in July last year.

Prior to his time at the Mission Father Britten was a successful restaurateur, author and also one of NZs first TV chefs. He hosted two television shows; Thyme for Cookery and Bon Appetit. He wrote several cookbooks and ran the celebrated Wellington restaurant; The Coachman for 28 years. He was recognized by the Food Service Association in 1995, where he was admitted to the associations Hall of Fame.

His involvement with the City Mission dates back to his days running The Coachman when he would provide them with his prized French Onion soup.

As head of the Wellington City Mission, Father Britten has increased the staff from 7 to around 30 and has ensured hundreds of people a week are well fed.

A well deserved honour given to a truley honourable man.

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 11:29 pm and is filed under What's new.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.