Newrest Restauration Française: Peter Motuku interviewed in capagro.nc

Peter Motuku, Executive Chef Newrest Restauration Française, interviewed by the capagro.nc Agro-Food Cluster:

In a few words, who is Newrest Restauration Française?

Newrest is a global multi-sector catering company with operates in 49 countries worldwide. Newrest in New Caledonia has provided schools, nurseries and day care centers, with 105 delivery points in Nouméa, Dumbéa, Mont-Dore, and Païta, as well as institutional catering with the University, leisure and sports centers, training centers, armies.

How does Newrest Restauration Française work?

This company employs 380 people. It is organized in 5 poles of activities namely:

• The purchasing purchasing pole,
• The production pole,
• The logistics pole,
• The support service department and
• The cleaning and disinfection pole.
• It delivers 18,000 meals or a daily volume of 4.5 tons.

30 years that I am in this business that has been run by several groups. For my part, I went in as a diver and then a kitchen clerk at the time of Sodexo. Over the years, I have risen through the ranks to be Executive Chef since the end of 2018 with Newrest.

Newrest Restauration Française has carried out colossal renovation and modernization work during the school holidays, how did you experience this work?

I am very happy to have a completely new production area with high-tech and high-performance equipment. It’s a motivation that I share with all the rest of my team. We started the school year with a new work tool at the forefront of what is currently done in the world of central kitchens.

What has changed for you in your way of working?

We conducted training to adapt to the different high-tech equipment that Restauration Française now has. Once taken in hand, these new tools allow us a considerable time saving, a precision in the cooking times and preparation of the meals, an ease of use, a rendering of quality as well as an energy performance for the company.

In addition, this work has made it possible to optimize our “walk forward” system with a cold link and a separate hot link in order to respect the implementation of good hygiene practices. Organized flows “forward” prevent product contamination between and during production.

This gives us a very important working comfort.

And the staff? How did he experience the changes?

The staff stands in solidarity with the difficulties of last year and shares with me this new workspace. They are proud to work in confidence with modern means that make their day-to-day work easier.