10 July 2011

AT LAST; REAL FOOD TV

I was enthralled tonight with the entertaining Michael van de Elzen and his Food Truck, and can’t help thinking that we have finally found a great Kiwi food programme for television. In fact, I believe we have found our own Antipodean version of one of my all-time favourites, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall.

The basic premise of the show has been to re-invent fast food in a healthy manner. So we’ve seen burgers, fish and chips, pizza and more taken to the average Kiwi to see if they can cope with so called healthier renditions of their favourites. And with food trucks the hot new dining number throughout the USA, and Jamie Oliver also on the wagon trying to convince the Yanks to eat better, this is a highly fashionable concept that our TV producers got onto.

Michael didn’t have much show really as snapshots of the audience he was dealing to displayed many fatty thighs and porky bellies that were never going to agree with or really embrace his reinventions. And of course, Michael is used to purchasing great product, so his costings couldn’t even be in the realm of the ‘average’ kiwi consumer.

Tonight’s show was a gem. Chinese cuisine, which in New Zealand has become a faint version of the real thing, went under his knife. Michael ate around the traps to test it out, and then went as far as Kingsland’s Canton Café to work with the chef to learn the inside story on Chinese cuisine. He admitted he’d never cooked with a wok before (where have you been all these years Michael?) and Canton’s chef said Michael was far too slow! But he then designed a very healthy and delicious version of the food and attempted to sell it at a Chinese New Year celebration. He couldn’t even give it away. Too weird, too expensive and too white-honky.

Yet. Think about this. I would happily eat Michael van de Elzen’s interpretation of Chinese food. I would want it in luxurious surroundings. I would want proper service. I’d gladly pay the $30 that it deserves. We’re now a very multi cultural country with an ethnic-eats-are-cheap-eats mentality. But in that Food Truck I have glimpsed a possibility of the future. We have talented Kiwi chefs who well might be willing to learn other cuisines. Chefs who could start restaurants with a real point of difference that would cater to our expanding appetites for the interesting cuisine that we are developing tastes for. Bring it on!