Today is take-off time. I will be away in Europe for five weeks. I will try and post stories but the real intention is holiday so there will be some great reports of London, Paris and Rome on my return, including the answer to this question:
Is it worth journeying all the way to Padstow to eat at Rick Stein's restaurant?
Go to my WINES TO DRINK page to find a stunning new wine label that's worth seeking out.
We finished our North Island book tour today in Wellington. We drove over from Greytown, stopping to sign books at Bookfeast in Petone. After a night out at Martin Bosley's for champagne, and dinner at The Larder, we were ready to cook up a storm on Sundya morning at the City Market.
It was my first visit to the City Market at Chaffers Dock and I must say it is a real complement to the adjacent outdoor farmers market. It's a little slice of complete sophistication, with an array of sparkling fresh Yellow Brick Road fish, amazing choclates, bread from Greytown's French Baker, organic meat, the Brat Boys with their sausages, endless great coffee, cupcakes, Turkish delight, vegies, Marrtin Bosley's ready to heat lambshanks and more.
Ginny, Kathy and I (mostly the other two as I was talking too much and catching up with so many old friends) cooked up dishes; fennel tart, lentil and vegetable soup, and Vietnamese style finger rolls from our NZ Vegetable Cookbook, alongside the lovely Yvonne from Petone's Bookfeast cookbook shop who sold our books. Sales really stepped up when the effervescent Annabelle White stopped by, and we're thrilled she loves the book too!
It's now a much needed rest and catch up at home for two days before we head down to Christchurch (Mercato on Tuesday evening) and Dunedin (Marbecks on Wednesday at 4.30pm) Many thanks to Turners & Growers the veggie champions for making our tour possible, and putting wonderful veggies on the plates of so many Kiwis.
One of the things that's very notable about The New Zealand Vegetable Cookbook is the thoroughly modern recipes we cook, using delicious locally grown olive oils.
We've always been fans of Village Press as the hard working team of Maureen and Wayne Startup have taken their olive oil to the world and really shown everyone just how good NZ olive oil can be. They're now big producers, but their olive oil still retains the boutique properties, and is always on our shelves.
While in the Wairarapa we were given some magnificent golden green Saundridge olive oil recently pressed and bottles by Jan and John Thompson. If you're down that way make sure you get hold of their lovely oil too.
Here's the trio of authors in Hedley's Bookshop in Masterton. It was a first as Kathy and Ginny cooked up some greens grown by Jeremy, a local veggie grower who has a weekly stall at the farmers market, on the barbie right there in the store. The books are now beautifully smoked!
And the lovely farming folk of the district turned out to support us, share a few glasses of 12,000 Miles wine from Gladstone and bought heaps of copies of our book. Our sponsors, Turners and Growers will no doubt see a rise in vegetable consumption.
We went on to Greytown and can highly recommend Apartment 88 above the Main Street Deli for accommodation, and we loved catching up with Travis at Bar Salute and joining his organic/biodynamic dinner, one of the Wellington on a Plate events. The wines were extraordinary; all from Urlar vineyard. (More on those later)
Now off to this week's final stop, Bookfeast in Petone and the City Market in Wellington where we be cooking up a taste of the book.
Fabulous reception in Hawke's Bay, the garden of NZ. A stop at the well stocked Beattie & Forbes in Napier and met lots of lovely people who will be cooking our vegetable recipes from the book.
A 30 minute interview on Hawkes Bay TV...look for it next Wednesday on Sky channel 89 Chatroom.
Bellatino's in Havelock North for a terrific evening with lots of friends, family and foodies. The book sold out and we are in love with the amazing produce Emma and Bart have stocked their store with. Don't miss it!
And dinner with the Village Press geniuses. That olive oil they ahve produced for Al Brown & Co is amazing on vegetables. Go Fish! And Go Vegetables! Off to the Wairarapa today.
We're on our book tour! My co-authors, Ginny and Kathy, joined me last night at a delightful evening hosted by Kim Pittar at Muir's bookstore in Gisborne. Lot of lovely veggie talk and questions from the audience. A great crowd turned out, enjoyed Millton lovely local wine, ate the delightful nibbles (some from the book) prepared in the cafe upstairs and bought a stack of books.
We are staying in the Senator Motor Inn with huge rooms, great value (see the first light view in the pic above) and ate at USSCo, where owner/chef Thomas, formerly of The Bach in Taupo cooked hearty tasty meals. Perfect duck confit, lovely crisp crackling on the pork and fresh John Dory. All with heaps of vegies. Another lovely local wine, TW chardonnay. Yum.
Off to Napier and Havelock North today. This is fun and thanks to Turners and Growers for making it all possible.
I was lucky enough to eat at Pikopiko Restaurant in AUT’s School of Hospitality this week. Robert Oliver, author of Me’a Kai, the superbly colourful and clever book about the culture and food of the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia, is in the teaching kitchens of the school.
He is currently working with the students to cook authentic island food and they offer a compact menu that is deliciously fresh, extremely tasty and probably the best value for money lunch in Auckland to date. It’s a great opportunity for the students to work with such a patient, lovely teacher as Robert, as he introduces them to an array of island specialties and ingredients.
I ate a salad of mango and watercress with toasted macadamias to start, dressed with the almost unknown here coconut oil produced by ‘Women in Business’ in Samoa. Coconut oil took the salad dressing to a new high. My dining companion had three little spoons of ceviche, prepared in the style of three of the islands.
To follow for mains the belly pork was fatty and savoury, as it should be, with a crisp crackling on top and a spicy relish served alongside spinach in coconut cream, beautifully wrapped in a banana leaf. The salmon, served with crispy skin was accompanied by a mango and kumara salad and sweet pickled jam, while mahimahi was presentedwith fried taro root. Both delicious fish dishes, although the salmon is not strictly 'island but was there as not enough fresh island fish reaches NZ shores. As for pudding, what could beat light, crisp banana fritters with a masterful coconut sorbet? The papaya bread pudding was pretty good too with fresh island fruit.
This showcase of island food, all cooked and served by young hospitality cooking students, who will gain in confidence and knowledge everyday, puts every resort and hotel I have ever been to in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook islands and other places in the South Pacific to shame. It’s authentic, it’s wonderfully exciting and an amazing experience right here in the largest Polynesian city in the world.
Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to eat in the student run restaurant. You can see the restaurant from the street, as the Hospitality School sits on the edge of AUT campus where Wellesley St meets Mayoral Drive. Be sure to book a place while you can. Ph 09 921 9999 and ask for Pikopiko Restaurant.
I am exhausted. Four days at the Food Show which included two appearances in the celebrity chef theatre, cooking on the induction cooktop on the Electrolux stand, whipping up some treats with Silver Fern Farms lamb and venison each day and meeting lots of old and new friends.
Two personal highlights of the weekend that I can’t choose between: the arrival of our new book, The New Zealand Vegetable Cookbook, with a book signing with my co-authors Ginny Grant and Kathy Paterson at the Cook the Books stand, and a delightful dinner at our home on Saturday night with the delightful Stefano di Pieri and his wife Donata from Midura on the Murray River in north western Victoria.
Every year I walk the length and breadth of the show picking up the visible and evident trends in food. Surprisingly this was the year of wine; so much so that I am thinking the clever Food Show owner Dona White, who also came to dinner with her husband Gavin (he’s a star, as he loved my potatoes!), might think of changing the name to the Food and Wine Show. There was a ton of lovely wine to drink and buy at every corner I turned. Other trends this year were prepared dips and spreads, lots of spices from around the world in lots of products, and few new original and local artisan products.
There were so many foods and drinks that I loved. Some new and some old favourites. I managed to squeeze more than a dozen products from the show into my demonstration in the Celebrity Chef theatre and those recipes are on the recipe page of my website. But here are ten fabulous products that really took my fancy this year, in no particular order.
Here's the list of Top Trends for Food & Travel from my address to the travel and food writers of NZ tonight, who gathered at The Heritage in Auckland.
MAJOR FOOD TRENDS
Seasonal, simple, garden-fresh food, Local food agenda, Artisan products.
Healthy diets & self-help health care, Planet-conscious eating, spas & spa cuisine.
Home grown → home cooking: Chefs’ own restaurant gardens → fresh, organic.
Urban farming, both backyard and collective plots, OOOby, Vege co-ops & CSA (community supported agriculture).
Street food, both original authentic, and ethnic & immigrant cuisines.
Fair trade, sustainable, organic, single estates, own brands & small farm crops.
Baking (there is life after cupcakes), Slow cooking, French bistro again & Italian forever.
FOOD DESTINATIONS Farmers markets, Food Halls, Street food carts (see above). Cocktail bars, Wine & tapas bars, Sake Bars and Artisan breweries. Urban Gourmet; Farro Fresh, Nosh, Moore Wilson, Wholefoods, Borough market. European city markets, 3 star Michelin world wide and San Pellegrino Top 50 restaurants.
TOP CUISINES THAT WILL INFLUENCE RESTAURANTS Central America and Peru. Korea and Vietnam and regional China. Scandanavia, esp Denmark and Sweden.
OTHER INTERESTING INFLUENCES Apps for I-Phone and I-Pad, Social Media. Pop-up restaurants. Web; Blogs, Recipes, Restaurants and everyone’s unqualified opinions. Food Television; Travel, Most British programmes, and Reality and competitive cooking shows that don’t encourage cooking! Food Magazine dumbing down; Gourmet disappears, along withWaitrose Food Illustrated.
TOP NZ RESTAURANTS (Bookings essential, great food and wine, top atmosphere) The Engine Room, Soul Bar & Bistro, The French Café, Prime Bistro, The Grove, Two Fifteen, Siddart, Michael Meredith, Cibo, Boulcott St Bistro, Logan Brown, Martin Bosley, Matterhorn, Herzog, Boutereys, Restaurant Schwass, Bodhi Tree, Saggio di Vino, Fishbone.
ACROSS THE DITCH – I WOULD HAPPILY JUMP ON A PLANE FOR ANOTHER MEAL AT: Quay, Berowra Waters Inn, Tetsuya, Royal Mail Hotel, Momo
CULINARY TOURISM DESTINATIONS Transylvania, Laos, Sri Lanka, Peru, Yunnan, Copenhagen, Tasmania.
BEST FOOD FESTIVALS AND MASTERCLASSES Wellington on a Plate, Toast Martinborough, Taste Auckland , Pasifika, Diwali Festival, Lantern Festival, Melbourne Masterclass, Brisbane Masterclass, Sydney's CRAVE, Noosa Food and Wine, Aspen Food & Wine, IPNC in Oregon, Terra Madre & Salone del Gusto, Madrid Fusion, Singapore World Gourmet Summit.