Lauraine’s blog
21 August 2010
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.
20 August 2010
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.
19 August 2010
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.
5 August 2010
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.
1 August 2010
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.
- Heilala Vanilla Syrup — a new product made from the vanilla grown by the Ross family on their plantations in Vava’u in Tonga. It’s sweet and luscious with strong vanilla aroma. Gorgeous on fruit and ice-cream.
- Lighthouse Gin — a truly aromatic gin made in Greytown, Wairapapa that will convert any serious aficionado of this spirit to NZ made.
- Galactic Gold cheese — a wash rind cow’s cheese made by Over the Moon dairy in Putaruru. I brought some home tonight and we consumed it immediately. Gorgeously pungent and rich.
- Piako Frozen yogurt — From the makers of that creamy mango or passionfruit yogurt that’s completely addicitve, three delightful flavours for dessert. I loved the lime best.
- Spice n Easy — a newcomer with packages of Indian spice mixes complete with recipes. I have now cooked with four of the different packs and swear it is better than most Indian food in specialty restaurants.
- Wai Kawa — soft drink mixers from Nelson. Bitter lemon, cola and tonic, infused with native New Zealand botanicals. Brilliant and none are too sweet. I hope they give the traditional companies a real run for their money!
- Ti Point Rosé 2010 — the newly released soft pinky blush wine made from Merlot grapes that really does have the aromas of strawberries and cloves described on the label. Wine maker Tracy Haslam at her best.
- Marama Organic lamb and beef sausages — all the way from Southland and quite the meatiest sausages I have had in ages. Love the way they say the sausages are made from old sheep! Gluten and preservative free.
- Paneton’s custard filled croissant — their bread, pastry and buttery treats are all heavenly. I love that little Madeleine who may be the best marketer and client relations person in NZ. And she’s still at school!!
- Silver Fern Farms venison range — from the grass pastures of NZ comes this easy to prepare, healthy range of venison cuts, complete with recipes. My favourite to date? The venison meatballs with tzatziki, a spicy idea on the back of the pack from Dunedin cooking teacher Judith Cullen.
27 July 2010
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.
26 July 2010
In the Green Kitchen
By Alice Waters
Many years ago I was a teacher for a very brief period of my life. I discovered that to get kids to read, there’s always a book somewhere that will be the key to getting them hooked. Just as I found the right book for those kids, I am now sure that this new book will hook the reluctant cook and send them running to the kitchen.
In fact my husband grabbed my copy when I returned with it from San Francisco recently and has begun to cook! With enthusiasm. He’s already begging to cook the dinner.
‘In the Green Kitchen’ grew out of a food celebration and gathering, Slow Food Nation. It’s a book filled with techniques cooks should master, simple recipes and lovely shared stories and food of the chefs that Alice Waters admires. Alice of course, is the revered guardian of everything that’s fresh, organic and wholesome about Californian food, and the owner of that temple of dining in Berkeley, Chez Panisse. Alice also has been one of the prime movers and shakers behind Michelle Obama’s initiative to get the school children of America gardening, cooking and making the connection between these two activities. She’s also the voice of Slow Food for USA.
Her friends in the book are the passionate cooks, gardeners and suppliers who move in these circles. There are lovely portraits and ideas from luminaries like Dan Barber, Darina Allen, David Chang, Deborah Madison, Lidia Bastianich, Charlie Trotter and many more. But best of all, the recipes are simple and delicious. There’s nothing ambitious about roast leg of lamb, leek and potato soup, fresh green salad, or even a poached egg. But what the recipes do make is make all these things and many more possible, in the most wonderfully explanatory way.
Just as it has got my husband interested in cooking, it’s made me look afresh at the way I write recipes. There’s a need for more explanation I believe, than is currently the trend.
Very highly recommended.
Published in the USA by Clarkson Potter, available on order at bookstores through Random House NZ $69.95
15 July 2010
Canvas editor, Greg Dixon, added a note to last weekend’s restaurant review of the very good Engine Room in Northcote. He was furious that owner Natalia Schamroth has refused to allow the NZ Herald’s photographer in to shoot her food, and said that would be the last ever review of that restaurant in Canvas. Natalia’s reason for refusal in her own words was, “I just wanted a guarantee that the facts were correct and that I was not cooperating (by allowing a photo) with an article that may have been damaging to our reputation.”
Now that may seem precious of her, and it well may be, but Natalia has been bitten before by incompetent reviewers who have visited her restaurant. They have written incorrect facts, and shown their ignorance of cooking techniques and food products. Every word written in print media is there forever, and such reviews can be damaging, so facts should never ever be wrong.
I believe that underlying this debacle is a much bigger and more damaging issue for restaurateurs. Currently the restaurant reviews around the country in many newspapers and magazines are often substandard, egotistical and incompetent. It would seem in almost all publications that it is a job that is handed out to the staff as a perk. The main requirement of the reviewer would appear to be an ability to write entertainingly, eat copiously and file copy by deadline. What writer is going to refuse the opportunity to take the company credit card and eat out with one or two friends? It’s an easy and cheap way for a newspaper or magazine to fulfil the need for restaurant writing as their staff writers are on salary, or may even do the job for a mere pittance as it is such “fun.”
It’s likely that these people do not know their beurre blanc from their hollandaise, don’t know the difference between quatre épices and five spice, or confuse crème brulée with crème caramel. To be a restaurant critic, there should be several requirements. First and foremost a thorough knowledge of food, cooking and technique. Culinary training is a pre-requisite, as is an understanding of how a restaurant works. If you think the pass is when someone comes on to you, or what the All Blacks try to do when they’re on the field, you’ll never be a good reviewer. The skill to write must come next. After all, entertaining writing is paramount. Hold the reader’s interest. Make them laugh, make them cry, but keep them reading and coming back for more.
Other considerations for the reviewer. Appetite can’t be overlooked. It should be voracious. Allergies, food preferences, and refusal to eat certain foods or vegetarianism will not be tolerated. (What? You don’t like oysters? Shame on you. ) A natural curiosity about food and its provenance is also at the top of the list for reviewing, a real deep understanding of food trends past and present, and an encyclopediac knowledge of who’s who and their place in the history of the food culture and restaurant scene.
If a reviewer only visits a restaurant once, the picture can be tainted by any number of things. Writing should be done with consistency, clarity and accuracy. It’s interesting to see the number of reviews that are personal accounts of what has been eaten and what happened that particular night. These are utterly egotistical. I don’t want to know only what the reviewer and companions ate. I want to know what sort of food the chef is cooking, the range of the menu, what his influences are, where he’s been lately to find new ideas, and how much work has gone into the food. I don’t want to spend five paragraphs reading about how I got there, what has happened in the writer’s life lately or where the car is parked. (There seem to be a lot of I-want-to-be-AA Gills out there.) I want to be firmly seated in the restaurant and know whether this is a place to have fun, to celebrate on a special occasion or if I could take my elderly mother there. Wine is often quite a large proportion of the total bill, so a restaurant critic should have good wine knowledge. Readers deserve to know about the wine list, the cocktails, how varied the list is, if it matches the food and if the staff is clued up and knowledgeable.
Chefs spend years and years perfecting their craft, and restaurant owners spend thousands, sometimes millions on creating a wonderful space. They care deeply about their business, their staff and their customers. (Read Steve Logan’s latest blog on foodie.co.nz to see how Logan Brown invests in the staff.) The restaurant and hospitality industry is one of the biggest employers in the country and contributes millions and millions to the economy. They deserve to be treated with respect and written about with knowledge and experience.
Neither do they deserve the sort of reviews that are all over the web these days, posted by terribly opinionated people and bloggers who hide behind pseudonyms. That group should think twice before posting something really damning, and consider just what experience and qualifications they really have. Eating and paying is not enough.
Overseas well-read and often revered newspapers (Melbourne Age, The Financial Times, the NY Times, Sydney Morning Herald) invest thousands in their critics, and accord the industry the respect it deserves. Canvas’ Greg Dixon, by throwing the toys out of the cot and stating Engine Room will never get another review, shows his colours. He thinks the newspaper is doing a service to the restaurants by writing about them…but he’s not a pr machine for restaurants and it’s his readers he should be focused on. Maybe the editors should listen carefully to the real message behind Natalia Schamroth’s refusal to co-operate and examine what experience their writers really have. They might like to consider just what consistency and respect would bring to the industry. And maybe more restaurateurs should be like Natalia and refuse to co-operate until a real reviewer emerges that they can respect and even learn from.
9 July 2010
"MEDIUM RAW A bloody valentine to the world of food and the people who cook it."
A new title from Anthony Bourdain
Part One. You will love this book. Tony Bourdain is one of the most opinionated food writers on the planet. We are all too familiar with the way he grabbed attention with Kitchen Confidential. ‘At last!’ we said, ‘A writer who calls it like it is.’ And he really did break open the disgraceful side of the restaurant world almost a decade ago.
He’s grown up now, rejected the drugs and the over-drinking, got rid of his earring, and become a respectable father who lives in New York’s Upper East side and is obsessed with his lovely little daughter and her mother. Astonishing. And he has travelled more, even further than most chefs could ever dream of doing, continuing to shamelessly trade on his success, eating his way around the world, filming and writing.
He has sassy opinions on almost all the stuff that people are concerned with and each chapter unveils a different story. His piece on why and how children should learn to cook is imminently sensible and possible. His treatise on why everyone should eat high quality meat is convincing. His ‘Heroes and Villains’ chapter is one of the funniest and most perceptive views of the big names in the food world and he has the guts to say exactly what he thinks. His put down of Alice Waters is bold and will make him no friends but it’s honest.
He’s clever. He pays homage to his best mate’s place (Eric Ripert at Le Bernadin, the top rating restaurant in NYC) by thinly disguising it as a story about the guy who cuts up the fish. But you’ll love him (the fish monger.) And you will be readily and royally captured by the quick flowing prose that doesn’t falter for a minute. Gossipy, juicy and an everything-laid-bare read that I would thoroughly recommend.
Part Two: You will hate this book. Tony Bourdain dishes up the second helping of his debauched sad life with an over-opinionated view of everything and everyone in the culinary world who could possibly matter. He’s mean, he’s foul-mouthed and he uses the f-word on almost every page. (I tried to count them up but gave up at 52 by page 50.) He hates lots of good people, and holds grudges.
He often takes far too long to get to his point, and spends pages on meals he’s eaten describing every mouthful or forkful. You will learn lots about his past sex life, and you will hate the way he uses sex as a metaphor for eating. You will think he’s a chauvinist but maybe you will love his wife Octavia. (She deserves to be loved as upon reading his chapter on Bourdain’s assessment of his meal at Alinea in Chicago, ‘the bitch’ as he calls her, jumped on a plane and flew there to check it out, eating alone. She loved the super lauded Grant Achatz’s food.)
And he slams the Food Network and most of the stars created there, who can’t cook well but have adoring fans around the world.
Loads of people you have never heard of are written about and rarely praised. But then this was not written for you, nor for anyone else who’s a prude or has not eaten their way through New York and other top foodie spots around the world. I recommend you leave it on the shelf and go back to watching chefs fighting it out on TV.
Published by Harper Collins
5 July 2010
It’s a sassy idea: Selaks National Roast Day on Sunday 1 August coming up soon. I attended a Celebrity Roast lunch at Cibo last week to kick it off where Kerre Woodham had everyone in stitches with her witty repartee. In 25 years of food writing I have never seen so many media show up, and absolutely everyone who could possibly matter turned out for Kate Fay’s great food, matched to some exciting Selak’s wine. My favourite dish? The tender roasted beef fillet from Silver Fern Farms served with beetroot and a green horseradish sauce (pic), matched to Selak’s Pinot Noir.
I will be roasting a fabulous T-Bone standing rib roast with all the trimmings on the eve of National Roast day as I have already invited visitors for dinner that night. So it will be roast leftovers on the actual day, Sunday August 1 if there is anything over.
I wrote a quiz for the guests at the Cibo Roast lunch which is below. Send your answers to me via email and see if you can beat the foodies. (The best mark was a mere 8/10 from the table that included Claire Aldous from Dish and Vic Williams.) A bottle of Selaks wine for the first 100% score I receive.
- What is the name of the machine that roasts meat and poultry while turning on a spit directly over heat?
- Which New York food writer wrote the book ‘Roasting – a Simple Art’?
- What is the name of the tasty baked egg batter that is the usual accompaniment to Roast beef?
- What fruit is most commonly cooked and puréed to match roast pork?
- What is a Crown Roast?
- Name the sauce that is most often called for to match Roast Lamb?
- Which country would you be Likely to be eating in if you were served skirlie with your Roast pheasant?
- Which King said this about his roast “I will knight it and then it will be Sir Loin”? And what animal was the meat from?
- Which roast meat would you be most likely to serve mustard with?
- What herb do the French use when they roast chicken?