Taste local

A Bay of Plenty festival celebrates innovative fare crafted from the best of the region.

FRESH CHEESE CURDS and an award winning treacle are helping to advance the coastal Bay of Plenty’s flourishing food culture. These culinary treats are among the bundle of local gourmet goodies designed to inspire the chefs competing for top honours by transforming the supplied ingredients into a new restaurant dish. The Plates of Plenty Challenge has become a staple at the annual Flavours of Plenty Festival, which this year spans 18 days, from April 16 to May 3, and encompasses about 60 food events between Ōhope and Waihī Beach.Festival director Rae Baker says the plates challenge serves several purposes. It places locally produced ingredients in front of top chefs and encourages them to unleash their creativity on visiting diners. And it shares the stories behind the artisan products springing up between the region’s hillside orchards and its white-sand beaches.

We go hunting for what’s new or clever or iconic in our region.

This time around, the chef’s box will include a latte mix from an organic kawakawa plantation and a homegrown pesto created by the owners of a river rafting company. Challenge competitors will also receive a lager made with rice, a spicy sauce and eggs from the Kaimai Range.“Every year, we go hunting for what’s new or clever or iconic in our region and every year I’m astounded by our discoveries,” Baker says. “We want the box contents to be eclectic, to keep our chefs on their toes. And we’re also showcasing the delicious innovations that are happening here.”

MILKING IT
One such innovation comes from a French Canadian family that has brought a traditional taste of Quebec to their adopted home. After moving to Tauranga, Marie-Camille Desy and Nicolas Perreault and their two daughters quickly adapted to the coastal lifestyle but were unable to find their favourite dairy snack. So, Desy set out to make the longed-for cheddar cheese curds they all associate with family road trips and fishing excursions.Those early home kitchen efforts were followed by years of research and experimentation before the hospitality professionals quit their day jobs, built a boutique cheese factory and launched Curds First late last year. “For us, fresh curds have been a tasty part of our life as long as we can remember,” she says. “We’ve had Canadians tell us ours are as good as the best ones you can find in Quebec. It’s the high-quality milk here, the natural richness that comes from cows grazing outdoors year-round.”A Bay of Plenty dairy farmer delivers 400L batches of A2 milk to the small factory, straight from his farm. While Perreault takes care of sales and distribution, Desy is in charge of logistics, marketing and production. The squiggly, springy, fresh white cheese chunks can be eaten straight from a bag, and can also be marinated, seared, fried, melted or added to fries and gravy to create the beloved Quebecois dish poutine.

CULINARY ALCHEMY
Self-described high school dropout Amy O’Neil is an award-winning business owner, sales queen and former restaurateur. As of January this year, the Lady Alchemy founder is also an exporter. Just 18 months after launching a condiments range from her suburban Tauranga home, the first shipment of dressings and sauces landed in Australia.

My brain just doesn’t stop. I’m constantly coming up with new product ideas and have to rein myself in.

The company has collected eight food awards for products, including Divine Harmony saffron honey mustard salad spritz and the gold medal-winning Sweet Rapture date balsamic treacle that will feature in the Flavours of Plenty Festival chef ’s box. They are designed to be sprayed onto food or drizzled via a dropper. O’Neil’s food labels list ingredients like apple cider vinegar or locally produced honey, horopito and kawakawa, but no refined sugar, allergens or “questionable” additives. “I think we fool ourselves when we make a beautiful salad, then end up drowning it in dressing,” she says. “That’s often where the calories and preservatives hide.”Food and hospitality have loomed large along the road that led to Lady Alchemy. “I just didn’t fit,” she says of her decision to leave school at age 16 to pursue a hotel management diploma. Her resume includes roles as a hotel banquet supervisor and retail manager for a national homeware chain. A restaurant owner at age 25, she was twice named New Zealand’s top-selling salesperson for a food container company. There were also stints in Finland to study and in southwest Florida to help open two five-star restaurants. Now, the mother of two is determined that her teenage daughters will understand that “it is possible to have your ideas become a business reality.  My brain just doesn’t stop, I’m constantly coming up with new product ideas and have to rein myself in.”

BALANCING ACT
After decades of chasing white-water action, Don Allardice understands thrill-seeking. These days, he also gets a kick out of fermented food. He and his wife Sabine Ullrich own the Tauranga-based tourism company Riverbug, which sends clients down river rapids inside individual inflatable River bug craft. The high-octane venture has little in common with Aroha Kai, the home-based side hustle that sees the couple knee-deep in basil plants or travelling to farmers’ markets at weekends. They produce ginger apple sauerkraut and a spicy kelp and shiitake-infused kimchi. Last year, they also processed 150kg of homegrown spray-free basil to create the fermented basil pesto that appears in this year’s chef ’s challenge box. Allardice became hooked on the lacto fermentation process while living in Austria, where the couple ran Riverbug tours on the Salza River. A European neighbour introduced him to fermented fodder and its gut health and food preservation benefits. Back in New Zealand, the food-loving couple had already established the tourism business when they decided to get serious about their hobby. The trick to making a great fermented pesto, Allardice says, is to ensure nothing overwhelms the basil. “When you ferment it, it becomes more sour, a citrussy sort of tanginess,” he says.“It’s a bit of a balancing act getting that flavour right.” It is vegan and contains extra virgin olive oil, as well as cashews in place of traditional cheese. He recommends devouring it on crackers, or tossing it with penne pasta, roasted pumpkin, seeds and olive oil to make a warm salad.

LEAF LOVE
Native-plant farmers Dan and Laureen Andrews cultivated a surprise hit while producing premium New Zealand-grown tea. Their biggest seller isn’t tea at all.It’s Kawakawa Latte, a coffee alternative made with leaves grown on their hill country plantation in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. The Andrews propagate and grow certified organic mānuka, kānuka, horopito and kūmarahou, which are harvested, processed and packaged on their Native Tree Farm property. Laureen expanded their original tea offerings after sampling a turmeric latte at her favourite Whakatāne cafe. “I thought, if other countries are doing this with their native herbs, why haven’t we?” she says. She began trialling dried leaf combinations and testing the results on family and baristas. Kawakawa emerged as the star ingredient, mixed with matcha, organic coconut blossom sap and their own powdered horopito and mānuka leaves. The result was Kawakawa Latte, which will feature in the Flavours of Plenty Festival chef’s box, and is already being sipped at the newest luxury spa in Rotorua and at Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne wildlife sanctuary in Wellington. Online, their popular kūmarahou leaf tea sells alongside the farm’s herbal teas, flavoured flaky salts and edible petals planted and picked by daughter Aliyah. "Kūmarahou is a bitter plant, but people are buying it because they understand the power of its properties. It’s one of the most important plants in Māoridom." Laureen is keen to “push the barriers” with new blended powder mixes. Meanwhile, a wholesale deal with a British-based tea maker will see their mānuka leaf added to a tea blend for export around the world.

OODLES OF ARTISANS
Rae Baker, who has been overseeing the Flavours of Plenty Festival since its inception, says there’s no question the region lures people with a talent for growing or making quality food. “Our festival hasrocketed from 16 to almost 60 food-based events since Tourism Bay of Plenty kicked it off five years ago. That can only happen in a place that’s serious about kai. "We know the climate is attractive to growers and that people choose to live here for the natural beauty and coastal lifestyle. But honestly, you wouldn’t believe how many artisans are out there distilling rum or making Uruguayan-style chorizo or Greek-Cypriot desserts," she says the entire festival programme champions local food makers, be they chefs or producers. So, a Spanish pastry chef will teach ticket holders how to make his enviably buttery croissants in Whakatāne. Another chef will host bacon-making classes, and a restaurant will host a “gnam cha” dinner that fuses Asian and European flavours. One event will utilise Wilderkin Spirits Co vodka that’s made by a Waihī Beach drummer and his keen gardener friend. The spirit makers use honey from Katikati and chillis grown up the road. Baker says the region’s reputation as a place of abundance dates back centuries. “Originally, it was kūmara and kaimoana. Later, we were known for our kiwifruit, avocados, citrus and berries. These days, we’re really pushing the palate. You'll find locally grown truffles in our farmers’ markets, and nationally celebrated chefs in our restaurants. You’ll see us dining at night markets, food trucks and pop-up degustation dinners. There’s absolutely no doubt food culture is thriving here.”

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Air New Zealand is proud to back Flavours of Plenty as part of its Regional Event Sponsorship programme, supporting 20 events across 20 regions nationwide.