I only shot two episodes in New Zealand: one on the North Island in and around Wellington and the other on the South Island featuring the Otago region. I have been lucky enough to have been travelling to and from New Zealand since the early 1980s when I was a young dancer touring the world. Back then, going out to dinner was not something you lingered over — possibly that had something to do with the fact that on a dancer’s wage you certainly couldn’t afford to eat at the high-class establishments but also because food back then wasn’t all that good. This was true of touring country regions in Australia also — you could forget getting a decent meal in Orange in the early ‘80s, now days, it’s no problem. Over the years, and the trips, I have noticed the food scene in both Australia and New Zealand grow and then blossom into a multicultural and exciting industry that without a doubt is on par with anywhere in the world. A lot of New Zealand chefs (and Australian for that matter) went overseas and worked in some of the best restaurants in Europe and then returned home bringing with them their experiences, expectations and desires to create the best restaurants and produce they could.
In Wellington I took a walking tour with Cath Cordwell who runs Zest Food Tours. We walked around for a couple of hours and in that time I tasted world-class chocolates, some of the best fresh-roasted coffee around and popped into a family run grocery store where you could buy a diverse range of produce from jams, chutneys and sauces to rabbit, venison, crabs, paua, sea urchin and an array of cheeses and breads — it was mind-boggling. I also hooked up with a great chef, Al Brown, who took me for a drive in his old Holden out to a beach where we met a couple of fishermen who gave us some of their catch on the proviso we cooked them lunch. Al and I built a fire on the beach using driftwood and then proceeded to cook up a great lunch of fish that had been caught only hours before — it was fantastic, and for me, a very special memory that I will have from my visit to the North Island.
I had fun in my first stop, Otago, Queenstown as it’s the adventure capital of the world. It’s a beautiful area and has a vibrant food scene. I attended a cooking school where I cooked up some pheasant for Debbie who told me off for being messy and gave me four out of ten for my plating skills but still managed to polish off my dish. And I met the most remarkable, well-known and loved local, Fleur, who took me down to the seaside by her restaurant. We picked mussels off the rocks, chatted about life and then took the mussels back to her place to cook them. Her chef also cooked me some mutton bird, which is actually a delicacy in New Zealand, but is certainly not to me and that’s why it’s not in the book!
List of Recipes