Huffer on Ice
New Zealand fashion label Huffer and Absolut Vodka, a brand owned by spirits and wine company Pernod Ricard USA, are collaborating on a limited edition bottle featuring a contemporary silver map of…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Blue Rates Destiny
Waiheke Island’s Destiny Bay Vineyard 27 Magna Praemia has been awarded a rating of 98 out of 1 by top United States wine critic and editor-in-chief of The Tasting Panel magazine, Anthony Dias Blue…
Norwich Empire Expands
“New Zealand chef Chris Coubrough’s food empire has been growing faster than an asparagus stalk in May,” Norwich Evening News Sarah Brealey writes in a review of Coubrough’s Norfolk gastropub the King’s…
Roadside Mussels the Best
Green-lipped mussels, or Perna canaliculus are indigenous and exclusive to New Zealand, and they’re a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, The Australian’s Susan Hurley writes. The molluscs are almost lurid, with fluorescent green stripes…
Top Chef to Open Kiwiana
In August, New Zealander and Top Chef season 4 survivor Mark Simmons, is planning to open Kiwiana in New York on Union Street. The restaurant will feature lamb and seafood, both of which New…
Tales From the Kitchen
New Zealand-raised chef Anna Hansen tells The Independent how she came to meet the chef behind London’s St John Bar and Restaurant, Fergus Henderson. Hansen came to the UK in 1992 and got a…
Zumwohl Means Medals
Upper Hutt-based Aotearoa Distillers has won a gold and silver medal for its Zumwohl schnapps at the World Spirits competition in San Francisco. German-born founder Ulf Huhrer said a trip home played a part…
Life of the Party
New Zealand caterer Margot Henderson (standing) is profiled in the Spring/Summer issue of The Gentlewoman, a new British biannual style magazine. The restaurant founded by Henderson is called the Rochelle Canteen. It’s set in…
Brooklyn’s NZ Pie Man
New Zealander Gareth Hughes owns the Dub Pie Shop, in New York, an Antipodean oasis, where lattes come second on the menu to flat whites, good old Kiwi meat pies fill the pie warmer…
Me’a Kai Beats Usual Suspects
“You could call it the gastronomic upset of the night,” The Independent said. “New Zealand-born chef Robert Oliver beat out some formidable competition to land the title of best cookbook, which was announced last…
Maritime Vines
“As land masses go, New Zealand is the youngest country on Earth, having been around for about three million years,” Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson writes for an article in the Winnipeg Free Press. “Averaging around 12km…
Culinary Samplings
New Zealander Sam McFarren has lived in Brentwood, Tennessee for the past four years; she is profiled by the local newspaper The Tennessean in an article in which she talks about the differences between…
Gastronomic Benchmark
New Zealanders are pushing culinary boundaries at this year’s Hokitika Wildfoods Festival serving up shots of horse semen to iron-stomached food lovers. The equine delicacy will be on the menu at the annual festival…
Whitebait and Wine
The Noosa News New Zealand Wine Festival will be held in Noosa on February 25-27 and will include a seven-course degustation menu matching two New Zealand wines to each of the courses. Although Noosa…
Stress-free Cooking
New Zealand cook Annabel Langbein’s television series Annabel Langbein: The Free Range Cook is now screening on UKTV’s Good Food Channel. The series of 13 episodes has already been sold into 73 markets. “I…
Oh For a Lamington
“The use of fresh and organic produce is what defines modern New Zealand cuisine, and it is this feature that chef Clinton Cooper believes will draw health-conscious Indians towards it,” Shweta Mehta writes for…
London’s NZ treasure
Friends Peter Gordon, New Zealand chef, 47, and Briton Tim Lott, acclaimed writer, 54, are interviewed in The Independent on Sunday about how they met, their differences and Gordon’s tartan. “It was around the…
Tamarillo collaboration
Auckland-based brewery Epic featured in a December Discovery Channel episode of the Brew Masters series which showcased the brewing of a pilot and production batch of their latest beer Portamarillo — a collaboration…
Proof in the pudding
The pavlova is a New Zealand-invented dessert, and the proof is in the dictionary entry. An argument dating back generations between Australia and New Zealand over which of them invented the pavlova appears to…
Halal-fuelled burgers
New Zealand franchise Burger Fuel will offer grass-fed halal meat to its customers when a chain of 15 outlets open over five years throughout the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Burger Fuel’s first store operates…
Passionate About Food
Wellington is New Zealand’s “culinary epicentre” according to the Los Angeles Times’ Laura Fraser, a city which “gazes out to the Mediterranean” for inspiration. “We’ve got a country with a very Anglo-Saxon food heritage,…
Kopapa in the West End
New Zealand-born chef-proprietor of London’s Providores and Tapa Room Peter Gordon is set to open a new restaurant, called Kopapa in Convent Garden in December. Dishes will include Turkish poached eggs with whipped yogurt…
Ottolenghi likes manuka
New Zealand manuka honey is combined with walnuts and added to a radicchio, pecorino fiore sardo and lentil salad created by the high-profile London-based Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi for the Guardian. Ottolenghi writes: “I…
World-class Dining
“Auckland’s subtropical climate, Polynesian culture, unpolluted waters and cosmopolitan buzz have combined to create a world-class dining scene,” according to the Guardian’s food writer Kevin Gould. Gould is particularly taken with Peter Gordon’s “two,…
Gold stars for Lam
Bay of Plenty baker Patrick Lam has won the national Supreme Pie Award for the fourth time in the competition’s 14-year history. His bacon-and-egg special was named the best of a record 4336 entries…
Craving more bleu
Former sheep farmer New Zealander Alistair MacKenzie moved to Canada 11 years ago with his French-Canadian wife, Karien Piché and made a career change, purchasing a small artisan cheese-making and sheep farming business called…
Kitchen for hot shots
One thousand young chefs will compete in the 18th Annual New Zealand Culinary Fare at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland on August 22-24. The three-day ‘hot kitchen’ competition is the largest of its kind…
Thawing an icy tipple
Canterbury Museum is slowly thawing out a crate of Scotch whisky which was found in Antarctica earlier this year beneath the floor of a hut built by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. The New…
Good as gold
Waiheke Island is a prime growing spot for olive trees and each year, in November, the Waiheke Olive Festival takes place on the estate of one of the local producers. Toronto Star freelance travel…
Shechita forbidden
New Zealand has banned kosher slaughter after a new animal welfare code mandated that all animals for commercial consumption be stunned prior to slaughter to ensure they are treated “humanely and in accordance with…
Chicago showcase
Monteith’s Brewing Company, Aotearoa Seafoods and The Lamb Company are among some of the eight New Zealand companies taking part in the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago on May 22—25. The…
Davenport’s coup
New Zealand-born chef Phillip Davenport, group executive chef at Bali’s popular Ku De Ta restaurant and bar, discusses his “must-buy ingredient of the moment”, his “best recent dining experience” and his “most embarrassing pantry…
Especially select
New Zealanders have a love of coffee, wine, water and an extraordinary, “relentless” particularity for those beverages, for dogs, sport, even driveways and beech trees, writes Peter Miller for Seattle news site Crosscut. “Water…
Pavlova in a Glass
New Zealand’s capital city was the grand final host and inspiration for the 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup winning beverage, Wellington Fizz. American Sean Hoard, 23, wowed the judges with a playful kiwifruit vodka fizz…
Guava Crumble Please
Gisborne-born, London-based chef Peter Gordon writes in The Independent on Sunday that he has “a sense of a growing tide of culinary xenophobia” and that the British “love affair with home-grown ingredients is killing…
Unique Fine Dining
Pipis, paua, tuatua, feijoas, kumara, cervena, puha and horipito are just some of the unfamiliar items found on the menu in New Zealand restaurants, Winsor Dobbins of The Sydney Morning Herald discovers….
Gusty But Gourmet
“With more than 300 bars, restaurants and cafes in the city alone, Wellington is certainly not short of options,” recommends Winsor Dobbin for The Sydney Morning Herald. Dobbin explores the best dining…
Peter Andre’s flat white
“No one knows exactly where the flat white came from,” ponders Guardian columnist Zoe Williams. “Some people say New Zealand, while others believe it’s an Australian invention.” “Has anybody ever seriously had that conversation?…
Eastern Tastes Approve
Many newcomers drawn to New Zealand’s quality of life are of Asian descent observes Ming Wong writing for the Chinese publication Global Times. “This explains why cities such as Auckland and Christchurch now offer…
Chain Reaction
New Zealand-invented coffee the flat white will now be offered to British Starbucks customers from December 7, the first new type of coffee the company has offered to British consumers since it opened up…
Pinot pleases
New Zealand pinot noir Craggy Range is surpassing its American equivalents in blind tastings for critics. This autumn, at New York restaurant Eleven Madison, six top pinot noirs from California, Oregon and Burgundy (the…
Paddock To Plate
New Zealand chefs and consumers are increasingly embracing diverse homegrown produce, with Queenstown’s Saffron restaurant at the forefront of this “quiet revolution” explains Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service. Sourced from the restaurant’s surrounding environs is…
Pastry Mad In The Bay
Aucklander Alka Patel has taken the New Zealand pie to the streets of San Francisco, selling the pastry goodness at Stonestown farmers’ market. “I sold out of everything both days,” Patel told SFoodie, including…
Hell has no borders
New Zealand fastfood chain Hell Pizza will open 30 franchises throughout Ireland by 2016. The first Hell’s Pizza was launched in Dublin earlier this year, which made Ireland the fifth country to open a…
Currant discovery
A recent study lead by Roger Hurst of the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research (NZIPFR), has discovered that blackcurrant extract improves athletic performance. The findings, which were published in the American…
From Lush Pasturelands
“Make it New Zealand lamb every time!” encourages British celebrity chef Delia Smith from her official website. “When treating friends and family to luscious barbecue lamb recipes or feeding the family during the week,…
All that Jazz
The rapid growth of New Zealand’s premium new apple variety Jazz has reached another milestone this year with over 1.2 million cartons of apples forecast to be exported in 2009. Revered for its outstanding…
Tomcat Temptations
Auckland chocolatier Hanna Frederick, a former food scientist, has injected a male aphrodisiac into her chocolate treats for Valentine’s Day. Frederick, who made headlines by feeding beer-flavoured chocolate to brewers and deer antler chocolate…
Pursuits of Happiness
“Beyond the wild, raw landscapes, another New Zealand beckons: one of sophisticated restaurants, silvery olive groves, and the most lush, grape-heavy vineyards this side of Bordeaux” writes Condé Nast writer Chang-rae Lee, who spent…
Hot pasties on demand
Gisborne butcher Heath Raggett, 39, owns a shop on Bow Street, near Aberystwyth in Wales where he sells lamb reared on the hills above Cardigan Bay, encouraging locals to eat locally-produced meats. Raggett has…
Dining with the Birds
For one month from 9 January until February 2009, in a redwood plantation north of Auckland, between Puhoi and Warkworth, and 10m up a tree, the Yellow House restaurant will serve three-course meals…
Melbourne’s King Pin
Taranaki-born Ben Shewry, 31, is executive chef at Melbourne restaurant Attica, where he was named Best New Talent at the 2007 Gourmet Traveller Awards, and where he earned this year’s Melbourne Age Good Food…
Let Cones Be Licked
Chief judge for the New Zealand Ice Cream Awards and sensory scientist at Massey University Kay McMath has proved the dessert tastes better when licked from a cone. McMath said that the flavour in…
Back to the Basics
“New Zealand is a wonderful combination of all the good cuisines from around the world with a special touch of freshness,” writes The Economic Times in an overview of the country’s food and wine…
Cooking by Numbers
Wellingtonian Matt Moss, 36, left New Zealand 16 years ago to play rugby in Britain, Germany and the United States winding up in Beijing working for catering company, Aramark as operations manager at the…
NZ’s Cup of Joe
Pavlova and flat whites are on the menu in Washington D.C. thanks to American policy analyst Art Hauptman who opened Cassatt’s restaurant after holidaying in New Zealand. And for this Washington Post reviewer it…
