NZSFW is proud to announce Stefan Loetscher as the school’s new cookery tutor.

Stefan was classically trained in Switzerland and worked in several Michelin starred restaurants in Europe. On his first visit to New Zealand 10 years ago, he worked at the newly opened Hilton Hotel on Princess Wharf in Auckland.  

Vowing to come back and own his own restaurant, Stefan opened Pure on Jervois Road in Ponsonby with his wife, Nadine.  

Pure Restaurant has been named one of the top 50 restaurants in Auckland by Metro Magazine for 5 years in a row, as well as consistently being in Cuisine magazines top 100 restaurants in New Zealand.

Canterbury’s February earthquake has resulted in a move north for Celia Hay and her School of Food & Wine.

The lingering aroma of stale rubbish is a potent reminder to Celia Hay of the day she and her teenage boys, Oliver and Daniel, swooped into their earthquake-ravaged apartment to collect as many valuables as they could carry after the Christchurch earthquake on February 22. The stale smell still taints the family car; a less than pretty aromatic reminder of a bag of rubbish they also took out with them.

Within minutes, the earthquake had destroyed not only their home but also their restaurant, Hay’s, and the NZQA-registered food and wine school Hay began in 1995.

Read more here.

Catherine  Bell, founding editor at Dish Magazine came to our dinner…

In late July I was one of about 80 people to enjoy a superb three course dinner of Canterbury produce including freshly smoked Akaroa Salmon and bush honey and Mt Cass Waipara Spring Lamb. The event, a fund-raised by The New Zealand School of Food & Wine, was cooked largely by owner Celia Hay with the help of Masterchef New Zealand winner Nadia Lim and some generous volunteers. The dishes were paired with Waipara wines including the luscious Greystone Pinot Noir. 

In Spain they have an IGP (protected geographic food/wine concept) for milk fed-lamb. In Riberia del Duero it is for the Churra breed. Today, I enjoyed this delicious lamb for lunch.

Here, they are able to stagger the birth so that there is an on-going supply of fresh lambs through the season. The lamb is killed at around 25 days or 11kg (dead weight 6kg).  To cook,  the lamb is split in half (including the tail) and baked in in a wood-fired oven (like a pizza oven) using vine cuttings). It only has some water in the baking dish to keep it moist and then salt is added for flavour prior to serving.

Very delicious!