A Journey to our New Zealand Origins

We’re very excited to have kicked off our summer Chef Contest here in the US.  One lucky winner will join myself and West Coast Sales Manager Ore on a trip ‘down under’ to New Zealand in October, so they can see for themselves this beautiful country-  including the Marlborough Sounds, where our salmon are raised.

The contest was designed to be easy to enter and participate. It’s open to all US based chefs and  “points” are earned by posting or emailing us photos of your Ora King dishes and menu.  Extra points are gained by doing some staff education or entering or posting photos with specific hashtags. To read all the info on how to enter visit here…

Given the distance from the US, it’s no easy task for a chef to make his or her way down for a visit. But there’s so much for a chef to see and learn about on the trip.

We’ll take the winner to visit Te Waikoropupū Springs, which has some of the clearest water in the world and feeds our Takaka hatchery, located in the Tasman region at the top of NZ’s South Island.  The Nelson/Tasman region is blessed with wonderful produce, seafood, wineries and sights including the stunning Abel Tasman National Park spread along a secluded coastline – a delight for yachties, kayakers, walkers, divers and beach-goers.

And of course, the trip will include boating out on the gorgeous Marlborough Sounds to see our salmon in their adult habitat, where the sheltered, deep water bays of the Sounds provide the perfect growing conditions for our salmon, with a constant temperature between 12-17C, ideal for our salmon to thrive and grow.

In Marlborough, there are many interesting activities and culinary treasures to see and taste. The Marlborough region is one of NZ’s top wine producing regions, claiming NZ’s ‘highest sunshine hours’, thus making it an ideal climate for the vast plains of vineyards.

But Marlborough also boasts a wealth of  premium seafood, including NZ Greenshell Mussels, Tio Point Oysters, Cloudy Bay Clams, and of course our Ora King salmon.

A trip to New Zealand would not be complete without tasting the infamous “flat white” coffees, going foraging for underwater delectables including ‘paua’ (the Māori name given to abalone), ‘koura’ – crayfish (also known as rock lobster) and ‘kina’ (the Māori name for the native NZ sea urchin), and downing pints at craft breweries including the likes of Renaissance, Moa Beer and Sprig & Fern.

  

Last year, Matt Lambert from The Musket Room visited Marlborough with the Ora King team.  “It was really special to get a deeper understanding of the product and to also get to see a region of New Zealand that I’d really over looked while living there, I guess it’s the ‘JAFA’ way”, said Matt. The term ‘JAFA’ is a self-deprecating reference to Kiwis born in Auckland, NZ’s largest city and home to over a third of NZ’s population. 

Matt gave us a brief account of his action packed trip last October:

‘It was a pretty full on week.  Starting fairly early Monday morning, flying into Blenheim from Auckland.  There were some interesting foraging expeditions for greens and plates (I think we took foraging to a new level), we had a mini photo shoot that evening amongst the vines at Cloudy Bay Vineyard, and then (thanks to Jemma for pulling off what seemed like a simple request) we sat down for a classic NZ dinner of ‘fish and chips’.

  

Up first thing Tuesday morning for a photo shoot at the local Wairau river, prepping back at Cloudy Bay kitchen, and then onto the lunch itself, cooking for a room full of top NZ chefs. But it goes without saying that the food was exceptional and Jemma and Shaun did a wonderful job of introducing and then handing out the inaugural ‘Ora King awards’, where I was chuffed to take away the award for ‘Ora King International Ambassador’.  The afternoon unfolded with an exclusive wine tasting at Nautilus Estate, and then we moved to local wine specialist Vinessense, where Mike opened up his home (and extensive wine cellar) to us.

   

Wednesday, us lads went out to see one of the salmon farms and in the afternoon we all had a great time diving for crays, paua and kina at Cape Campbell (I was thrilled to be in the ocean for the first time in 10 years, but less thrilled when Daniel got hold of the spear gun).

We even experienced some true off-roading through a local sheep farm, complete with getting stuck in the mud, so Nick and I  had to get out and push. That night we had a stellar dinner at Nelson restaurant Hopgoods, where head chef Aaron cooked up some of our freshly caught paua and cray for our starters.

  

  

Thursday, road trip to the Takaka hatchery, and after a tour (and some foraging for fresh wasabi), we completed a mystery box challenge in front of the hatchery guys – I don’t know if they enjoyed the show or the lunch more! Then back to Nelson to hear NZ Chef Al Brown present and attend the Cocktail Party (however to my disappointment there were no cocktails!).

    

Friday was prepping for our presentation at the AQNZ Conference on sourcing NZ seafood overseas, only to be followed on stage by ex NZ PM Jim Bolger! Nice company to be in.’

A trip of a lifetime not to be missed,  enter now!!