The ODYSSEY Lunch – The Nelson Club, Nelson

Excellence celebrated!

Excellence was truly celebrated this year at the 2016 Ora King Awards, affectionately known as The Ora’s.  A stunning lunch was served up at the Nelson Club on a sunny warm Tuesday afternoon on the 11th October.  This is the fourth year of The Ōra’s, where the awards recognise the outstanding contribution of chefs working with Ōra King salmon both here in New Zealand and overseas.  The five awards being announced for 2016 were:

Best Ora King Ambassador New Zealand, Best Ora King Ambassador International, Best Ora King Dish Australia, Best Ora King Dish USA and Best Ora King Dish New Zealand.

At the lunch were guest chefs from the USA, Australia and all over New Zealand plus guest media, judges and the very friendly  Ora King staff.  As co-judge working alongside Anna King-Shahab it was a privilege to attend the lunch and present one of the awards.

The Nelson Club was a most fitting venue for such an occasion, built in 1903 this wooden two storey clubhouse steeped in history really set the scene for something very special.  We were all welcomed to the main downstairs lounge where a superb selection of mouth watering culinary teasers were on offer, not to mention a specially crafted Ora Cocktail made from Lighthouse Gin.   My favourite were the live Kiwa farmed flat oysters from Port Underwood, which were deliciously salty, minerally and sweet.  

Jemma McCowan, the General Manager for Marketing at New Zealand King Salmon gave an excellent welcoming speech.  She talked about this year’s theme – The Odyssey – bringing science and innovation together to support everything about Ora King and the importance of aquaculture not only here in New Zealand but globally and what research NZ King Salmon are doing in that area.  Jemma also mentioned the culinary competition is getting much stronger with the entry numbers this year doubling those of 2015.

 

The Odyssey Menu

We then moved upstairs to the main dining room which was spectacularly set up with three long tables and this is where we were to enjoy a spectacular extravaganza of salmon.  The Odyssey Lunch Menu was prepared by three very talented chefs; Thomas Barta from Harbourside Ocean Bar Grill, Elijah Holland of Nature’s Pick and Nick Honeyman from ParisButter.  

Thomas was last years winner of the Best Ōra King Dish NZ and he decided to share a version of that creation with us.  His ‘Essence of the Sea’ featured citrus cured and lightly smoked Ōra King salmon, crayfish and octopus – but the highlight for me was the ‘fish soup’ which was a recipe his parents make back home in Hungary at their restaurant – and the soup was clarified and turned into an incredibly delicious jelly.  

This was superbly  matched with a 2015 Albarino from the Aronui  Single Vineyard – chosen by Wine Nelson and beautifully described by Aronui’s winemaker Jonny Hiscox speaking on behalf of Nelson Wine Growers.

The first award presented was the Best Ōra King Ambassador for New Zealand.  This year the winner was Chetan Pangam, from One80° Restaurant in Wellington.  Then the award for Best Ora King Ambassador International presented to Elijah Holland from Sydney.

Next up was the Best Ōra King Dish Australia, won by Mark Bashinsky from Aria in Brisbane.  Off to the USA for the Best Ōra King Dish there, and this was taken out by Nathan Gould, from O Ya Restaurant in Boston.

What a great start to the lunch – now we were really starting to rock!  In fact the next dish was indeed served on a rock.  2015 Best Ōra King Dish International and now 2016 Best Ora King Ambassador International winner, Elijah Holland had collected rocks from the local area and served his salmon in a tartar ‘cru’ style with ‘wild flavours of Nelson’.  

This dish looked stunningly simple and had lightness and freshness with delicate flavours –  topped with grated 6 week dry aged wasabi trout from Takaka.  To match this dish we were served the amazing Neudorf Rosie’s Block Chardonnay 2015 – sister wine to the Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay which is the only NZ chardonnay, I believe,  to receive a perfect score of 100/100 from wine critic Bob Campbell.  What a treat – try to get some if you can!

The next award to be presented was the Best Ōra King Dish New Zealand.  Anna King Shahab and I had both been impressed with this culinary masterpiece, a dish that had clearly been created and crafted with enormous care and thought, featuring the Marlborough region with delicate and rich flavours that showcased the salmon with technical excellence and as the ultimate hero.

This year’s winner was Marc Soper from Wharekauhau Country Estate, Wairarapa.  His dish featured Chilean guava berry and brown sugar spiced Ōra King salmon, with smoked belly and yoghurt mousse (totally amazing) and hand picked, grown on site grapefruit, rhubarb and fennel salad, tree fungi crisps, spiced grapefruit reduction, soy and caviar.  It’s worth making the journey just to taste this dish!

We then all got quite a surprise when Jemma decided to announce for the first time ever – a brand new additional award.  This was the ‘Te Pūkenga Matua’ loosely translated it means a professional or skilled expert in a particular field, a senior person – and this was awarded to a three-time consecutive winner of the Best Ōra King Ambassador International award and founder of Michelin-starred New York restaurant The Musket Room, an outstanding Kiwi, Matt Lambert.

Next up was a dish created by 2015 Best Ōra King NZ Ambassador, Nick Honeyman.  His dish had been perfectly matched to the Greenhough Hope Vineyard’s 2014 Pinot Noir.

Think rustic French meets Kiwi with a bit of Nick’s home grown South Africa mixed in… and out came a confit of salmon served on warmed bowls with pork belly, boudin noir and hazelnuts – with this combination of flavours the Pinot really began to sing.

Maxime Gnojczak from Shepherd Restaurant in Wellington presented an apple and sorrel granite, then we meandered  back down stairs for a what was our second feast of the day – an amazing selection of cheese and chocolate.  Generous servings of Seifried Sweet Agnes Riesling were enjoyed as we wound our way around the next delicious offerings.  

The scrumptious cheeses were from the house of Wangapeka Family Dairy and these were served with housemade preserves. The chocolates were all artisan crafted by three independent Nelson chocolatiers; Aroha, Chocoyo and Hogarth.  

It was heaven – cheeseaholics and chocoholics unite!  What a clever way to finish off a superbly memorable lunch.

 

by Geoff Scott

Chef, Food Consultant and 2016 Ōra King Awards Judge