New Zealand's new food culture

Pacific Rim cooking is no longer the new buzzword it was but with its base of traditional European cooking and vibrant new ingredients from the Asia and the Pacific it has been a trend that bought the coming of age of New Zealand cuisine. Now a locally sourced style of cooking is making it its influence felt. The company Kinaki Wild Herbs is at the forefront of a reinterpretation of traditional Maori cooking and traditional Maori ingredients.

Maori people have always used herbs native to New Zealand for cooking and for medicinal uses. Similar to Japanese sansai or wild mountain herbs, Maori chef Charles Royal of Kinaki Wild Herbs has now made these traditional Maori herbs available as a modern product for ordinary people as well as professional chefs. The herbs are sourced from a range of common and rare New Zealand native plants. Famous as the inspiration for the koru motif, Pikopiko is the young shoot of a fern, Horopito has a sharp peppery flavor while Kawakawa is pepperminty and Piripiri tastes like chili. These herbs all add depth and texture to the flavor of fish and meat and are used to give a little spicy kick to the food. Pikopiko is typically used a garnish with a tart, palate cleansing flavor if eaten.

As New Zealand is an island it would have been strange for Maori to only eat mountain herbs and so naturally a range of native New Zealand seaweeds are also making their way onto our tables. Western cooking has not traditionally used seaweeds but many have become familiar with eating seaweed through Japanese cooking. Now with an ever-growing demand for healthy food, New Zealand seaweeds are also receiving increasing attention. Similar to Japanese nori the seaweed Karengo and also New Zealand kelp are both sold by Pacific Harvest packaged ready to use with fish or on salad or even straight out of the bottle.

The arrival of these traditional Maori foods in the cuisine of New Zealand seems to be taking our food culture in a direction that will be familiar with lovers of Japanese cooking. These indigenous ingredients can now be found at over 50 of the top restaurants and hotels around the country and it would seem that we could expect this number to grow.

Kinaki Wild Herbs: www.maorifood.com
Pacific Harvest: www.pacificharvest.co.nz