Food Needs To Catch Up With Wine

Jonny Schwass, owner of Harlequin Public House, Mrs Hucks and the Charcoal Relief Unit in Christchurch was one of the many involved in the Waipara Forage. He believes the global reputation of New Zealand’s wines has presented chefs with a challenge.

“This amazing emerging global wine culture has happened in such a short period of time, that all of a sudden there is this huge challenge for chefs and food producers to equal that,” Schwass said. “We really need to develop a New Zealand food culture that matches our wine culture.”
He said while New Zealand is surrounded by a bounty of amazing food, many people are too scared to give it a New Zealand identity.

“We seem to want to influence it with French cooking techniques, Italian or Spanish. Or Asian fusion – that was awful. And there was that awful Pacific Rim, which sounds like a toilet cleaner if you ask me.”

Being influenced by other cultures has a lot to do with the fact New Zealand has such a young food culture, Schwass admits, and the fact that our heritage has been growing food for other people.
“We spend so much time, energy and resources making sure everyone else has food and we kind of forget about our own. Which means we end up not developing out own amazing food culture.”

With food tourism huge in other parts of the world, Schwass believes it is only a matter of time before it hits our shores. And with the wines being produced having gained international acclaim, the job now, is to develop a food culture that matches.

“It just makes sense that we piggy back off the wine industry’s fame. That is why some of the best wine regions in the world have some of the best restaurants, because it makes perfect sense. People who are interested and passionate about wine are generally interested and passionate about food as well.”