Contemporary Kai

The Waihao Lunch. Nov. 2008. Ajr

Kai is the Maori word for food; Ngai Tahu is the major South Island Maori tribe (iwi). Put the two together and you come up with Jason Dell, Ngai Tahu executive chef at Blanket Bay, who yesterday whipped up a culinary treat for us at Waihao Marae, south-east of Waimate, three hours south of Christchurch. Using the traditional foods of marae –eel (tuna), flounder (patiki), yellow-eyed mullet (aua) and sea-run trout – Jason prepared a lavish lunch for the marae kaumatua (elders). We started with tomato soup with Waldorf salad and eel (top left and bottom right); then raised our forks for sea-run trout set on a polenta cake and lobster ravioli (top right); finishing with fresh bread, baked flounder and baked mullet stuffed with pickled mussels, tomato and an assortment of herbs (bottom left). Not a bad way to spend a sunny day in the south. For more information on Jason Dell put Meet the People - 4 into the blog search box above left. www.ngaitahu.iwi.nz

Whitebaiting at Waihao

Waihao River Mouth, South East Coast. Nov. 2008. Ajr

This is where I have been for much of today - at the Waihao Marae and Waihao River Mouth, about three hours south of Christchurch. It was all in the name of work - another kai (food) feature for Ngai Tahu's Te Karaka magazine......This time a look at the abundant of kaimoana (seafood) found in these parts. After lunch at the marae, cooked by Ngai Tahu chef, Jason Dell, who works as executive chef at Blanket Bay, near Queenstown, we headed for the river mouth to check out the whitebaiters. They were working hard in dangerous seas but it appeared to be worth it. They had bucket-loads of these little fishy delicacies.

Meet the People - 4

Another in the series Meet The People - Ordinary and Extraordinary New Zealanders doing interesting things. Jason Dell is living the chef’s dream. As executive chef at the internationally top-ranked luxury lodge, Blanket Bay in Glenorchy, he has a generous food budget, a fabulous kitchen filled with clever gadgets and the ability to recruit a top brigade of chefs. And now he has published his own cookbook, Savvy. “For me it was all about the challenge of extending myself beyond the stove, of putting what I do down into words. " As well as being judged a New Zealand Chef of the Year, Jason,35, was a member of the gold medal-winning New Zealand Culinary team in Singapore in 2006. Most recently he won the prestigious 2007 Pacific Asia Travel Association Young Tourism Professional Award. He’s also proud of his Ngai Tahu heritage. “Most of my experience of traditional Maori kai came from extended family members at Rapaki when I was growing up. I think as you get older you also gain a greater appreciation for your ancestry and I’m definitely much more interested in learning about Maori kai than I was in my early years. I’ve managed to get hold of some very good books about native plants and how to grow vegetables in the old ways and I think it’s safe to say that Savvy won’t be my last book.” www.jasondell.co.nz