Burgers and High Gastronomy to Write Home About

“Far from same-same, Aotearoa is unique and surprising – banging burgers are just the beginning,” according to Australian Kendall Hill writing for The Queensland Times. “Pavlovas and lamingtons aside, there’s a sense of innovation and connection to place in the Kiwi kitchen that rivals our own.”

“This won’t be news to anyone familiar with the work of Waitara-born Ben Shewry. The owner of Melbourne’s Attica restaurant, and Australia’s most internationally renowned chef, is perhaps best-known for combining the humble potato and the Māori ground-oven technique of hāngī to create high gastronomy,” Hill writes.

“At the other end of the scale, their burgers and meat pies are so much better than ours. The country’s best-known burger brand today is Queenstown’s Fergburger, which also makes a range of sensational pies that cast our own Four’n Twenties in a very unflattering light.

“And then there’s Netflix star chef Monique Fiso, who has revived and modernised Māori cuisine at her Wellington fine-diner, Hiakai in a way that’s both sustainable and a celebration of indigenous culture.”

Original article by Kendall Hill, The Queensland Times, April 22, 2021.