JUNE 1 2019 LISTENER 17
chef Ben Shewry’s Melbourne restaurant
Attica regularly appears in the prestigious
World’s 50 Best Restaurants list; last year he
was ranked No 20.
We import some talent, too. At the recent
Metro restaurant of the year awards, Dorset-
born Ed Verner won chef of the year and his
six-seater degustation restaurant, Pasture,
in the Auckland suburb of Parnell, took
the supreme award. The food at Pasture is
prepared over a charcoal pit, with innovative
but simple root-to-stem and nose-to-tail
cooking and an emphasis on fermentation.
In the South Island port town of Lyttelton,Chilean-born chef Giulio Sturla has won just
about every award we have to give for his
seasonal degustation restaurant Roots.
OUT OF HOUSE AND HOME
Restaurant Association president Mike Egan
says the increase in dining out coincides
with our move into inner cities. More than
two-thirds of the world’s population is pre-
dicted to live in urban areas by 2050, and
Egan, co-owner of three Wellington eateries,
says restaurants will play a vital role in this
future urban framework. “Eating together is
innate; it is how we connect as a tribe. What
and where we eat is a major part of how we
see ourselves.”
So, what are the major trends? Around
the country, foodies are increasingly walk-
ing away from starched-linen fine-dining
restaurants, except for special occasions.
Auckland institution Antoine’s, run by
fine-dining pioneer Tony Astle, is the only
establishment that still does silver service.
The casualisation of the industry is a
worldwide trend, says Egan, who describes
his restaurant Boulcott Street Bistro as “pol-
ished casual’’ – white tablecloths and slick
service, but no bookings.
Auckland is leading our food scene,
particularly with the diversity of ethnic
eateries. “Immigrants are bringing in their
cuisines and feeding them to locals,” Egan
says. In 2014, Aucklanders spent $3.
billion on food outside the home. By 2018,this had risen to $4.3 billion – an increase
of 38%. In Wellington, food spending rose
28% from $1 billion in 2014, to $1.
billion last year.THE BIG PLAYERS
Auckland’s food scene is increasingly run
by hospitality companies such as Nourish
Group and the Hip Group. Critics say the
food-group model, which is popular in
Australia, is in danger of creating mediocrity
in the industry – a bland, cut-and-paste
experience for diners.
Richard Sigley, who set up Nourish back
in 2006 with his business partner, Brian
Fitzgerald, says there are advantages to
running restaurants through one group,
rather than the traditional owner-operator
model.
The company’s growth coincides with
the rise of eateries: in 2000, there were 8274
restaurants, cafes and takeaways in New
Zealand; in 2017, that had grown to 14,259.
With their US billionaire partner, BillNE
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- Martin Bosley.
- Mike Egan. 3.
Richard Sigley. 4.
Gareth Stewart.