Back at my desk, after a very pleasant week away. Just been over at the restaurant sorting and restocking wine, and working out ordering lists. We're heading up to Auckland later this afternoon, to take Hannah and her boyfriend out for dinner - she turned 20 while we were away - and its the first time we haven't been around to celebrate with her, so figure that late is better than never.

 The birthday cake is made, it just needs to be iced, and I'll have to buy some more lollies for the icing, becos we opened a couple of the bags last nite and... they kind of got miraculously emptied, as we watched the machinations of Henry V111 and Cromwell on TV.

The trip back on Saturday was lengthy - left Kina Beach at about 6am, and pulled into the house here, sometime after 9.30pm - but everything is so slick with getting vehicles on and off the Picton ferry, and the roads coming up the North Island were refreshingly quiet, so we made good time.

A very big week for Courteney, who won 2 golds at Nationals, in both the Time Trial and the Road Race - a spectacular way to finish her junior cycling career. She's been selected to represent the central North Island in the Oceania Games in Invercargill in November, and will be racing with the Open Elite Women from now on, which will be a big step up, so quite a way to go out on.

 Checking back thru the records in the event book, there aren't many double golds ( although women weren't included in National racing until 1981, whereas it started for males in 1935 - but don't get me started  on the distinctly paternalistic attitudes that emanante from certain quarters in Bike NZ. I'd go on far too much!) 

More important than that nonsense is the fact that the girl did good, fantastically good, and the people that matter in these things, know what she achieved, and she has been surrounded by a wealth of positive and supportive feedback. Her father is beyond chuffed - he puts a huge amount into these races with Courteney - his support and technical knowledge is massive, and watching the 2 of them with their heads together pre-race, discussing tactics, always makes me smile. He carts bikes and wheels and the myriad bits and pieces that bikes require, around. And he does it all with a great big smile on his face becos he loves it.

Me? I'm just surplus baggage really - along for the ride, but keeping discreetly in the background, becos the whole endeavour is well out of my league, and if I make too much noise, I distract from the main event.  I make the sandwiches for race day, organise the various restaurants that we ate at, and take photos, but beyond that pretty much do as I'm told, which may seem surprising to some!

But the week was all about Courteney, as we were sometimes, somewhat benignly reminded, so I didn't get to see any wineries, beyond Kina Beach where we were staying, or venture too much further from the immediate area we were staying in. But that was  OK, becos we were in a beautiful cottage, that Pam and David from Kina Beach Winery had moved onto the site, and lovingly restored. An old school house - with the absolute perfect day couch for reading, while looking out over the vines. I managed 3 books - as you do! And went for big long walks along the beach on the non race days.

Kina Beach Winery is a classic example of the sort of wineries that I am proud to have on our wine list, where the focus is on the terroir and on hand crafting. The amount of work involved is hard for someone like me to comprehend - all the shoots were starting to emerge while we were there, and they were being hand pruned to keep growth in check. As I looked out over all the rows of vines, I marvelled at the repetitiveness of a job like that, while bearing in mind that its only one of the many aspects of vineyard management.

I did however finally get to visualise the difference between the Nelson and the Marlborough wine districts, having now driven thru both - albeit a very quick flick thru the Marlborough one. For years I've laboured under the misconception that they were pretty much in the same geographic area - but I discovered that not to be the case at all, and now have images firmly established in my minds eye of how different they are.

That alone makes the trip worthwhile for me - seeing in situ, where wines are made, adds a large amount to the perspective I have of the various wineries that we deal with. And the more I know, the better, I figure.

 Which is all useful incentive to get away more often to these wine growing areas - a suitable New Years resolution
perhaps... The staff at Somerset continued on in our absence seamlessly - remindingly us both that we're not quite as indispensible, as we can sometimes be guilty of thinking we are. But we're lucky - they're good people. Jamie even mowed the lawns around the house in our absence which has earned him serious brownie points.

We were staying in an area just eastward from the Upper Moutere Highway - a small peninsular surrounded by sea with 3 vineyards on it. I expected to see lots of grapevines, and was taken aback by how many olive trees have also gone in, alongside the cherry and apple orchards. Its a beautiful region.

The restaurants in and around the region were a real mix - Hopgoods in Nelson was easily the most outstanding. Unfortunelty we had to rush our meal there, becos Rick  was due at a Managers meeting, but it had an air of casual confidence and extremely good food that we really enjoyed.

One of the places closest to where we were staying was Jesters House - a totally unique and personable set up. We had our daily caffeine fix there, and were completely taken with the ambience. I don't do eels, but watching a family with 3 gorgeous little boys, line up for their eel food, so they could go and feed the eels in the adjacent stream, was a really nice way of filling in a lazy hour or so. And I was literally stunned by their composting loo. I am the sort of person who comes over all precious with portaloos, but who was able to laugh at the description the owners had written on the toilet wall of how to use the loo. Somehow it all just felt perfectly normal and natural, and an eminently sensible thing to do.

We started a worm farm here at Somerset earlier this year, and I had to initially work thru a feeling of revulsion at the mass of worms, but have moved well beyond that stage, and now regard them  as extraordinary creatures. I suspect that that is maybe enough progress for this year though - I'm not sure that I, or Tauranga, is quite ready for the concept of a composting loo - although really when you think about it, it's a septic tank, which we have, brought up a little more close and open. Hmmm...

And the other great lunch venue had just reopened for the summer season - the Mapua Boatshed cafe, situated literally on the beach.The owner told us he opens for 6 months of the year, becos there are things in life more important than money. I'm not totally sure our bank manager would concur, but I respect the sentiment! Casual and  gorgeous. The Camping ground that you drive thru to access the cafe is apparently a Naturalist one in February and March, which would add a whole new perspective to watching a tennis game as you drove past I suspect. Courteney thought it was a truly disgusting concept - she's very prim, our daughter - and needed to be reasurred that she wasn't likely to be confronted with any naked bodies on the way out!

Met some Austrians at David and Pams, when we popped in for a drink, who have just bought a house in the Kina Beach peninsular, and who run a cookschool back in Austria. Showed us pictures of the set up, which is in converted stables -listening to what they do and why was all interesting gist.

One thing about the hospitality trade, is that you never really get away from it - restaurants and eating out, food and wine, are everywhere.  Even in a week that was 'all about Courteney", we got to see and take on board, all sorts of interesting little pointers about our industry and how other people do things, that will impact in some way on what we do here. And I figure that that is very healthy.

But that is not forgetting of course, that the trip was really all about this!

She truly is amazing...

My computor, which is the business computor, is on my desk, ( naturally enough!),  which is in the hallway by our bedroom door. Our house only has 3 bedrooms, and even though both our daughters have left home this year, they reacted with complete indignation at the thought that I would claim one of their bedrooms for a proper sized office.

Apparently leaving home is not really leaving home...

So I continue in a small cramped space and dream of the time when I will have the luxery of a large desk, and room to spread out. It will happen...

Becos of the accessibility of the computor it is not unusual for me to come home to find one of my daughters at my computor, and I have got used to muttering  when I go to use something and find it altered or adapted to suit their needs. You get that!

Courteney made a unilateral decision this week to change my screen saver, which Chris French had installed yonks ago - a series of  photos of lovely dogs - which was always pleasant to have in the background. I didn't realise that you can create a screen saver from your photos, which is what Courteney has done - and being photo mad, I have lots on the computor.

So now out of the corner of my eye I get to catch all sorts of idiosyncratic photos of family and business, that are completely random. And I'm discovering that I really like it.

Photos are moments captured in our lives, and they often give pause in the nicest possible way - and rather than now having to consciously sit down and go thru them - I'm getting this random imagery at all times of the day.

Hmmm..... Sometimes kids have their uses!

Am just about to head over to the restaurant for a cookschool - but finishing off a newsletter, so that I can proof it, before we head down to Nelson on Sunday. Simpson will print it for me next week, and we'll get it out as soon as we get back - meaning that we be ready to go on the 'Somerset at Home' concept.

Which will be a huge relief, becos its been a long road getting to this point...

One of the food products that we are selling lots of though, already, is the macarons - people are increasingly walking out the door with bags of them, or having them with coffee in the restaurant, and my pleasure at seeing people respond so favourably is immense.

However, I think the link to this blog shows that, even for all my enthusiasm, I am not as obsessed as some...

The family did it again! The Motu Challenge yesterday, was run in bleak, cold, blustery conditions and the team performed magnificantly. They even went as far as improving on last years time, which given the conditions, was an extraordinary  achievement.

First home was a team of all males - top male atheletes, in their specialities who were sponsered to attend the race.

Second home was Richard Usscher - a consummate professional multisport athlete.

Third home was Hannah Lowe, Varsity student and parttime athlete, in a team with her father, her sister and Ash Hough. Not professional, but bloody awesome athletes.

Proud? Who, me?!!!

Did I mention it was wet, bleak and absolutely freezing...

Rick, waiting for Ash to appear at the end of the mountain bike stage - trying to keep warm

Courteney who road almost the entire road leg behind Richard Usscher, who just happens to be one of NZ's top multisporters, and a male to boot...

The river was flowing fast, and looked evil...

But that didn't bother Hannah - she paddled 27kms, hopped out with a smile on her face, and run up the hill to her bike with her father, changing gear as they ran...

Leaving Ash and Courteney to bring up the rear with the kayak...

And they finished 6 mins earlier than they had last year...

And they're all bloody awesome!

We went to a presentation last nite that Jennifer and Garth Boggiss from Heilala Vanilla did, for local business people on the growth of their business.

It had been meant to be out at their plastic houses in Te Puna, where they have just cropped and dryed the first vanilla grown in NZ - an exceptional feat, given that vanilla has never been successfully grown outside the tropics before. Garth said last nite that initial tests are showing that the NZ grown vanilla has slightly different aromas to the Tongan one, indicating as they had hoped, that terrior will contribute to flavour variations, just as it does with wine.

Vanilla is one of the more expensive base ingredients that we use in the kitchen, and we have always used it in its purest form - the pods - even before we met the Boggiss'. In the restaurant kitchen they continue to use pods, and the ones we get from Heilala, are the biggest, and most supple that we have ever had the pleasure of dealing with.

A good part of the reason for that is becos the Reunion Food Company is unique in the world in that it has a 'plantation to platter'structure, whereby they grow the vanilla in Tonga in a joint venture with a local village, bring it back to NZ, and from here do all their own marketing, plus the research and production involved in creating other products from the vanilla.

We have enormous respect for what they have achieved in a relatively short time frame - I think Jennifer said last nite the first vines were planted in 2003. There are a massive number of variables that have had to be dealt with, just in the growing stage - not to mention the added complications of finding and establishing reliable markets for a crop that is increasing exponentially as the vines get established.

There is a fascinating book "Vanilla" by Tim Ecott, that charts the history of vanilla, and the skullduggery that occurs in todays world, becos of its value as a commodity. I found it truly amazing.

Vanilla is and will always be, one of my favouritist aromas - there aren't many foods that aren't improved in my opionion by a smidgeon of vanilla been added. But as with most things in life, you get what you pay for - and the true vanilla, with complex and rich aromas is expensive. But once you take into account the hand pollination of the flowers, and the time and care taken over drying the pods - that expense doesn't seem at all ridiculous.
And more than justified when compared to the sharp and sometimes acrid tones that you get in imitation vanilla.

We have long espoused the pods in our cookscools - and encouraged people to discover the pleasure to be had from burying their noses into a jar of pods. As a result we've sold lots over the years - both the A grade, which are extra long and plump, and the B grade, which is what the guys use in the kitchen. The pods may not be quite as large or as perfectly formed as the B grade, but have the same levels of the all important flavour component, vanillin.

Last year Garth introduced us to their paste, which me, being a bit of a purist was initially a little wary off, but I'm long since over my reluctance, and have taken to the paste with total abandon. A conviction shared with every cookschool, and which has meant we sell more of the paste than any other product.

It is an incredibly economic and convenient way of using vanilla, and getting the telltale black fleck, which is an indicator of real vanilla. The only disadvantage that I can attest too, is that its too easy to dip your teaspoon back into the jar to take another spoonful...

But porridge with touch of vanilla- yum! Now theres an aroma to wake up too in the morning!

Last nite in the restaurant we had a classic example of what is described so well in a speech that I linked to in an earlier blog this week, namely that sometimes people who may cause you grief up front, are not quite what your initial impressions may have led you to believe.

We had a family group in the restaurant, who had arrived, ordered and were drinking predinner drinks, when the father got up, left abruptedly, hopped into his car and headed to the shopping complex accross the road.

I had overheard the grandfather, who typically of deaf people, spoke in a loud voice, comment on our prices ( which are no more expensive than alot of other restaurants around town, but probably sizeably more than the RSA), in a grumbly kind of fashion.

We think our prices are very reasonable for all that we offer - so I guess its inevitable that you react defensively when you hear someone quibble. Albeit my reaction occurred in the background - I whinged at my husband!

So, when we watched this gentlemans car head over in the direction of the supermarket, having overheard the previous comments, we , ( as in Rick and I, who were watching from the bar) immediately leaped to the not unreasonable conclusion that he was going to get some BYO wine. So I sulked. Becos I just can't get my head around people who will come out to a restaurant like ours, realise we have a BYO option when they get there, and choose to get in their car and go to the supermarket to buy a bottle of cheap wine to which we then add a $10 corkage fee, and they save, what exactly.

I have no problem with BYO  -we always have been, and probably always will offer BYO - but what bothers me, is the rudeness that I percieve for people who have sat down and started their evening, to suddenly interrupt proceedings, and leave, purely so they can save a few dollars on a bottle of wine. To me that is rude for your fellow guests - and I just can't see that the money saved warrants that. If price is such an issue for people, you've got to wonder what they're doing at a restaurant like Somerset in the first place.

I would perhaps understand if we had no wines at a cheaper level, but I quite deliberately cover the spectrum of options with the wine list, and have a number of wines at the $30 and $35 price point, which means that by the time they've bought a $15/16 bottle of wine at the supermarket and had a $10 corkage fee added to it, they really aren't saving, what I would consider to be an appreciable amount of money. Certainly not the kind of levels that warrant getting up from the table.

Well thats my opinion anyway! But it does happen - not often, but occasionally, and I'm always made grumpy by other peoples meaness.

So I got grumpy last nite, and used it as an excuse to come back over to the desk at the house to continue working on some stuff, becos I was feeling annoyed about people. Rick rang me in short order when he returned, to point out that he'd brought a camera at the supermarket, not a bottle of wine!

So I laughed - reminded myself that things aren't always quite what they seem, and sometimes we shouldn't leap in the deep end and rush to conclusions, before we have all the facts...

And as it was, I was back over at the restaurant when the table left, and they were delightful, and the older man raved about his meal, and told me he'd be back most definitely, and the guy that I'd thought such nasty things off, explained that they'd forgotten their digital camera and it was their son's birthday and they wanted to capture it - so he'd rushed over to the supermarket to get a disposable camera.

I didn't own up to my initial suspicions, but felt more than a twinge of guilt, that I hadn't read the situation better and offered to get my camera from the house and take some photos and email them thru to them.

Which I could very easily have done. So, touche Anne...lesson learnt!

I have the hugest pot of bolognese sauce simmering away on the kitchen stove, and have retreated out the back of the house to our rickety old deck, to enjoy some late afternoon sun, after what has felt like days and days of dreary weather.

We're heading down to Ohope on Friday - the rest of the family are in a team with Ash to do the Motu Multisport race on Saturday which starts in Opotiki - and aiming to repeat their success of last year, when they were the first mixed team home. ( They're serious athletes my family!)  We stay the nite at a friends house in Ohope - eat lots of spaghetti bolognese and leave at the crack of dawn the next morning to get to Opotiki for the start of the race. Hannah has invited another team to use the expansive lounge floor in Sally's house as a communal bunk, which was very nice of her - so the quantities of mince that I've laboured over this afternoon got increased to take into account the extra bodies. We're caterers. We're used to it!

We had a cookschool this morning and I was thinking about some of the points that Rick made while preparing the beef sauce in the class, as I browned of the mince and created the needed patina on the bottom of the saucepan. His sauces have a complexity and layering of flavour, which in my humble opinion is what makes them so good - and it is really satisfying to see people responding so favourably to learning how he goes about that process.

We give people alot of pointers in the class about various ingredients that we have discovered which may be a little different, but I think the more important information that people gain in the classes is all about technique, becos technique is what cooking is all about. The sauce in this class is in many ways the cornerstone of Ricks style of cooking, and the levels of flavour that he creates and the process by which he goes about it, is all quite fascinating, and so much more so when you watch it happening. Likewise with the cheesecake there's much discussion over our trial and error learning curve as we endeavoured to get a silky smooth texture.

It's understanding what to look for, and knowing how to react, that we try to impart to people. To have the courage to step outside the worried following of the confines of a recipe, and learn to trust your own instincts.

Given the level of chat and exclamations over lunch, I think we achieved that all important 'yum' factor, which is always gratifying for us to see, and needless to say, always another very important part of the classes. Food needs to taste good - that is certainly what we are always aiming to achieve first and foremost.

We're busy in the restaurant tonite, so time to drag myself away from my beautiful bush vista and head inside for a shower. Busy is good. Its been a tough winter, so I'm regarding it as  somewhat miraculous, the way numbers have gone up for the restaurant  dramatically, since the advent of daylight saving.

Long may it last....

 Alot of  my more right wing leaning friends scoff when I mention something I may have read in the Listener. But this link to an extraordinary article, proves to me ( not that I especially needed the proof), that the Listener is a great source on all sorts on interesting, thought provoking issues.

This is a speech given by David Foster Wallace to a group of graduating students - and it is a superb dissertation on the old 'glass half empty / full' connundrum.

In other words - life is what we, personally choose to make of it - a thought I will ponder as I make the way up the Mount shortly...

I made a point of sitting down to watch this episode of 'New Zealand on a Plate' before I went over to the restaurant last nite, becos not only do we know the chef presenter, Peter Blakeway, but we also knew the local food business'  that were going to be featured,seeing as how its focus was on the Bay of Plenty. I therefore had somewhat of a novel experience to see people I know, talking about what is that they do to a camera.

Peter did a superb job. He loves TV work and I thought his enthusiasm shone thru - aided and abetted by the very important fact that he also happens to be a seriously good chef, who doesn't just exclaim about all the wonderful bounty, but who can actually create something great to eat out of it, all the time making that prepping process interesting.

All rather cool I thought, and showcased this beautiful area we live in superbly...

New Zealand on a Plate, Episode 3, 3 October  2009.

People need to realise just how seriously some of our reds are starting to be taken on the world stage. This isn't the first time that 'our' Gimblett Gravels bordeau style reds have come out very well in a blind tasting with the top Bordeaux, and it is confirmation of just how good they're getting...