Recommendations
Posted on Mon, 03/10/2016
A miserable wet Sunday spent in anticipation of a predicted weather 'bomb' which never actually eventuated, meant that any planned exercise happened inside the house on the spinner, and even though we are both thoroughly...>>>
Posted on Sun, 03/04/2016
Just been to see this amazing movie - truly wonderful!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Xvsjy57X0 ...>>>
Posted on Fri, 01/04/2016
Admidst the chat in cookschools we almost always get to pick up a titbit of information that we didn't previously know, and as an example, sometime recently we were told about a new place in town serving falafels...>>>
Posted on Mon, 16/11/2015
Whenever possible we head away to eat in other cities. To see what other's are doing, and how that reflects food trends highlighted in food magazines. For us it all becomes useful gist to connect with what we do...>>>
Posted on Sun, 11/10/2015
Popped up to Auckland during the week to pick up Courteney who was flying in from the States. Seemed like a good opportunity to head up the night before so we could do a bit of dinner research before getting up to greet her...>>>
Posted on Thu, 23/10/2014
You realise just how small NZ is geographically, when you casually drive from one coast of the North Island to the other, in the space of a morning, without any undue fuss. We were sitting in the car up above the surf beach...>>>
Posted on Wed, 22/01/2014
I mentioned in an earlier blog that we'd been hugely impressed by every aspect of the newly opened Waihi Beach Hotel and Eatery. This article which a friend has just sent me the link too, explains what has bought these...>>>
Posted on Mon, 06/01/2014
Am about to embark on a long bill paying session, but before I turn to the nitty, gritty part of my day and work through the pile, I thought I?d just mention a wonderful brunch we had today in Waihi. Hannah and Andrew...>>>
Posted on Thu, 03/10/2013
Dropt a couple of my work dresses in to get drycleaned this morning, and walked out of Pristine Drycleaners on Cameron Rd with a very large smile on my face because of the superb response to what I had anticipated would be...>>>
Posted on Fri, 27/09/2013
We usually get our Gilmours weekly order delivered to the restaurant, and very seldom visit the warehouse ourselves, but we did today because I needed some things for Christmas baking. As always we marvel, if thats quite...>>>
Posted on Tue, 17/09/2013
We had dinner with friends on Sunday night at Brooklyn Patio and Eatery, down on The Strand here in Tauranga, and we came away very impressed. There were 6 of us at the table, Courteney and Matt joining us, and we ordered...>>>
Posted on Mon, 27/05/2013
We did a cookschool yesterday ? one in the Autumn Series ? and had a number of people in the class who hadn?t been to a cookschool before, and that makes for a slightly different patter, as we bring those people up to speed....>>>
Posted on Tue, 12/02/2013
Well, well, well. ... Maree had told me that a very cute bakery had opened up just round the corner from her house in Edgecumbe road, and I?d spotted it last week when I flicked into the Gluten free store, but...>>>
Posted on Tue, 05/02/2013
Courteney will be landing in LA about now ? waiting for the first text or skype to come through, but will possibly be another few hours, until she gets picked up by the team manager, and taken to where the whole team are...>>>
Posted on Tue, 22/01/2013
We took some of our key staff up to Auckland on Sunday, primarily to have dinner out at one of Aucklands top restaurants, but also to have a little bit of a poke around and absorb some of the Auckland vibe because we find...>>>
Posted on Wed, 16/01/2013
I was going to mention this very cool place that we went too over the weekend in Chch on the restaurant facebook page, but decided not too, because my posts there seem to have inadvertently become almost solely a commentary...>>>
Posted on Sun, 18/11/2012
Have just sent out the November newsletter. I write a monthly letter that gets sent out electronically, whereas the one that also goes out in hard copy only happens when we have a cookschool schedule to alert people too,...>>>
Posted on Sat, 20/10/2012
Rick got up early this morning to head out for a 100km ride as you do. I was somewhat more leisurely and took the dogs down below and had breakfast and a read of the paper before I too headed out the door to get some...>>>
Posted on Tue, 03/04/2012
I mentioned in an earlier blog that we'd called into Le Petit Four to get some of Dean's Hot Cross Buns, which we remember very favourably from his days at La Boulangerie, only to be told that he hadn't started making them...>>>
Posted on Mon, 02/04/2012
Rick is puddling around in our kitchen at home, cooking dinner, which is essentially going to be an experimentation based around some of the ideas on his list for the next cookschool series. I'm more than happy to be the...>>>
Posted on Mon, 26/03/2012
Our normal Monday routine, has been changed today, becos Rick had a dental appointment in the morning, which put paid to us going over to the Mount first thing as we ordinarily do. Instead we'll head over later this afternoon,...>>>
Posted on Sat, 05/11/2011
During the cookschool lunch yesterday, the conversation I had with one of the guests ended up with her describing a chicken recipe to me in Stephanie Alexander's truly epic cookbook, The Cooks Companion. Becos I respect...>>>
Posted on Tue, 20/09/2011
We did a private cookschool this morning, and becos we're betwixt and between series, we did the food from the series we'd just finished, and I'm very glad we opted to go that way, and work with dishes that we were so familiar...>>>
Posted on Thu, 08/09/2011
We headed over to Hamilton a few days back to go to a lecture with Courteney given by a nutritionalist on diet for sporting performance. Eating correctly and appropriately for her extreme level of physical exertion has become...>>>
Posted on Wed, 07/09/2011
I am on my way to bed, but I just had to stop via the computor to express my conviction that this TV series that Rick and I have been watching all week via the DVD set we hired from Video Ezy, would have to rate quite simply...>>>
Posted on Tue, 23/08/2011
I am half way thru Level 3 of the Introduction to Photography classes that I started at the beginning of this year. Along the way I've been learning how to compose a photo, the many different facets of light, and currently...>>>
Posted on Thu, 21/07/2011
I am feeling grumpy becos the restaurant is quiet tonite, and it has thrown me of kilter in what has otherwise been a steadily busy week. Knowing that there is nothing I can do to alter the fact, I've been instead focusing...>>>
Posted on Wed, 20/07/2011
With Wine Options each year, we serve a simple dinner at the end of the Options - all the teams join up the tables into one long line, cutlery and napkins are placed around, people help themselves to glasses from the bar,...>>>
Posted on Fri, 04/03/2011
It has been one of those weeks! Fiddly, messy and lots of chasing my tail, which is never a sensation I enjoy. Deliveries not arriving, or wine orders being misdelivered, problems with the eftpos machine, sick staff, lots...>>>
Posted on Mon, 21/02/2011
Cookschools can be an allround source of information, and that is seldom just from Rick and I. Chat tends to flow in all sorts of directions, and it is not very often that I don't pick up some good idea or recommendation. One...>>>
Posted on Fri, 14/01/2011
Today is the opening day of The Good Food Trading Co, a food and wine store at 35 MacDonald St Mt Maunganui. You have got to go and have a look, becos it is a truly spectacular store, the concept of which, quite simply blew...>>>
Posted on Sat, 11/12/2010
Ricks mother is in town and we organised to meet her and Dennis for brunch after we'd done the Mount this morning. Rick is finally running again, its taken this long since his accident for his back not to jar, so we've resumed...>>>
Posted on Fri, 22/10/2010
The next 2 months are our busiest time of the year - the combination of the biggest cookschool schedule, more catering than normal, and the restaurant going up a notch in numbers all adds up. That is not a complaint however...>>>
Posted on Thu, 14/10/2010
I would hate to give the wrong impression, and for you to think that Rick and I eat out all the time, becos our reality is in fact quite the opposite. But twice this week, we've been out and about over lunch time, and have...>>>
Posted on Tue, 12/10/2010
Have just spent my normal Tuesday, dealing with all the bookwork, and sorting the wine orders, as you do. A day somewhat leavened by a lengthly discussion with Gigi and Christy from Zealong tea, who I'd approached out of...>>>
Posted on Tue, 16/02/2010
Both Rick and I really enjoy eating Indian food, even though its one cuisine that we've never learnt much about. Many years ago we went to a cookschool at The Epicurean Workshop in Auckland, where David Thompson who's a...>>>
Posted on Mon, 10/08/2009
It has been a busy few days! Mondays, technically, are our day off, becos the restaurant is closed. Rick and I normally head over to the Mount, do our exercise thing, have breakfast at Slowfish, watch the world...>>>
Posted on Sun, 05/07/2009
We've just got home from spending a very mellow couple of hours at No. One The Strand, somewhere we've been meaning to go for ages, and on a whim this morning, Rick decided to ring good friends and suggest a catch up. What...>>>
Posted on Thu, 14/05/2009
A customer of ours who I'm very fond of, Catharine Campbell-Smith has just bought "The Village Pantry'(5525061) shop out at The Village on the corner of Clarkes Rd and SH2.Its a tiny little jewel box of a shop, which she's...>>>
Posted on Fri, 21/11/2008
We are having an exceptionally quiet nite at the restaurant, which for a Friday is somewhat unusual for us and I can't say I enjoy being this quiet very much. Even though we're in the midst of busy times - I still struggle...>>>
Posted on Mon, 19/11/2007
Robin Feron is someone we have known since our earliest days in Tauranga. It was Robins vision that saw a number of new eateries open up in this town, and we were always impressed with how he managed to touch the prevailing...>>>
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