We love your test kitchen, tell us a little bit about what happens here? It’s where development and testing of recipes takes place, and we prep for small events here too. It’s the creative hub of the company, where good tasting treats appear with great regularity, thanks mainly to my chef Haydo.
What do you think makes a successful home kitchen? Functionality and a generous amount of bench space are the boring details. More importantly, a kitchen should be a warm and inviting place. It’s more than just a room, it’s a space where most of us feel at ease. I adore old kitchens where, as soon as you enter them, you are enveloped in a kind of comfort blanket of old memories – a beautiful patina of layers of hunger and nourishment created over time!
What inspired the recipes you’ve whipped up for Taste? I have always enjoyed creating recipes with ingredients that are accessible to home cooks, but they have never used before. The satisfaction from cooking a wonderful dish using interesting ingredients that are new to you, is so much more rewarding than cooking a chicken breast or rack of lamb.
We’re all about nurturing and nourishing food that brings people together. You’re the master of this – how do you do it? I believe it’s all about making people feel comfortable. Food and drink, along with time spent around a table, are simply the vehicles for bringing people together for fun times. I’m also a stickler for detail and organisation. As soon as friends or customers step over the threshold, at home or in one of our gaffs, it’s about getting a drink into their hand and something to eat in quick succession.
What’s the best thing about cooking in winter? Braising pans, secondary cuts, gravy and red wine.
What are your personal favourite kitchen tools? Handmade knives (usually by Peter Lorimer), Lodge cast iron skillets, and wooden chopping boards.
What are some of your current favourite ingredients? This time of year screams hearty, satisfying comfort food. Instant polenta is super-quick to make. In winter, I always serve it creamy and runny. It’s such a great base to add big flavours to, like I have done using fresh truffle in the oxtail recipe on the previous page. Another favourite way is to serve it with a rich tomato sauce or relish, a crumble of blue cheese, toasted nuts of some sort and a good-quality walnut oil.
What’s your favourite food memory? There are too many to choose from! The first time I had fresh soft-shell crab escabeche-style was in a restaurant I worked at in New York 20-something years ago. When I recall that dish it still gets the salivary glands working overtime, even though so much time has passed.
Any New Zealand food products and places you’re loving right now? I had a great experience recently at the Hobsonville Point Farmers’ Market. There were some extraordinary Hungarian handmade cheeses by Mazo on offer and the fruit pastes by a wonderful producer called Zoe Bone were something else – keep an eye out for them!
Check out Al Brown’s recipes:
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