EAT AND EXPLORE

FEATURE

The best memories come from adventures, and some of our fondest feelings are often associated with food. Wanderlust can take us to the furthermost mountain ranges of the world or as close as the nearest rural town. Wherever you’re compelled to venture this winter, make it worth it. Make memories. We often break bread to acknowledge ritual. It’s our common ground, as human beings – it is a universal experience. They say that those who share food with you share their heart.

Life is full of life! Make sure you experience it fully.

BETTER WITH LESS

WORDS Joshua Brosnahan

When Mylk Made was launched nearly a year ago, founder Jemma Turner couldn’t have predicted the crazy ride she was about to embark on. This journey started with an overseas trip, which inspired the idea of Mylk Made. “I spent 11 months based in Lombok, Indonesia, across 2018 and 2019, living a fulltime surf bum life. My partner Max and I both truly embraced Indonesian culture during our time there, committing to a slower pace of life and eating a more wholefood, organic diet.”

As soon as the pair came home, the planning began. Jemma kindly asked her parents if builder Max could construct a commercial kitchen in their shed in Rangiora. Before they knew it, Mylk Made was officially in production.

But what exactly is Mylk? It’s six different flavours of nut/seed mylk bases, offered in a super smooth paste. A stone grinding method achieves this. The core range comes in 300ml glass jars, with each jar making seven litres of fresh ‘mylk’. Just add water, and blend. Jemma says you make what you need when you need it. They use the best certified organic ingredients and New Zealand grown nuts and seeds whenever possible.

Jemma and her mother Corinne work as a team on all aspects of the business. And with over 50 stockists nationwide and a team of seven sales representatives working alongside them, the day to day of Mylk Made is a pretty smooth operation, according to Jemma.

“I absolutely love it. I’m so happy I have taken the plunge in starting a business. It doesn’t really feel like ‘work’ when it’s something I’m so passionate about, you know?”

Jemma views mylks as a cleaner and greener alternative, with sustainability a cornerstone of the business.

“We truly believe mylk bases are the way forward. You do not need any unnatural additives or preservatives like gums or binders in your plant mylk for it to taste good. In fact, we stand by it tasting better with less. We are big believers in making the world a better place and living a life with less waste. Swapping out seven plant mylk cartons for one reusable glass jar of mylk base is a pretty great way to act on this.”

There are definitely some clear standouts in the range. A current popular option is Nutty Oat, which is a mix of macadamia, brazil nuts, and oat flour, and the Absolute Almond. There are also sample packs that include all six flavours in small jars for those who are keen to trial all the flavours or even just to test out the mylk base concept.

The goal is for Mylk Made to be a household name. Jemma says she would love for mylk bases to be the ‘new normal’.

“Instead of going to the supermarket and buying a carton of almond milk, you can buy a concentrated mylk base that is essentially waste-free.” With a new range in development that is specifically aimed at baristas and cafés, Jemma and Corinne are projecting a swift decrease in waste from cafés if they stopped using plant mylk cartons.

mylkmade.co.nz

A VICTORIAN FANTASY

WORDS Kim Newth

Built in 1895 for Sir Heaton Rhodes and his wife Jessie, Otahuna Lodge is a grand Victorian homestead in rural Tai Tapu. A vast, many-roomed Queen Anne architectural icon on Christchurch’s south western fringe, this is colonial heritage on steroids. Heaton was a high profile pioneer of his day, a parliamentarian, horticulturalist, and Victorian country gentleman, who surrounded his gracious homestead with acres of lawn, lakes, woodland areas, and formal gardens. He supervised the planting of daffodil fields that have been a source of delight for generations.

More than a million daffodil bulbs will be coming into bloom this month at Otahuna, which is preparing to share the annual spring spectacular with guests and visitors alike. In celebration of the season, those staying at the lodge for two nights or more between mid-August and mid-September will be offered the ultimate lodge experience combining luxury accommodation with fine wining and dining – including pre-dinner drinks with canapes and a four-course dinner each evening – and a private, guided garden tour that will include the famed sea of daffodils.

“For years we’ve had so many guests, especially New Zealand guests, saying they’d like to come and stay longer, and so with the daffodils coming up this spring, we thought this would be a great offering for our Kiwi friends,” says Hall Cannon who co-owns Otahuna with Miles Refo. Both originally hail from New York but fell in love with New Zealand while holidaying here in 2004. They first saw Otahuna while on a road trip the following year and wound up buying the lodge in 2006. Their vision to run it as a modern interpretation of an historic country estate has since seen the lodge restored and rejuvenated to an impeccable standard.

“Each guest suite at Otahuna has a unique character and expresses different aspects of the lodge, from Heaton’s original master bedroom [the Rhodes Suite] to our new Loft Suite that we unveiled last year. We encourage people who are thinking about staying with us to look at our website so they can choose which one they want.”

Otahuna has eight private dining options, and the menu is ever-changing to reflect the fresh seasonal fare harvested from the property’s extensive potager garden that boasts 140 different kinds of fruit, vegetables, mushrooms, and nuts.

“We harvest on a daily basis, and this informs what is on the plates. What also makes dinner here so special is that a member of the chef team comes to the table and introduces each course and talks about where the food has come from and how it is prepared in the kitchen. It’s a unique food and wine experience.”

You don’t have to be staying at Otahuna to enjoy the delights of the season at this fabulous Victorian mansion. Dinner bookings from non-guests are accepted by prior reservation (within a 30-day period). Private guided garden tours may also be booked by prior reservation (minimum charge of $200).

Otahuna will throw the garden gates open for Daffodil Day on Sunday, 29 August, with three garden tours available that day (10am, 12.30pm, and 3pm), each lasting around 90 minutes and taking in the property’s 30 acres. Admission is $25 for adults and $10 for children aged 5–12, with all proceeds going to the Canterbury-West Coast Division of the New Zealand Cancer Society.

otahuna.co.nz

SPREAD THE LOVE

WORDS Liam Stretch

We’ve all got things that tie us to our roots. For some, it’s a film you huddle around on Christmas Eve, or perhaps sifting through family photos is your nostalgia dose of choice. For local pastry chef Corentin Esquenet, it’s food. He wants to share these edible memories with others through his brand, Butter.

Corentin and his family emigrated to Wellington when he was 10. Local cuisine was far and away from the vineyards of Champagne, where he grew up.

“We moved here because my mum’s side of the family already lived here, and it was a huge cultural shift, especially when it comes to food – language obviously – but the food was so different here. And I think that’s a little bit of what Butter was born out of. I think it’s about trying to reconnect my early childhood memories to the food that I eat now.”

Butter came to be out of chance. After trying out various careers, Corentin took a leap and studied Patisserie at Ara. Following this, he won gold at Nestle’s annual Toque D’Or, had several good jobs under his belt, and even gained a visa for experience in the United Kingdom, with a job lined up at one of the top restaurants in London. Overseas seemed like the logical move, until circumstances that none of us saw coming changed everything.

“I started Butter definitely because of COVID. I was just trying to get out of New Zealand to get experience… I figured that was the path to take until I realised how difficult it would be for me and that it wasn’t the direction that I wanted to go in. COVID-19 put a nail in the coffin for that.”

After seeing there was a hole in the market for ‘something to celebrate with that wasn’t cake’, the age of Butter dawned – a way for Corentin to perfect his craft but also share the food he loves.

“I wanted a project that I could channel my energy, my creativity into. Something that I could learn and develop from. That is the most important thing, to not get stale, for me to be constantly learning, and to improve on what I’m doing.”

Now, a year on from starting the business, he’s in a commercial kitchen space, has growing popularity, and he has been blown away by the support of the local community.

“My biggest surprise has been how much small businesses in Christchurch love and encourage each other. I think that’s very unique to Christchurch. It’s validating for my product to be well received by people I really admire.”

The Butter menu features traditional French patisserie with a modern twist and is constantly evolving. When asked what his favourite product to make is, he was set on the canelés.

“They’re the simplest to make, but they’re the most magical to me. What the batter becomes is the closest I can do to a magic trick.” A canelé mould is copper, and individually coated in beeswax to ensure a crisp, caramelised crust, encasing a custardy-soft inside.

With a slick online presence, Butter operates as a pick-up or delivery service, catering to the Christchurch area. Corentin will even come and drop the delicious treats off in person.

butterpastry.nz