Media
- Waiheke Marketplace June 1
From Nature's Supermarket
- Capital Times May 25 2011
You catch it we'll cook it
The Festival comes to Vidal Estate
A perfect pairing for NZ Gamebird Food Festival
Riverstone Kitchen embraces wild menu
- Press Release May 2 2011
Cuisine’s “Supreme Winner” NZ Restaurant of the Year joins Gamebird Food Festival line-up
A perfect pairing for NZ Gamebird Food Festival
Tens of thousands of Kiwis all over the country took to the outdoors in the hope of bagging a few ducks, geese, pheasants and the like when the 2011 game bird season opened on Saturday.
Many of the successful hunters will take their birds to top New Zealand restaurants where award-winning chefs will turn them into a mouth-watering meal.
It’s all part of the Fish & Game NZ 2011 Gamebird Food Festival, now in its sixth year and fast becoming a Kiwi tradition.
The right wine will always make game birds taste even better, so this year Esk Valley winemaker and passionate countryman Gordon Russell has partnered with the Festival to provide insight into how to pair wine with game to get the very best match.
Gordon’s 21 years as winemaker at Esk Valley has given him a unique insight into producing wines which work with wild foods. The wines are produced with a minimum of manual intervention allowing them to reflect their strong relationship with the soil and climatic conditions of each season.
High profile media exposure, such as TV shows like Al Brown’s Hunger for the Wild and the exciting showing on Masterchef of game specialist Cameron Petley have lead to a much greater awareness of the potential for cooking wild game in many different ways.
The restaurants participating in the 2011 Gamebird Food Festival have created a range of menu options for all bird types, and Gordon wants to help diners maximise their experience by drinking complementary wines with each dish.
Every year Fish & Game NZ promotes the Gamebird Food Festival to raise awareness of the desirability of game bird hunting as a natural food source and the opportunity to source healthy wild food from our “outdoor supermarket”. Game bird meat is free range, it is organic and it is delicious.
“We encourage licensed game bird hunters to make the most of New Zealand’s bountiful outdoor supermarket,“ says Hamish Carnachan, communications manager, Fish & Game NZ “. The Festival ensures more and more hunters, along with their friends and families, realise just how good wild game birds can be.”
Cuisine’s “Supreme Winner” NZ Restaurant of the Year joins Gamebird Food Festival line-up
Hunters all over the country will be crouched expectant in Maimais, hoping to bag a few birds next weekend, May 7 heralding the start of the game bird season.
And those who do come home with a few birds could be dining in style!
Back for its sixth year, and fast becoming a Kiwi tradition, is the 2011 Fish & Game NZ Gamebird Food Festival, which starts on Sunday, May 8.
A mouth-watering list of participating restaurants has just been announced.
Alongside the festival faithful like Cazador, à Deco, Bistro 1284, Café Nero and Café de Paris, is some exciting new blood this year; some of New Zealand's best restaurants and most celebrated chefs have been recruited. The “Supreme Winner” Cuisine Magazine NZ Restaurant of the Year, Riverstone Kitchen, joins the festival along with other finalists Palate, Bracu, Cable Bay Vineyards and Bouterey’s at 251
Gamebird Food Festival event manager Rose France says: “We are delighted to have so many restaurants supporting the event and thrilled to have some of the country’s most awarded chefs participating.
“With restaurants spread throughout the country, from Whangarei to Invercargill, there is an opportunity for all New Zealand game bird hunters and their friends and families to enjoy meals prepared by top chefs using their own harvested game bird meat”.
The concept is simple: You take your birds into a participating restaurant, and the chef will turn them into a feast!
As restaurants are not allowed, by law, to purchase or sell wild game birds, the only opportunity for New Zealanders to taste it is to harvest it themselves or join a hunter who has.
This, along with a restricted hunting season, makes gamebird a relatively rare treat for food lovers, an exciting challenge for chefs and an event New Zealanders always love.
The Gamebird Food Festival is an annual event and an initiative of Fish & Game NZ.
“Game bird meat is free-range, organic and delicious and we thank the participating restaurants for showing us new and creative ways to prepare it. We also wish to remind everyone of the importance of safe and responsible licenced game bird hunting ” says Hamish Carnachan, communications manager, Fish & Game NZ.
With game and wild foods very fashionable right now courtesy of Masterchef game specialist Cameron Petley and TV shows like Al Brown’s Coasters, Kiwis are increasingly looking for new ways to enjoy their ducks, geese, pheasants, swan, even pukeko!
The Gamebird Food Festival is a chance to see how they are served by the very best in NZ cuisine.
For more information: Rose France, Event Manager ph. (09) 372 4114 mob. 02741 66633.
For a complete list of festival restaurants www.gamebirdfoodfestival.co.nz
To keep in touch, sign up for Fish & Game's free gamebird hunting newsletter Both Barrels