April 11, 2025 • 7 mins
New Zealand is filled to the brim with beautiful food and delicious ingredients, and Thursday night saw some of our top producers celebrated at the Outstanding Food Producer Awards.
Nici Wickes decided to focus in on a couple of the winners — Conscious Valley Lamb and Akaroa Salmon— and offer up a few simple cooking techniques for each.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Right now, it is fourteen minutes to ten and cook
Nicki Wex's here in the kitchen with us this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Calder Niki Cureda. The Outstanding Food Producer Awards were presented.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
On Thursday of this week, right, so you've brought to
us for anyone who hasn't seen the results, You've brought
a couple of winners that we're going to share this morning.
So we'll start off with the savory dishes or savory
produce that came out on top on Thursday night. Let's
start off with the Conscious Valley lamb.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Well, look, what I love about the Outstanding Food Producers
Awards is they do really attract them, you know, the
top of the best of the best of the ingredients
and food being produced in New.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Zealand, I think.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And it's a huge array, from condiments to drinks, to snacks,
to oils, to butters, to gelato, to meats, et cetera,
et cetera, to letters.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
All of that.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
But it was really interesting this year that the you know,
two of the top awards got taken out by farmers
by meat suppliers, and one of them, indeed, was that
Conscious Valley thick cut loin shops. I mean, honestly, Jack,
I wasn't judging that particular category, but I was sitting
down the end of the table a month or two
(01:28):
ago when we judged those, and the lovely judges that
were judging it just we heard them groaning and then
they said, here, you guys, you've got to try this,
and oh they were just so beautiful. So Conscious Valley
is just outside of Wellington. Couple of young farmers there
and they there, you know, their meat is just top not.
You can't get it widely, which I know is going
(01:49):
to irritate our listeners.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
But if you're in the Wellington.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Area you can so have a look out for that
Conscious Valley Thick cut loin shops and the other The
Supreme Award winner this year was from the Hastings or
Hawks Bay Martangi Martangi thirty to forty five day dry
aged sir lloyin steak cutlet and honestly, and you know,
(02:12):
the description here was that it cuts like butter. It
was tender, juicy, melt in the mouth mouth.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Now, these are not cheap meats.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I want to really warn people that when you go
online to order these for yourself, as you can with
the MARTINUI, you know, you might go, oh, it's outrageous,
but these are beautiful cuts of meat that have been
looked after from you know, paddic to plate.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
They're not churning these out in great quanda.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, they might be a little special occasion option too, right.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Have very special occasion, you know, maybe and maybe as
meat begins to be a bit of a special occasion,
you know, dinner sort of thing, and so don't book
at the price, shout yourself and then treat it really well.
So look, if I had either one of these, they
are thick cuts. So I'm going to recommend that you
do as little as possible to them, jacket, because this
(03:00):
is the thing with quality, outstanding ingredients.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
When you've got those, you barely have.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
To do anything to let the ingredients to the talking.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Let the ingredients do the talking.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
You just have to get out of the way and
just let it do its thing, because you cannot make
good food out of bad ingredients. But unfortunately, you can
certainly make bad food out of good ingredients if you
do the wrong thing. So I would do a lovely
salt on either side of both of these. I would
bring both cuts to room temperature because they're thick cuts,
and so often people have taken them straight from the
(03:31):
fridge and then into the pan. That doesn't really work
because the inside is going to be really quite cool
and it's going to take a lot longer, and the
outside it's going to toughen up when you.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Pan fry them.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I would pan fry these two cuts, or maybe with
the lamb chops, I would throw them in a hot
oven after I've browned them off for sort of ten
twenty minutes something like that, depending on how you like it.
Always use the sort of press. I just press the meat,
you know what it feels like raw, you know what
it feels like when it's hard leather, you know, and
engage it in between how soft do you want it,
(04:02):
which will indicate how rare it is in the middle,
So light solting.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
I always pepper afterwards.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I don't pepper at the time before cooking, because I
think pepper has a tendency to burn jack, you know,
so I always do the.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Plumber pepper later. Maybe with that beef.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Cut, maybe you might want to add another little winner,
which was Mandy's Horse Spadish sauce. Maybe imagine those two.
Oh my godness, my mouth is actually watering as I.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Go with the lamb. I just love a lamb chop,
just with a pure of salt on it.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I like it with a little pile of spinach which
goes beautifully with it. Maybe a little bit of buttered
potato or something like that. So those were our two
really big meat winners, and they were absolutely exceptional.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Have we got time to talk about chop? Oh? The
other end of the space.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I mean, I think you've just answered that yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
You.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Oh no, come on, NICKI don't disappear on us now,
are you there? Are you there? Niki? Have we lost you?
Oh no, I'll tell you what. What a tease? NICKI
Wex's back. We tracked it down.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
We got on the phone because sometime the internet collapses.
Thank goodness, Nicky, you can't leave us hanging like that.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
I can't that. I wondered if it was most alive
and then it sort of drowns by fire anyway, very quickly.
He has two chocolates that people need to look out for.
They were both gold medal winners. One is Lucid Chocolatia
that's l Ucid Young Chocolates maker or Chopla Tia.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
John T.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Tansam his fifty two percent sourdough, brown butter and sea salt.
It may be sold out already online, but have a look.
He's got another sour dough, brown butter and sea salt one.
They're absolutely unham sorry, sour dough, sour dough, sour dough
he has slaveored slavored it with sour dough, brown butter
(05:49):
and sea salt. Unbit believable. And then the other one
that I want to draw your attention to because we've
got Easter coming up, is another one. Was it was
in the Bonbonds, another chocolate category. Mind your temper, that's
the name of the company. That's clever, isn't it for
a chopin lover spiced orange cross buns bond And these,
(06:09):
believe it or not, do not let it put you
off in any shape or form. A vegan. They are
plant based and they took out of Gold for being
utterly delicious. And they're available online to order as well.
And I think that those would make the perfect Easter gift,
don't you think get some for your wife.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Ah, incredible, you have so.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Beautiful both of these chocolates, and then particularly Bombonds, they're
those little little hills and they always got that crisp
outside shell and something exciting waiting for you inside. So
both of those.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
There's a real sort of trend at the moment, isn't
there And having and having kind of breedy flavors to
fat chocolates. Because it was Hogarth the buttered toast, Yeah,
that was very popular.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, we saw it.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
We saw it come through with ice cream a couple
of years ago, so there was sort of sour dough
and brown butter ice cream, which is absolutely beautiful and
actually a very very old technique. But yes, we're seeing
it in the chocolates now and I can really really
recommend both of those. They're absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
So there you go.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
There's our outstanding winners from the Food Producers Awards this year.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Fantastic, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I'm just so related to on behalf of everyone that
we managed to track you down again and that you
salive ahead and indeed drowned out your microphone.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Thank you, Nikith. We all catch again soon.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That is Nicky wait in the kitchen for us as
she is every Saturday morning. We're going to make sure
that all of those items she mentioned. The winners from
the Outstanding Food Producer Awards this week are up and
available on the News Talks.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
He'd be website for more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame.
Listen live to News Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Right now, it is fourteen minutes to ten and cook
Nicki Wex's here in the kitchen with us this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Calder Niki Cureda. The Outstanding Food Producer Awards were presented.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
On Thursday of this week, right, so you've brought to
us for anyone who hasn't seen the results, You've brought
a couple of winners that we're going to share this morning.
So we'll start off with the savory dishes or savory
produce that came out on top on Thursday night. Let's
start off with the Conscious Valley lamb.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Well, look, what I love about the Outstanding Food Producers
Awards is they do really attract them, you know, the
top of the best of the best of the ingredients
and food being produced in New.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Zealand, I think.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And it's a huge array, from condiments to drinks, to snacks,
to oils, to butters, to gelato, to meats, et cetera,
et cetera, to letters.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
All of that.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
But it was really interesting this year that the you know,
two of the top awards got taken out by farmers
by meat suppliers, and one of them, indeed, was that
Conscious Valley thick cut loin shops. I mean, honestly, Jack,
I wasn't judging that particular category, but I was sitting
down the end of the table a month or two
(01:28):
ago when we judged those, and the lovely judges that
were judging it just we heard them groaning and then
they said, here, you guys, you've got to try this,
and oh they were just so beautiful. So Conscious Valley
is just outside of Wellington. Couple of young farmers there
and they there, you know, their meat is just top not.
You can't get it widely, which I know is going
(01:49):
to irritate our listeners.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
But if you're in the Wellington.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Area you can so have a look out for that
Conscious Valley Thick cut loin shops and the other The
Supreme Award winner this year was from the Hastings or
Hawks Bay Martangi Martangi thirty to forty five day dry
aged sir lloyin steak cutlet and honestly, and you know,
(02:12):
the description here was that it cuts like butter. It
was tender, juicy, melt in the mouth mouth.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Now, these are not cheap meats.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I want to really warn people that when you go
online to order these for yourself, as you can with
the MARTINUI, you know, you might go, oh, it's outrageous,
but these are beautiful cuts of meat that have been
looked after from you know, paddic to plate.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
They're not churning these out in great quanda.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, they might be a little special occasion option too, right.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Have very special occasion, you know, maybe and maybe as
meat begins to be a bit of a special occasion,
you know, dinner sort of thing, and so don't book
at the price, shout yourself and then treat it really well.
So look, if I had either one of these, they
are thick cuts. So I'm going to recommend that you
do as little as possible to them, jacket, because this
(03:00):
is the thing with quality, outstanding ingredients.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
When you've got those, you barely have.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
To do anything to let the ingredients to the talking.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Let the ingredients do the talking.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
You just have to get out of the way and
just let it do its thing, because you cannot make
good food out of bad ingredients. But unfortunately, you can
certainly make bad food out of good ingredients if you
do the wrong thing. So I would do a lovely
salt on either side of both of these. I would
bring both cuts to room temperature because they're thick cuts,
and so often people have taken them straight from the
(03:31):
fridge and then into the pan. That doesn't really work
because the inside is going to be really quite cool
and it's going to take a lot longer, and the
outside it's going to toughen up when you.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Pan fry them.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I would pan fry these two cuts, or maybe with
the lamb chops, I would throw them in a hot
oven after I've browned them off for sort of ten
twenty minutes something like that, depending on how you like it.
Always use the sort of press. I just press the meat,
you know what it feels like raw, you know what
it feels like when it's hard leather, you know, and
engage it in between how soft do you want it,
(04:02):
which will indicate how rare it is in the middle,
So light solting.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
I always pepper afterwards.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
I don't pepper at the time before cooking, because I
think pepper has a tendency to burn jack, you know,
so I always do the.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Plumber pepper later. Maybe with that beef.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Cut, maybe you might want to add another little winner,
which was Mandy's Horse Spadish sauce. Maybe imagine those two.
Oh my godness, my mouth is actually watering as I.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Go with the lamb. I just love a lamb chop,
just with a pure of salt on it.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I like it with a little pile of spinach which
goes beautifully with it. Maybe a little bit of buttered
potato or something like that. So those were our two
really big meat winners, and they were absolutely exceptional.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Have we got time to talk about chop? Oh? The
other end of the space.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I mean, I think you've just answered that yourself.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
You.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Oh no, come on, NICKI don't disappear on us now,
are you there? Are you there? Niki? Have we lost you?
Oh no, I'll tell you what. What a tease? NICKI
Wex's back. We tracked it down.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
We got on the phone because sometime the internet collapses.
Thank goodness, Nicky, you can't leave us hanging like that.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
I can't that. I wondered if it was most alive
and then it sort of drowns by fire anyway, very quickly.
He has two chocolates that people need to look out for.
They were both gold medal winners. One is Lucid Chocolatia
that's l Ucid Young Chocolates maker or Chopla Tia.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
John T.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
Tansam his fifty two percent sourdough, brown butter and sea salt.
It may be sold out already online, but have a look.
He's got another sour dough, brown butter and sea salt one.
They're absolutely unham sorry, sour dough, sour dough, sour dough
he has slaveored slavored it with sour dough, brown butter
(05:49):
and sea salt. Unbit believable. And then the other one
that I want to draw your attention to because we've
got Easter coming up, is another one. Was it was
in the Bonbonds, another chocolate category. Mind your temper, that's
the name of the company. That's clever, isn't it for
a chopin lover spiced orange cross buns bond And these,
(06:09):
believe it or not, do not let it put you
off in any shape or form. A vegan. They are
plant based and they took out of Gold for being
utterly delicious. And they're available online to order as well.
And I think that those would make the perfect Easter gift,
don't you think get some for your wife.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Ah, incredible, you have so.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Beautiful both of these chocolates, and then particularly Bombonds, they're
those little little hills and they always got that crisp
outside shell and something exciting waiting for you inside. So
both of those.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
There's a real sort of trend at the moment, isn't
there And having and having kind of breedy flavors to
fat chocolates. Because it was Hogarth the buttered toast, Yeah,
that was very popular.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, we saw it.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
We saw it come through with ice cream a couple
of years ago, so there was sort of sour dough
and brown butter ice cream, which is absolutely beautiful and
actually a very very old technique. But yes, we're seeing
it in the chocolates now and I can really really
recommend both of those. They're absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
So there you go.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
There's our outstanding winners from the Food Producers Awards this year.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Fantastic, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I'm just so related to on behalf of everyone that
we managed to track you down again and that you
salive ahead and indeed drowned out your microphone.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Thank you, Nikith. We all catch again soon.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
That is Nicky wait in the kitchen for us as
she is every Saturday morning. We're going to make sure
that all of those items she mentioned. The winners from
the Outstanding Food Producer Awards this week are up and
available on the News Talks.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
He'd be website for more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame.
Listen live to News Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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