All On In April

Posted: 12/05/2011 9:45:10 a.m.

It’s our own fault for agreeing to cook the feature dinner during the Kaipara Kai festival in Dargaville in early April. Sounded great when Head Chef, Shaun and I agreed 6 months out; nice Northland climate, fun people, easy gig, and as these sorts of events run on the sniff of an oily rag, who cares, we will do it for free so long as some one takes us fishing.

Closer to the time we start navigating the logistics of feeding 120 in a kitchen we have never seen before, with volunteers we have never met in a venue 1000kms for our restaurant in Wellington. We go OMG!!!  Then down the end of the phone Northland charmers full of enthusiasm and confidence allay the fears and the lists are made and orders processed and long range weather forecasts, relevant to fishing, perused.

Getting up to Dargaville entails a scenic 3 hour road trip from Auckland made more pleasurable with a lunch at the famous Puhoi Pub. Delicious fish and chips with 40 bikers and their shiny Harley Davidsons

First stop in Dargaville, is the Light House Museum and function centre to check that all the boxes of preps and product has arrived safely and to nail a bit of prep before the next day. Stunning views over the Kaipara harbour, rolling hills and kumara farms. But no, bugger me days, nothing has arrived.   No Toheroa gathered by the prearranged licensed locals and no product or preps that we meticulously arranged to be shipped from Wellington. So the phone runs hot, the consignment is lost somewhere between Whangarei and Dargaville. But then some extraordinary customer service unfolds.  Aaron Pellet of Bidvest stationed in Wellington, springs into action. To guarantee we get the delivery he and his colleague, Dave, get the last two seats on the last plane out of the Capital at 10.40pm to Auckland. On arrival the rental car vendors are closed so they taxi to the west side of Auckland to borrow Dave’s bros car. This is 1am by now. They arrive in Whangarei Bidvest which is open 24hrs and pick up the trail of the missing consignment. They track it to a small depot about half way to Dargaville but the sleepy attendant has no knowledge of it. Leaving her to track it down, they have a sleep in their car with no heaters. Eventually a big man thumps on their window, the only one in the car park steamed up, and offers them a coffee while he retrieves the consignment. Yahoo. Finally they make Dargaville 7am in the morning, wake us up and we deliver the stock to the venue. To top it off they even help us prep!

We got the Toheroa and made some delicious fritters that got the locals approval, plus some smoked salmon with crayfish mayo, venison rack with all the trimmings and ginger crème brulee with lemonade sorbet. With willing volunteers coming from all directions we had fun and it all went down a treat. It was a real hard case judging the Kumara cooking competition but the highlight was being taken on the Kaipara harbour for a fish. It was like a mirror, we caught some nice snapper and the skipper’s wife’s bacon and egg pie was divine!

Back at the restaurant our Junior Foodie holiday program was a great success so we are repeating the program in the July school holidays. (Starting Monday 18th July). Over 30 kids brought their parents in for a family lunch! The fun and educational competitions went down well with the kids who really enjoyed our dining room fish tank bar and puzzling over how many Whittaker chocolate Santé bars were in the jar. Mark Pull, 9 yrs old, of Wanganui guessed exactly 314. Hopefully he shares with his sister who guessed 320. Neve Andersen, 6 yrs old, of Waikanae won a $200 voucher for her school fundraiser plus a lunch for two and a chance to work in our Kitchen. Charlie Porteus scored 100% in the foodie quiz and also won a $200 voucher for his school fundraiser plus a lunch for two and a chance to work in our Kitchen.

Back in the office I have been having mini appraisals with the team. We have them between each six monthly appraisals. With 40 employees, it takes some time to share all the info on how each individual’s role is going but its very liberating for both parties to know where they stand in the relation to their job and team morale always improves.