Publication: Country-Wide March 2008 farm business
Restaurant milks lamb advantage

As lamb producers face yet another bleak season, Celia Hay has an all too rare good news story.
This season the Canterbury lamb producer and restaurateur has been offering milk-fed lamb to diners in her award-winning Christchurch restaurant Hay’s.
Milk-fed lamb is lamb that has been killed at a carcase weight of 10-12kg and has a more delicate flavour and a more tender texture than lamb killed at heavier weights.
In adding milk-fed lamb to the menu, Celia is responding to the international consumer trend towards fresh, seasonal, organic produce.
She believes spring lamb should be celebrated as the perfect seasonal product, just as people celebrate asparagus, whitebait and bluff oysters.
Celia and husband Allan have supplied lamb to their restaurant from their Banks Peninsula farm since 1994.
This year they have moved towards organic certification and will lease the farm to Leeston-based organic farmer Tim Chamberlain.
The impetus for offering the early-killed lamb came from visiting French chef John Gramarossa.
Gramarossa, who works with famous chef Alain Ducasse (who has developed many recipes specifically for suckling lamb), was surprised at the large size of the lambs grown in this country, as in France they prefer to use cuts from lambs of a carcase weight of around 12kg.
For Celia, the lighter-weight milk-fed spring lamb was an opportunity to differentiate the product from the prime lamb offered by Hay’s throughout the year.
While they did have problems finding a processor willing to handle the smaller lambs, they have, through the creativity and skills of their chefs, been able to use all the cuts including the small but tasty lamb shanks.
Hay’s is renowned as a lamb restaurant and attracts diners from all over the world looking to experience the product for which this country is famous. Celia often finds tourists are disappointed that there is not lamb offered in New Zealand restaurants, beyond the ubiquitous lamb rack. Typically three-quarters of their diners in Hay’s in any one evening will select lamb from at least six lamb dishes offered on the Hay’s menu. Celia says customers don’t bat an eyelid at the thought of eating younger, milk-fed lamb and she can’t understand why the meat industry is not doing more to add value to lamb beyond racks, shortloins and rumps.
“At the moment lamb is just a commodity.
“No-one is doing anything particularly exciting with it.”
The popularity of the milk-fed lamb at Hay’s has proved to Celia that consumers do want value-added product.
“Whoever says they don’t they are wrong.”
As a producer she feels frustrated at the poor returns they are getting for their product from processing companies when she sees the huge potential for lamb.
Celia also believes farmers who grow lamb need to get excited about what they produce.
“They need to be proud of what they’re producing and know what people are cooking and what they are eating.
“Farmers are so far down the supply chain they lose contact with the end product.”
She would like to encourage farmers to come and experience the lamb at Hay’s, and certainly this journalist can highly recommend trying the milk-fed lamb.
If lamb producers need to remind themselves that they are producing high quality wonderful food, an evening at Hay’s is a wonderful way to do it!
The shift to organics is again in response to consumer demand.
Celia says they are often asked by customers in the restaurant whether their lamb is organic, and as they have always farmed their Pidgeon Bay property with very few inputs, becoming organic will be just a natural progression.
“It is an extension of our lamb story.
“It is not difficult for us so why wouldn’t we do it?”
Celia stays abreast of international food trends through frequent overseas travel as well as through the international guest chefs she hosts at her cooking school.
-Sandra Taylor

Publication: APD - Financial Times UK; Date:2008 Jan 26; Section:Life & Arts; Page Number: FTW10
They don’t do frenetic here
Christchurch on the South Island in New Zealand is not stuck in the past – it just
combines it with a comfortable present, says Richard Evans

They don’t do frenetic in Christchurch.Nor rush, as in hour. Congestion, crime, pollution
are not words that figure regularly in the inhabitants’ vocabulary.
It has the reputation of being the most English city in New Zealand. But to describe the
South Island city as being stuck in time, somewhere around 1950, would be unfair. There is
nothing backward about Christchurch,just a happy mix of today and yesterday with the
past preserved by a strict eye for conservation.

After making the extra effort of a flight down from Auckland to Christchurch,you will be
richly rewarded. Canterbury Wine Tours offers an extensive wine tasting trip of all those
Sauvignon Blanc vineyards for NZ$65, and just north of Christchurch you can indulge
yourself at the elegant Hanmer Springs Thermal Spa for just over £100 per couple. And in
the New Zealand winter, Mount Hutt is the place to ski.

But it is the atmosphere of Christchurch that makes it worth the trip. And I am not just
talking about the relaxed bonhomie as one sips a glass of excellent New Zealand chardonnay
at a pub on Oxford Terrace in the city’s centre. It is the homely feeling that envelops you 20
minutes out of the airport as you drive through the quiet residential districts.
For visitors, the most amusing way to see Christchurch is by tramway. Starting in
Cathedral Square, you can get on and off as the tram stops at the Museum, Botanic Gardens
and New Regent Street – the latter, despite its name, is constructed in Spanish Mission style
and lined with boutiques and restaurants.

With the little river Avon running through it, Christchurch was laid out as a city of
bridges, parks and churches, centred around the imposing cathedral which sits in a large,
spacious square. Twice, when I walked past at night, flautists were playing outside the main
door.

Arts and sport are an important part of life here. There is a large arts centre and
wonderful museum with some huts used by Scott’s Antarctic expedition.
One is struck by how quickly the first intrepid inhabitants developed this remote spot,
which has nothing but the odd floating iceberg between it and the South Pole. In little more
than 50 years, it went from marshland to a metropolis that staged an International
Exhibition in 1906-07. Given that it took the better part of two months to reach the place
from Europe, the planning and resolve involved must have been prodigious.

That was the era of Anthony Wilding, Christchurch’s most famous sporting son, who won
Wimbledon four consecutive times before losing his crown to Norman Brookes in the 1914
final – 11 months before he died in the trenches at Neuve Chappelle in France. The 39-court
Wilding Park tennis centre is, in fact, named after his father Frederick, who was one of
Shrewsbury School’s finest athletes.

But it is rugby, of course, that dominates the Canterbury sporting scene today. If the
peace is ever disturbed to any serious degree on a Saturday evening, it is when the All
Blacks have played in town. Various revellers have been known to require the assistance of
the constabulary after ending up in the Avon.
And the police do not have far to travel for that particular operation. For, alas, the only
blot on the Christchurch skyline is a 14-storey, 1970s-style monstrosity that sits right in
the middle of town, bearing a vast illuminated “Police” sign at the very top. You need to be
seriously inebriated to ignore that warning.

Finding refreshment in Christchurch is not a problem. A stroll along Oxford Terrace,
which follows the bank of the River Avon, provides a wide range of eateries with names such
as Liquidity, Sticky Fingers and Ferment. I chose The Viaduct and enjoyed a memorable
seafood risotto, washed down by a glass of Hawke’s Bay merlot called Delegat’s Reserve.

Of the more expensive restaurants, Hay’s seems to have the best reputation. New Zealand
lamb is, predictably, prominent on Liliane Huckle’s menu and she is assisted in the kitchen
by students from the local school of Food and Wine.
Christchurch has a good choice of hotels. The Crowne Plaza is considered one of the best
in town and Thomas’s Hotel on Hereford Street has a cosier atmosphere. Or you could opt
for Warners, overlooking Cathedral Square, which was built in 1863 and has had Scott and
Shackleton as guests.

For luxury, nothing comes more highly recommended than the Charlotte Jane Hotel, built
in 1891 and named after one of the first ships to arrive with settlers at Lyttelton Harbour.
The Victorian mansion, recently converted from a private school, sits amid flora typical of
this city and has a cuisine to match the ambience.
Hire car is the best way to explore the countryside surrounding Christchurch.Orana
Wildlife Park, not far from the airport, offers visitors a ride on a special platform for a lion
feed and the chance to meet a white rhinoceros face to face. Further afield, about 90
minutes drive out on to the Banks Peninsula, formed by volcanic eruptions centuries ago,
there is a distinct change of atmosphere at Akaroa, a charming harbour village founded by
the French in 1840. Rue Lavaud is the main street and many of the original cottages still sit
under the walnut trees that were planted to remind the newcomers of home.

Thursday, January 10, 2008 Reviews THE PRESS, Christchurch

Home sweet Hay’s

Returning to Hay’s after an absence of several years was like going home to mother—
warm, comforting and reassuringly familiar. Of course, it also helps if Mum happens to be a super cook —and I can report that Liliane Huckle and her team are exactly that. Hay’s has become a Christchurch culinary landmark for its consistent ability to deliver classic New Zealand cuisine.

Nothing seemed to have changed when we three arrived on a quiet mid-week night. The
comfortable seating, the images of Banks Peninsula on the walls and the crisp table arrangements were all in place to welcome us.

With the kitchen humming along pleasantly in the background, daughter and I launched the evening with a platter of freshly baked house bread, Moutere Grove extra-virgin olive oil, a generous dollop of Italian balsamic, and ‘‘artisan’’ butter ($9 for two.) Straightforward and satisfying, this was ideal comfort food to launch an evening of gourmandising.

My wife chose the grilled scampi served with fennel, green beans, prosciutto and Champagne vinaigrette ($20.) While the salad was excellent, the scampi’s subtle flavours tended to be overwhelmed by the dominant taste of prosciutto.

While daughter enthusiastically tackled the pan-seared salmon, served with watercress and dauphine potatoes ($35), my wife chose Hay’s slow-braised lamb shank with fava beans, preserved lemon, kalamata olives and pappardelle ($35.) I selected the evening’s magisterially titled saddle of milk-fed organic lamb, served with a combination of shiitake veloute, asparagus and new season’s potatoes ($39). The dish was perfectly matched with a glass of 2003 Katnook Founders Block Shiraz.

A discriminating 18-year-old gourmet thrice pronounced the salmon as ‘‘yum’’, which I took as meaning truly outstanding. Claudia, a discerning diner, became uncharacteristically lyrical about the lamb shank. Phrases like ‘‘piquant flavours’’ and ‘‘perfect balance’’ flowed from her corner of the table.

My saddle of lamb was totally toothsome, a superb combination of textures and flavours cooked to perfection (I resisted the temptation to turn to the kitchen and applaud). If lamb cuisine falls into the category of the good, the bad and the ugly, this was not merely good—it soared into a culinary stratosphere of its own.

But wait, there’s more . . . two rata honey and vanilla bean creme brulees ($13 each); a sweet and creamy concoction served with a nicely acerbic green apple and mint sorbet, and a generous New Zealand cheese platter with Turkish figs and caramelized walnuts ($13.) Hay’s had worked its magic again. It was good to be back.
—Christopher Moore