Ready for the ultimate toastie taste test? –
Think your toasties taste top? The Great NZ Toastie Takeover is back and organizers of the annual competition are once again on the hunt for the country’s supreme toasted sandwich.
With free entry, the popular competition has gained momentum year on year, with 2022 attracting more than 180 entries and a whopping 140,000 toasts served up over the duration of the search.
Now in its sixth year, and after a big jump in entries last year, organizers Cook & Nelson and McClure’s Pickles have made the call to cap entries at 250.
As always, the competition remains open to all New Zealand eateries, from cafes, bistros and hotel eateries, to bars, pop-ups, hole-in-the-wall eateries and food trucks.
Like last year, food truck entries will be judged on a designated weekend in May with the entrant required to provide exact date, time, and location details prior to the judging weekend.
Other competition rules remain the same. Each creation must be sandwiched between two slices of bread and able to be eaten by hand if necessary. The toasted sandwich must also contain cheese – or an acceptable vegan substitute, and pickles from the McClure’s Pickles range. Everything else is up to the toastie maker’s imagination.
Each entry must be on the establishment’s menu for the full duration of the competition, during lunch hours and/or dinner hours, from Friday 14 April to 31 May 2023 inclusive. Finalists must have their toastie on the menu until 20 June 2023 inclusive.
As in previous years, each toastie will be scored using set criteria. This includes presentation, effectiveness of preparation technique, eat-ability, taste, provenance and innovation.
The People’s Choice Award will also return in 2023 giving Kiwis the power to vote for their favorite participating eatery and toastie. The eatery with the most votes from the public will take away this year’s People’s Choice Award.
Entries open today (February 28) and close on March 31. Judging will begin from April 14, with the competition finalists announced on May 31. And the supreme winner will be revealed on June 20.
Last year’s battle saw finalists hail from Auckland, Ngatea, Okere Falls (Rotorua), Ohakune, Havelock North, Palmerston North, Greytown, Nelson, Christchurch, Queenstown, Twizel and Dunedin, and encompass local eateries, rural roadside cafes, breweries, a food truck , a fish farm, a burger bar, an artisan food store and a dedicated toasted sandwich shop.
Head judge Kerry Tyack said last year’s challenge saw imaginations run wild, presenting his team of 30-plus judges with an extremely tough task in choosing the finalists and eventual winner.
“With the competition heating up and a record number of toasties served up to last year, it really feels like the humble toastie has reached the lofty heights of the great Kiwi pie, the whitebait fritter, the perfect pav and the South Island cheese roll.
“In 2023, we’re expecting even more delicious and exciting entries, with the Great New Zealand Toastie Takeover now a firm feature on the local foodie calendar and those taking part reporting a notable increase in custom.”
Chef Rich Johns from Rotorua’s Okere Falls Store and Craft Beer Garden won the hotly contested title of the country’s top toastie for 2022 and had this to say at the time.
“Winning the 2022 Great NZ Toastie Takeover has been a wild ride, going from selling 10-15 toasties a day to 60+ every day, with over 10,000 toasties sold since winning! Best of all we still love making the toastie and seeing the delight on people’s faces upon the first bite.”
To submit your own entry or view the full terms and conditions of the competition, go to the entry page on www.toastietakeover.com.
A spoonful of olive oil in your coffee? –
Starbucks has launched an ‘innovative’ range of coffee beverages infused with extra virgin olive oil across its Italian stores.
Interim CEO Howard Schultz said the Oleato – meaning ‘with oil’ – range of beverages represents the ‘next revolution in coffee’ that brings together an ‘alchemy of nature’s finest ingredients’.
Starbucks cited an Italian family tradition of consuming a spoonful of extra virgin olive oil each day as an uplifting ritual as the inspiration for the concept and has partnered with premium Sicily-based olive oil brand Partanna for the product launch.
Three products — Oleato Caffè Latte, Oleato Iced Shaken Espresso and Oleato Golden Foam Cold Brew — have launched across Starbucks’ 22 stores in Italy, while two additional beverages — an Oleato Iced Cortado and Oleato Deconstructed — have debuted at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Milan .
The Seattle-based coffee chain will then introduce the beverage in select markets globally, starting with Southern California in the US this spring before expanding to Japan, the Middle East and the UK before the end of the year.
Customers will also be able to request a press – the equivalent to a spoonful – of Partanna extra virgin olive oil as a customization to select beverages, such as espresso beverages and tea lattes.
“Oleato represents the next revolution in coffee that brings together an alchemy of nature’s finest ingredients – Starbucks arabica coffee beans and Partanna cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. Today I feel just as inspired as I did 40 years ago, Oleato has opened our eyes to fresh new possibilities and a transformational way to enjoy our daily coffee,” said Schultz.
Starbucks entered the Italian market in 2018 with a Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Milan. In September 2021, the coffee chain announced it would reach 37 stores by the end of 2023, including 12 new outlets this year.
In September 2022 Starbucks opened its first store in Verona, the city which inspired the Starbucks concept in 1983, in partnership with its Italian licensee Percassi.
Hawaii leads vegan charge in USA –
Hawaii, Oregon, and New York are the most vegan-obsessed states in America.
Research conducted by health and fitness experts at Total Shape used Google search data to examine the search volume of vegan-related search terms per 100K residents in each state in America over the past 12 months. The study also analyzed each state’s favorite source of vegan protein.
The research revealed that Hawaii is the state most interested in a plant-based diet. Over the past 12 months, over 1.7K vegan-related searches were made per 100K Hawaiian residents. The most popular search term among Hawaii’s population was “Vegan,” followed by “Vegan Restaurants”, which had 12.1K searches and 9.9K searches, respectively.
The most popular natural source of protein for those who are on a plant-based diet in Hawaii is Jackfruit. Surprisingly, Jackfruit only offers 2.8g of protein per cup, however, it is popular due to its similar texture to pulled pork, an excellent gateway for those who want to try a vegan diet.
The second most vegan-obsessed state is Oregon, with a search volume of 1.5K vegan-related search terms per 100K residents. Oregon is known for its fresh fruits, especially blueberries and huckleberries, as well as its hazelnuts, which are prominent in a vegan diet.
Quinoa and Jackfruit are the joint most popular vegan protein sources in Oregon. Quinoa is a great source of protein, offering 8g of protein per 100g. Although this may not be as high compared to processed plant-based proteins, Quinoa offers all essential amino acids, as well as fiber, which explains why it is so popular.
New York is the third most vegan-obsessed state, with 1.3K vegan-related searches per 100K residents. Similarly to Oregon, Quinoa and Jackfruit are the most popular vegan sources of protein in New York. Chia seeds are also another popular choice for protein in New York, providing 17g per 100g serving.
Surprisingly, California does not rank at number one but instead ranks fourth, with just over 1,000 searches per 100K residents. California has a huge vegan following, especially as it has nearly 8,000 vegan restaurants, however, it still fails to rank at number one.
A spokesperson from Total Shape commented on the research, “It may come as a surprise that Hawaii is the most vegan-obsessed state in America, as it is well known for its fresh fish and often referred to as a ‘Fisherman’s paradise.’
“Furthermore, a vegan lifestyle is more attainable today because products are more readily available, and people now choose to opt for a balanced diet that does not consist of animal products.”
Noma announces 2024 closure to enter food lab field –
Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant that helped define a genre of ultra high-end, locally foraged, and culinary groundbreaking cuisine, has announced that it will close its doors in 2024.
After several announcements over the years that Noma was temporarily closing, opening up pop-up locations in Mexico, Japan, or Australia, becoming a pandemic-era burger joint or otherwise reinventing itself, the renowned restaurant has announced it is shutting down regular service.
For good this time. Once the restaurant closes its doors, Noma will host occasional pop-ups and transform into a full-time food lab, which essentially means the newest player in the world of direct-to-consumer food products (like Wild Rose Vinegar and Smoked Mushroom Garum ) is the world’s most famous restaurant.
A Noma spokesperson has said that they do not consider this a closing of the brand. “To continue being noma, we must change,” reads a statement on the restaurant’s website.
“Winter 2024 will be the last season of Noma as we know it.”
The restaurant is known for fantastical and interestingly named dishes like Moldy Egg Tart and Reindeer Heart Tartare, and garnered three Michelin stars in 2021, as well as winning first-place rankings on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Opened in 2003 by Claus Meyer and René Redzepi, Noma and its culinary team pioneered a style of cooking that came to be known as New Nordic, relying on local ingredients that often have to be painstakingly foraged and prepared. These labor-intensive processes and the punishing schedules needed to execute them simply cannot coexist with fair, equitable and humane work practices, Redzepi told The New York Times. “It’s unsustainable,” he said. “Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work.”
Noma’s announcement comes just months after the restaurant began paying its interns. In October of 2021, the restaurant announced that for the first time, its interns, known as stagiaires or stages in the industry, would accept pay.
In the world of fine dining, interns are rarely paid, and are routinely asked to maintain grueling work hours in exchange for the invaluable “experience” of working at a top restaurant. Because Noma is arguably the most prestigious kitchen in the world, these interns come from around the globe to learn from the most well-regarded chefs in the industry.
A Noma spokesperson said that after the restaurant’s transformation, the intern program will continue. “The transition into Noma 3.0 has no correlation to our paid internship program (which will continue for the next two years and onwards),” they said.
The practice of paying Noma interns has reportedly added $US50,000 in monthly operating expenses to the restaurant’s budget, according to The New York Times.
While Noma—the restaurant—is closing its doors in 2024, the culinary braintrust will be reincarnated in what Redzepi is calling “Noma 3.0.” The Noma test kitchen will develop new products and dishes to sell on an e-commerce platform and occasionally open up as a pop-up restaurant. It’s certainly not the last we’ll be hearing from Redzepi and his team, as they branch out into new-to-them territory. But as Redzepi wrote in the closing announcement, “Serving guests will still be a part of who we are, but being a restaurant will no longer define us.” Sources: Bon Apetit/ Noma/ NY Times