Cloak 'n' dagger on food supplies

The menus for the showcase Apec leaders' meals next weekend are no secret, but the shopping trips have been positively cloak-and-dagger.

The spot on the bank of the Haast River where the whitebait are being caught and the source of the Manawatu loin of lamb that will tempt the palates of the powerful at the Sunday evening banquet in the town hall are known only to a select few.

When caterer David Williams went shopping for the wine he didn't tell the vineyards what it was for. And some supplies were bought in other names.

"Everything was booked without anyone knowing what it was for," he said. "For security reasons, we had to keep it under wraps."

The secrecy has given rise to some confusion. Producers have been puzzled to hear that their goods had made it into the Apec kitchens when they had taken no order from the caterer.

In one such case, a salmon farmer thought someone else's fish was being passed off as his. But Mr Williams explained that the delicacy had been bought in an arm's-length deal.

"It was held under another name by another restaurant because we were not saying where anything was coming from."

He said there were backups for all the food arrangements. Three bakers were on standby and every item had an alternative source of supply in case of a hygiene scare or any other breakdown.

Mr Williams would not comment on whether the security was designed to foil any would-be poisoner.

Nor did he know whether modern Presidents and potentates had food tasters like their equivalents of old.

"You'd have to ask them that."