Chef Bert Van de Seeg working with seasonal herbs in the kitchen at Malo.
Chef Bert Van de Seeg working with seasonal herbs in the kitchen at Malo.
Malo restaurant’s head chef Bert Van de Seeg offers me a small container of dusky yellow oil. He invites me to smell it.
Because I’m trusting, I do. It smells of fresh greenery, a bit aromatic and fresh. Familiar but at the same time ... not.
It’s calendula oil, he declares, and I can immediately identify the familiarity. I would have recognised that fragrance in my garden but in a restaurant kitchen it was not obvious.
Bert revels in using seasonal, fresh flowers and herbs. When something’s in season, he says, he likes to find something to do with it.
He gestures to a jar of even brighter yellow ingredients. He’s making calendula vinegar.
“Some people find things like preserving and fermenting daunting. They’re actually quite simple. It’s another thing you can do with a seasonal abundance of herbs.”
The calendula condiments are made from the calendula flower petals - hence the yellow.
Vibrant calendula vinegar.
“At the moment we have an abundance of them, and this way the flowers don’t go to waste.
“Calendula has many health benefits, a nice colour and flavour and looks great on the plate. It has so much going for it and it’s not some crazy science - it’s natural.”
Bert is heading to Mangarara Eco Lodge in Ōtane as one of the presenters of Foodscapes Central Hawke’s Bay - Falling in Love with Flavour, a part of Central Hawke’s Bay Spring Fling, on October 19. He is going to demonstrate the art of crafting dressings using garden-fresh herbs and spices.
What he will create on the day will depend on what’s abundant in the garden at Mangarara.
“That’s the beauty of working with seasonal availability, you have to think on your feet.”
Simple, fresh ingredients wait to be combined into a dressing for fish or salad.
Central Hawke’s Bay gardener Breige Rendell is one of the organisers of Foodscapes. She’s also one of the seasonal produce suppliers keeping Bert hopping.
“Breige and one other local gardener supply all our salad mixes and herbs. But Breige comes up with all these other things, something different all the time, and I have to find ways of using it.
“Certain things may not make it onto the menu. I might like them but I also know what our guests want. I’m not looking to be a trendsetter.
“Hawke’s Bay is an amazing area with amazing fresh produce. For Malo, I work with 70 different suppliers - local is possible but always looking for the very best.”
Bert sets about producing a fresh seasonal dressing before my very eyes. I’m not a skilled cook, let alone a chef, and I expect to see something I can’t hope to emulate.
The heated oil, herbs and salt are blended for five minutes.
First a dill oil. Fresh dill and baby spinach. “I’ll just put a knife through this,” Bert says and promptly does.
While the oil is strained through a paper filter, Bert dices cucumber into minuscule squares. That goes into a bowl with calendula oil and equally exquisitely yellow calendula vinegar. The dill oil is added, some dill leaves and that’s it: done.
It smells divine.
Bert spoons the dressing over slivers of fresh raw trevally, adds more dill, paper-thin slices of radish and fresh calendula petals.
It looked beautiful. It tasted even better: luscious but refreshing. It took him less than 15 minutes.
A final drizzle with dill oil and the dish is good - very good - to go.
This is something we can all do - and should all do: use fresh available produce. Join Bert at Foodcapes and you’ll also get insight into the art of gin tasting with Lighthouse Gins’ head distiller Rachel Hall and enjoy a keynote address from Angela Clifford, CEO of Eat NZ, on Aotearoa’s food movement.
Lunch will be served to the sound of live music, overlooking the lake at Mangarara Eco Lodge. And for those who don’t want to leave, discounted accommodation rates are available for ticket holders. Be quick.
