An international news outlet says it's time to "forget Sydney" and make a culinary pilgrimage to Auckland instead.
In an article for Bloomberg, writer Amy Louise Bailey highlights Ponsonby restaurant Orphan's Kitchen, Ostro and Amano in Britomart, and Masu and Depot on Federal St, as she tracks the course of the city's growth to become "one of the most innovative culinary destinations in the South Pacific - rivalling even Sydney and Melbourne."
Bailey, who grew up in Auckland in the '90s, notes the city's food scene has come a long way from the "conventional" white table clothed restaurants serving up chocolate sponge cake to a city where restaurateurs are standing out for embracing New Zealand's Maori heritage and utilising the country's compact geography to source local, seasonal produce - a trend in top food establishments the world over.
The article cites the 2000 America's Cup and subsequent Viaduct development as the catalyst for Auckland's food transformation, identifying the period as an era where ingredients such as kumara and octopus became celebrated "stars on the plate".
