Beans dish entree to NZ award

A Baked bean cuisine has helped make Masterton's Mitre 10 Mega Cafe a finalist in a quest to name New Zealand's favourite cafe.

Chef Stephen Marriot and his sister, cafe manager Sue-Anne Shannahan, are "stoked" that a flood of happy customers nominated their cafe for the Cafe of the Year competition.

"The votes pushed us into the top three cafes in the region," Mrs Shannahan said.

Votes came in by text, Facebook and a competition webpage to put the 1-year-old business in the finals for the lower North Island section, and an entry in the national final.

To qualify, Mr Marriot had to design and cook a quality dish involving Watties Baked Beans, and customers had to vote for the Masterton Mitre 10 Mega Cafe as their favourite.

"It was the customer service team that actually sold all this," Mr Marriot said, and Mrs Shannahan agreed.

"I've got a good team."

For his part, Mr Marriot has contributed the Kiwi Breakfast, a dish inspired by his time as an airline chef.

The dish features a potato rosti stack infused with baked beans, with foccacia bread, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce.

The stack is so arranged on the plate that "in theory when you bite into it, you can have a bit of everything".

Mr Shannahan is so happy with the dish, he has decided to keep serving it up as the Tararua Breakfast once the competition is over.

Judges nationwide are now set to descend on the finalists and assess each cafe on the competition dish and other criteria.

They include access, atmosphere, appeal and staff attitude, the meal including customer care and quality of food and coffee, closing and payment and the overall cafe experience.