11th New Zealand Symposium of Gastronomy Dinner at Riccarton House

11th New Zealand Symposium of Gastronomy Dinner

Saturday 25 November 2017 Local / Riccarton House

Max Dingle

Riccarton House, set in magnificent gardens and bordered by the River Avon and built in three stages, 1856, 1874 and 1910, was the setting for the 11th Symposium dinner. The in-house restaurant is headed by Sam Marchant who also runs a regular Farmers Market held in the grounds of Riccarton House, which is the source of fresh produce used in the restaurant, hence the name Local.

The menu for the evening was inspired by Colonial Everyday Cookery (1907), the inspiration ranging from 2 different recipes being combined in both the soup course and the terrine to the pickled pork recipe for the main and "Mother's pudding" as dessert.

Riccarton House foyer

Symposiasts, gathering in the oak lined foyer, continued the discussions, debates and idle chat of the day with a glass of sparkling wine and hor d'oeuvres, before attending the Drawing Room and a brief history of the house and its current use. The dinner started with Asparagus, spring pea & créme fraiche soup with "Two Thumbs"Oatmeal stout bread. Spring in a bowl and great bread.

Rabbit, Pork Hock & Chicken Liver Terrine

Before the next course someone took on the role of Symposiarch and decided that a glass of sparkling with the hor d'oeuvres and a glass of riesling with the main, was a bit too modest, and taking up Dionysos' advice*, it was arranged that, rather than be unaccompanied the Rabbit, pork hock & chicken liver terrine with pinot poached cherries and sourdough crostini be served with a glass of either Circuit Chardonnay 2016, Black Estate, North Canterbury or The Bone Line White Label Pinot Noir 2016 Waipara Valley

*Greek playwright, Eubulus (c. 375 BC ), had the god of wine, Dionysos, describe proper and improper drinking:

For sensible men I prepare only three kraters: one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home.

Dionysos continues: The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.

Pickled Pork Cutlet

So to the Pickled pork cutlet, piquant cream sauce, pease pudding & baby carrots

and our third glass, either Stoke IPA beer or Crater Rim Riesling, though, through not paying attention during the pour and then forgetting to ask, I am unsure as to whether it was Crater Rim's Waipara Valley or its Canterbury Riesling, various sources have described both as "in the German style", either way a number of people remarked on the initial sweetness on the palette and the dryish finish.

While this dinner could be thought of as a festive celebration, during which, historically, the focus tends to be on meats of various sorts, I personally find the practice of a lot of our restaurants, in Australia and it seems New Zealand, serving large portions of meat and virtually no vegetable, is a bit odd, given the emphasis today on healthy eating and environmental issues. In the case of our meal here, considering the ingredients are all sourced at a Farmers market featuring stall after colourful stall of freshest vegetables, to be served a large slice of terrine with two poached cherries followed by an extremely large pork chop with one baby carrot, one snow pea and one small spinach leaf, seemed to show contempt for fruit and vegetables as anything other than decoration, even with the shared side of Mignonette lettuce leaves.

With our third glass of wine drained, some of our Symposiasts, feeling the strain of a long day, a large and excellent Persian themed lunch and no doubt Dionysos's advice, started a slow but steady movement to home. So the Mothers pudding, vanilla mascarpone, strawberry & port wine jelly, raspberry crumbs did not have a full compliment of diners and the Tea, Coffee with Almond Biscuits, Shortbread with passionfruit icing were passed by nearly all.

Mother's Pudding

A memorable meal even though the execution of the various " Everyday Cookery" inspired courses was not always totally successful. In particular with the main, I felt that a strong caper flavour, presumably the "piquant cream sauce", overwhelmed other strands within the composition but I may be entertaining an old prejudice acquired in the 90's, when, for a brief moment, every restaurant plate seemed to feature a few caper berries.

The central component of the dessert, "Mothers pudding" seemed to misplace an "s" from dessert and was a bit arid; it was not saved by the oasis of vanilla mascarpone. I was later told, at 2nd hand, that the original recipe for "Mother's pudding" consisted of a scant list of ingredients and as we all know, turning a word of mouth recipe to the written can involve some "translation" errors especially in the process of re-converting to an end product. Generating the thought that the recipes were possibly given their only outing for this particular evening.

The owner / chef Sam Marchant, dressed in 'civvies', did make an appearance toward the end of the evening and gave a gracious short talk and in the process explained that because of prior commitments, another chef was in the kitchen.

The evening was enjoyed by all, as is usually the case when sharing with friends and collegues.