Praise For N.Z. Cuisine

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31831, 8 November 1968, Page 12

Praise For N.Z. Cuisine

A Sydney wine and food columnist, Johnnie Walker, arrived in Christchurch yesterday swollen with good Kiwi food and bursting with compliments.

A restaurateur, and an acknowledged expert on the subject, Mr Walker declared himself astounded at the quality of food and services in New Zealand’s best restaurants. “You New Zealanders are too modest,” he said. “You’re writing yourselves down when you should be writing yourselves up.” He is eating and drinking his way round the country at the expense of the Tourist and Publicity Department and Air New Zealand. When he returns to Sydney he plans to write as many as 20 articles about New Zealand wine and food in his weekly column in the Sydney “Sun-Herald.” If they are all as approving as his remarks in Christchurch yesterday, Australians will soon be swarming across the Tasman with cutlery at the ready. “A gastronomic experience!” he exclaimed. “Your wines are terrific . . . your lamb is absolutely out of this world . . . you wouldn’t see better beef in Scotland . . .

the borsch I had in Wellington yesterday would leave Russian borsch for dead.” Mr Walker compared New Zealand white wines with Swiss wines—“and that’s putting them in a very high

class.” It was impossible to compare them with Australian wines, he said, because they were quite different, but he saw no reason for New Zealand to import any Australian wine. “Your basic beef, lamb and fish—well, they’re incredible really,” he said. “And you know why, don’t you? Youre living in one big golf course. Theres so much feed that the

animals don’t have to walk for it.” He said it amazed him to find so many highly trained chefs in New Zealand. He could hardly believe that such a small population could support so many. In a Wellington restaurant he discussed wines with a young bar manager who knew more about his subject than almost anyone in Australia.

The meal that seemed to have impressed him most was served at another Wellington restaurant, where the Swiss chef produced a dish with the the exotic name of “Lobsters in Love.” “I’d never tasted the like of it anywhere, and I travel extensively,” he said. “I’ve dined in the best restaurants in Europe. “It was cooked at the table, and the entree was the eye of a cutlet served as a kebab, spiced with the herbs of Indonesia. These were original things that this chap had created.”

Mr Walker began his career during the depression buying Hunter River wine for 20c a gallon and selling it at the price of beer.

Much later he started Australia’s first bistro, serving spaghetti, salami, coffee and wine. It has now grown to seat 600. He also owns a steak house and runs a cooking school.

Mr Walker is taking a rest from restaurants while in Christchurch, but he will visit Mount Cook and Queenstown before he goes back to tell Sydney all about it.

Heart Patient Dies.—Russia’s first heart-transplant patient has died, 33 hours after a team of Army surgeons operated on her, it was disclosed today. The Defence Ministry newspaper “Red Star,” said the patient, a 25-year-old woman, had not been expected to live.—Moscow, November 7.