N.Z. chef knows his German mushrooms

Press, 20 February 1986, Page 15

N.Z. chef knows his German mushrooms

By 1

KAREN NIMMO

London NZPA staff correspondent London Roy Wallace’s first gift to his new boss when he arrived in West Germany nearly cost him his job. The New Zealand chef wandered into the woods and picked a huge box of mushrooms. It took him two hours and he arrived back at the restaurant with a beaming smile. But the old German was not impressed. “Nein Roy,” he shrieked and grabbed the box containing one of the deadliest species in Germany. Mr Wallace, aged 24, has since made up for his error. It is two years since he began as head chef at the restaurant which specialises in the use of wild herbs and mushrooms.

This year he hopes to win a Michelin star, the highest food award in

Europe, according to Mr Wallace. "I guess it’s like the Victoria Cross of cooking. It is awarded to the restaurant and the c00k... it can take a lifetime to get one, if you get one at all,” he told NZPA. Mr Wallace left Auckland four years ago with a fellow chef, Mark Gregory, who collected three gold medals at the “Salon Culinaire” competition in London this month. Both planned to work in Europe. Mr Wallace, who is now married to a German, describes the Frankenchschneiz area near the East German border, as “paradise” for a chef.

Food costs are low. The restaurant’s owner spends three hours a day gathering mushrooms, wild berries and herbs from the woods. Game is plentiful.

But mushrooms are the main attraction. More than 25 edible varieties range from the black trumpet to the giant umbrella which covers an entire dinner plate and tastes like steak. Dried mushrooms which cost $299 for 500 g are on the menu, and Wallace can create dishes which Mr Gregory, at Auckland’s Hotel de Brett, cannot afford to put on a plate.

Not all the mushrooms which look good are good enough to eat. On each table is a bowl of freshly picked poisonous mushrooms.

But the deadly posy has a purpose. In Germany an estimated 14 people die each year after eating poisonous mushrooms. The table decor was to help educate them, Mr Wallace said.