TEST BY TOHEROA

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 104, 3 May 1924, Page 6

TEST BY TOHEROA

So inoffensive an organism as the toheroa has caused trouble between a high official of the , New Zealand Government and the representatives of one. of the biggest business firms of its kind in the. world. The Commissioner for the Dominion at the British Empire Exhibition complains that Lyons and Company, the famous restaurateurs, who are caterers to the Exhibition, are not providing typical New Zealand cates in their menus. This is regarded as a serious matter for the Dominion, for which the Court and the £5000 spent on decoration and kitchen was instituted. The chief object of representation of New Zealand at the s Exhibition was the introduction to British and foreign notice the foods, among other commodities, that this country has to sell. There is, then, a business reason for the insistence jon the inclusion of toheroa soup in the menus of the New Zealand Court restaurant; there is also a business reason given by Messrs. Lyons for refusing to include that delicacy in the provisions they will furnish to this particular restaur-ant^-unless' indemnified against possible loss. Fuller details of the difference of ' opinion between Messrs. Lyons and Mr. Roberts are desirable before any conclusion can be come to on what the Commissioner contends is a typical New Zealand dish and what Messrs. Lyons think their hungry customers will expect and demand. After all, there is a solid physiological basis for the saying that " what is one man's meat is another man's poison.-'' Who shall describe the' feelings of the first man who ate an oyster? The toheroa is a toothsome shellfish, but not nearly so well known in New Zealand as it ought to be. Even if it were, there are. innumerable people who, on principle, never eat shellfish of any kind. Seaurchins ,and pawas are delicious, when properly prepared by the Maori, and, indeed, are regarded as delicacies in the Channel Islands and Britanny; also the Italian is passionately fond of his squid. It is all amatter of taste. Mr. Roberto's endeavours to secure the serving of typical New Zealand dishes at the New Zealand .restaurant will no doubt be pushed to their utmost, as the cablegram suggests; but what are typical New Zealand dishes? Are they not much the same as those of. the British table? Who that is familiar ■ with boarding-houses cannot recite the breakfast menu, in all seasons and all places, with its porridge,'chops, steaks, and sausages, occasionally ham and eggs, generally bacon, usually fish. Crayfish is a typical dish, so are smoked blue cod, whitebait (not like the whitebait that made Greenwich-famous), and mullet, and others of the excellent I fishes iv New Zealand waters.

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hams and bacon, lamb, mutton, beef, pork, eggs, honey, and fruit can and probably will be served iv the New Zealand restaurant. Against these Messrs. Lyons appear to have raised no objection, but they stick out against the toheroa, insisting on being indemnified in the event of the shellfish failing to meet the British taste. Is this reasonable? One cannot say until fuller information is furnished, but the hitch over the business is there, and Mr. Roberts has given the firm a day or two to make up their minds on the toheroa. As experts in gauging public tastes in foods, Messrs. Lyons ought "to know something about foods .the public likes, and what it is not prepared to risk; as representative of £ew Zealand productions, Mr Roberts ought to, and does, know what should be given a fair trial in the menu furnished for a New Zealand restaurant. No doubt a way out will be found when chefs and caterers have conferred and the little difficulty that has arisen will be ■ smoothed out, with the tcheroa coming into its own. Certainly there is a solid business reason why every possible product of this country should figure in a menu framed with the object of bringing New Zealand before the world.