WE ARE WHAT WE EAT
There was a time in this nation, not so long ago, when canned cheese was the height of dinner party sophistication. “I’m serious!” says Lauraine Jacobs. “It was Danish Camembert from a tin, and it wasn’t even that good and that’s why” — she dissolves into laughter — “it got deep fried and crumbed.”
Prolific food writer, passionate cook, loather of left-wing politics and tireless champion of New Zealand produce, Lauraine Jacobs can track New Zealand’s culinary evolution with cheese. In the 1990s she was part of the original line-up of writers for Cuisine magazine who daringly introduced ingredients such as feta. Back then, she says, “you either bought really expensive Parmesan from God knows where or an awful shaker of the grated stuff from Australia”.
Cut to 2021. “Buffalo cheese, sheep cheese, goat cheese, deer milk cheese…” We make it all here now. Forget Danish Camembert, Lauraine’s pick would be the Camembert from Whitestone Cheese in Oamaru. “It’s oozing. You’d never fry it.”
Long before Covid interrupted the supply chain of imported goods, the call to eat local echoed around the land from environmentalists (save those food miles), economists (let’s spend our money here) and perhaps most loudly from chefs (fresh, seasonal food spared a long, refrigerated journey just tastes better). Now, supporting local food producers makes more
