Cauliflower Soup
Riverstone Kitchen's first soup will be Cauliflower Soup with Roast Hazelnuts and Truffle Oil.
This soup is a celebration of winter and local produce featuring gorgeous organic cauliflowers from Oamaru Organics simply cooked down to a beautiful soft consistency and pureed, finished with roasted New Zealand hazelnuts and a lick of truffle oil. A classic combination that warms the soul.
The benefits of running one of New Zealand’s top restaurants from within Waitaki, is the availability of unique suppliers.
When owner and chef Bevan Smith is looking to source produce which isn’t grown in his abundant on-site Riverstone gardens, he need look no further than Ōamaru Organics, just south of the town, at Totara.
For his proteins - pork is free range from Havoc Pork in Waimate, and he sources “phenomenal” lamb, beef, venison and salmon locally as well.
In summer there is an abundance of berries and stonefruit, and Bevan likens the district to a “mini Hawke’s Bay”.
In a place where a pair of gumboots can often be found outside the door - “a lot even make it inside”, it is important the restaurant produces “accessible, unfussy, uncomplicated food”, he says.
“I mean it's a rural community, you know, with strong agricultural roots, and that feeds out into opportunities to grow and utilise those strengths in the restaurant. So that's why we do simple rural fare, I guess, that's approachable.”
As for soup? Bevan rates it as one of the easiest dishes - “a one-pot meal” - even for somebody not so confident in the kitchen.
“It can be as extravagant or as simple as you like. It can go in so many different directions, and the best thing is you can build on it to suit your own tastes.
“So, you know, if you love seafood, it could be an amazing chowder, or it could be a simple fish broth, or a bouillabaisse. Or it can just be something like cassoulet, you know … just studded with sausage and bacon and beans and truffle oil.
“If you just pick a country, they'll have a soup . . . Whether it's Mexican or Vietnamese, French, or Italian, you know, there's something for everyone.”