Judges go wild about Russian Red Beer dish

The Abbey Bar & Restaurant in Greenlane, Auckland has been named the 12th annual Monteith’s Beer & Wild Food Challenge winner after an intense live cook-off against five other ‘wild’ chefs in Wellington today.

Around 120 nationwide restaurants entered this year’s competition which is designed to find the perfect wild food and Monteith’s beer match. The Challenge has been running for 12 years and this year entrants had to create one main dish using two wild food ingredients sourced from within a 100km radius of their restaurant. Their unique meal was paired with one of eight Monteith’s beers and offered to diners alongside standard menu items.

Close to 6500 diners visited the competing restaurants during June and July, voting on the dishes and enjoying the unique experience that Monteith’s has skillfully created. The public’s favourite entrants were also assessed by Monteith’s convenor of judges, Kerry Tyack, who had his own challenge of whittling down the leading contenders to six finalists. Joining Kerry at the cook-off was a respected panel of restaurant critics including Al Brown of Logan Brown restaurant in Wellington and award-winning food writer and food expert Margaret Brooker.

The Abbey’s winning dish is called ‘Rudolf the Russian Red Beer’, which is a lavender crusted venison rack with a taro and green banana filled apple, red currants, goat’s cheese and golden kumara soufflé and maple poached Jerusalem artichokes, carefully matched with Monteith’s Celtic. The dish’s name was inspired by Chef Eugene Sokolovski’s Russian heritage.

The Abbey will continue to offer ‘Rudolf the Russian Red Beer’ for another month for keen diners to try.

Monteith’s brand manager, Natalie Dorn congratulated the winner along with all those that entered and made it through to the finals.

She says this year’s new format was extremely well received by both entrants and diners.

“The inclusion this year of a consumer voting element gave even more people the chance to experience some truly unique and creative dishes matched with some fantastic Monteith’s beer. I’m sure it’s inspired others to have a sense of adventure and try their hand at beer and food matching either while dining out or at home.”

Kerry Tyack says everyone should be proud of their entry.

“There were a very high number of potential winners this year. The six finalists represent the best of a highly talented crop. My fellow judges and I had a difficult task choosing between them. All succeeded in bringing expert beer and food matches to the table. In the end it came down to the dish that brought all the critical elements of pairing great beer with great food and leaving a satisfied smile on our faces,” he says.

The other five finalists in the competition were Loading Ramp in Havelock North, Mount Bistro in Tauranga, St John’s Restaurant in Wellington, The Porch Kitchen & Bar in Waihi Beach and Wineglass Café in Wanaka.

For more information visit www.monteiths.co.nz