“Pretty speechless” is how chef Nathan Turley described his reaction to receiving his second People’s Choice Award during this year’s Flavours of Plenty Festival.
Along with wife Ash, Nathan owns the Mount café Somethin’ Somethin’ Cafe whose Plenty O’Fish dish earned the most votes in the Plates of Plenty Challenge. Just a few weeks earlier, Nathan also took out the People’s Choice title during the festival’s flagship Battle of the Snack event for his curry Malay-flavoured stuffed chicken wing and sambal mayo snack entry.
The Plates of Plenty Challenge tasks eateries to use at least three ingredients from a Plates of Plenty Challenge box to produce their bespoke dish, which is then available during the Flavours of Plenty Festival. This year’s box consisted of Bay Farms Avocados; Excelso Mexico Chiapas Coffee Beans; Kiwi Artisan Manuka Wood Smoked Olives; Mauri2Holdings Red Kūmara; Mount Brewing Co Sunseeker Pale Ale; Mount Sourdough Batard Loaf; Nanric Road Manuka Honey, Soy & Garlic; Nukuhou North Blueberries; and Pepper & Me Sweet Sesh Hot Honey.
Oscar Nathan, general manager of Tourism Bay of Plenty, says, “We always enjoy sparking new connections between growers, producers, and eateries during the Plates of Plenty Challenge. The ultimate goal is to inspire these venues to keep utilising these food and beverage suppliers in the future, to ensure the positive impact that our annual festival generates continues well after the final event date.”
Somethin Somethin’s Plenty O’Fish dish entry featured four of the nine locally produced Plates of Plenty Challenge ingredients: a beer-battered fish sandwich which was accompanied with an avocado and coriander mousse, crispy curry leaves, kūmara crisps, and the festival’s bespoke Sunseeker pale ale beer.
It attracted a fifth of all the diner votes for 24 different dishes which entered this year’s challenge that ran throughout the Coastal Bay of Plenty.
Nathan says, “It was a big surprise to win. We were just happy to be part of it – to put out some good food. Hopefully, it gets our name out there a bit more. People will see what we’re doing in terms of our food and our style.”
A panel of mystery judges were also asked to select their favourite dish during the Plates of Plenty Challenge.
Waihī Beach cafe Surf Shack won the coveted Judge’s Choice Award with its Te Reka o te Rā | The Sweetness of the Sun dish, featuring honey, soy and garlic panna cotta, hot honey hokey pokey, sourdough ice cream, kūmara syrup, olive biscuit crumb, pale ale, and blueberries.
The judges noted the dish had “savoury elements that were cleverly integrated into the dish, which worked exceptionally well together”.
Surf Shack owners Pip and Jo Coombes have been part of the Flavours of Plenty collective since it launched in 2021, winning the People’s Choice Award during the festival’s first Plates of Plenty Challenge in 2022.
“Winning the Plates of Plenty Challenge Judge’s Choice award this year, from among 24 incredible Bay of Plenty eateries, is a real honour,” says Pip.
“For us, it’s always been about celebrating local – meeting the producers, sharing their stories, and showcasing the best of our region on every plate. This competition gave us a chance to make it our own and connect with so many amazing people along the way. The whole team is totally stoked and we’re incredibly grateful to Tourism Bay of Plenty for their support and all their hard mahi.”
