If you happen to pop into Rangiora PAK’nSAVE for essentials while exploring North Canterbury’s exceptional vineyards, creative eateries and stunning countryside, you might spot a stand you haven’t seen in your local supermarket. Proudly bearing a Made North Canterbury logo, it features five shelves stacked solely with items produced in the region. It’s not only a treat for food-loving out-of-towners wanting to explore what’s made where they are, but also for locals wanting to support the artisan producers in their own backyard. And there is plenty to choose from – from nuts to crackers to locally roasted coffee to eggs, honey and so much more. This region has a long history of good kai and creative folk who know how to make wonderful things with it.

New Zealanders have long known about this plentiful and fertile part of Te Waipounamu; the Kaiapoi Pā, just north of Woodend, was the major trading centre for food exchanges between settlements. In early days it might have been eel, kāuru (cabbage tree root), aruhe (fern root), pipi, mussels or kūmara. Then with the settlers of the 19th century, agriculture and horticultural crops were added to the mix, including the all-important growing of grapes, of course. In 2025 you’ll find 90-plus vineyards, numerous beef and sheep farms, wild game, market gardens, truffières, apiaries, rivers and coastlines full of kaimoana. Abundant is definitely the adjective here.

What’s even better is the people of North Canterbury are really proud of what’s grown and produced around them and every year Enterprise North Canterbury, the local economic development agency, holds a competition under the Made North Canterbury umbrella. Called The North Course, the contest invites restaurants and cafés to create clever dishes using ingredients all grown, raised or made in the region. Local diners get enthusiastically involved, voting for their favourites to find an ultimate winner. It’s not only fun for those eating out, but a real connector between local chefs and producers, with chefs sometimes discovering new products that might have been right under their noses all this time.

We spoke to four local chefs about their experiences.

OLLY LE MAITRE, BLACK ESTATE

Anyone who knows exceptional food in New Zealand will be well aware of the talented team at Black Estate. Chef Olly Le Maitre’s North Course dish of goat’s cheese and confit leek ravioli with roasted pumpkin, hazelnut and burnt butter was everything you would expect from this outstanding vineyard and eatery; there’s a reason they were awarded two hats in the Cuisine Good Food Awards. “We’ve always been focussed on local and organic food, in line with Nick and Pen’s wine philosophy [Nicholas Brown and Pen Naish are owners of Black Estate and the wines are produced organically and biodynamically] but it’s still fun to get creative for a competition like this,” says Olly.

In his dish, the goat’s cheese in the ravioli came from Little Farm Goat Dairy which breeds Toggenburgs – a very old breed of Swiss dairy goats – for their exceptional milk. The pumpkin came from Pihi Farms. “We love Pihi Farms; their veges are in a category of their own and a couple of times a year, we are able to get Pihi’s grass-fed beef, too, which is a real treat.” The leek came from Little Owl BioDynamic Farm, all matched with the Black Estate Home Chardonnay 2023.

Olly has worked at several of New Zealand’s favourite places to eat including Logan Brown and Whitebait, as well as numerous luxury lodges overseas, but he loves being at Black Estate where he can run a bit more freely with seasonal produce. “It’s harder in bigger restaurants where you need a larger and consistent supply and can’t always change the menu easily. Coming here really opened my eyes a bit to what was possible – the quality of what we have available to us is really unbeatable. And it’s a chef’s dream to work with produce that has only travelled from up the road. It’s so fresh and you don’t really have to do a lot with ingredients that have so much flavour on their own.” The kitchen team even makes its own bread from Milmore Downs local flour which is picked and milled then delivered the next day, taking the concept of fresh to a whole new level. “It would be pretty hard to work anywhere else after this,” he laughs. “Sometimes I probably take it a bit for granted but realise not many chefs have these options all around them!” blackestate.co.nz

DYLAN AMES & HANNAH WILLIAMSON, D.O.T.I.

Dylan and Hannah have worked around the Hurunui area for the last two decades, most recently at Waipara Hills, but D.O.T.I. is the first solo venture for both of them. It’s safe to say Amberley locals are truly delighted to have an eatery of this quality in their ’hood, and needed no encouragement to try their North Course dish of lamb ribeye with pumpkin hummus, smoky kraut and tapenade, finished with goat’s cheese and honey-roasted hazelnuts. “We are very spoiled. With Amberley Farmers Market just across the road, on a Saturday we can just pop across and choose what we’d like to use that week,” says Hannah. They went all out on their dish, using ingredients from seven local producers on one glorious plate: Canterbury Nuts, Fernside Microfarm, Middlehurst Station, Wild Child Ferments, Little Farm Goat Dairy, Terrace Edge and Waipara Valley Honey. “We already use local meat from suppliers such as Harris Farms and Lovat Venison but Middlehurst was a new discovery thanks to the competition,” says Dylan. “It was so great to meet and connect with them. They were such nice people and a family business – true farm to plate. We have such incredible meat available so close to us and it’s so great as a chef to be able to give it the respect it deserves. We have people come into the restaurant and tell us it’s the best steak they’ve ever had. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Dylan and Hannah are both fans of Wild Child Ferments. Olivia Johnson from Greta Valley makes a spectacular range of award-winning kimchis and krauts that add a bit of excitement (and great gut health) to every dish they touch. “With all these products – such as Wild Child, Terrace Edge olive oil, Waipara Honey and Canterbury Nuts – you can really tell they care about their product,” says Hannah. It’s clear the D.O.T.I. team (which stands for Don’t Over Think It, if you’re wondering) is keen to connect with locals in every way possible, through buying from small, local food businesses and by providing a place for those around them to catch up with friends and family in the area. doti.co.nz

REBECCA THOMPSON, BLACK & WHITE COFFEE CARTEL, RANGIORA

Bex Thompson is the chef at Black & White Coffee Cartel in Rangiora, and while it’s part of a popular franchise this café definitely has a personality, flair and flavour all of its own. Bex’s dish was voted the overall winner out of 33 eateries: ‘The Local’ spring hash was made from local kūmara, with Karikaas feta cheese, poached Benzie Free Range Eggs, grilled asparagus from Behind the Hedge Garden Company and sprinkled with Fernside Microfarm radish microgreens – truly North Canterbury on a plate. You could also have it with salmon smoked just across the carpark at North Canterbury Seafood Market which, while not local, hadn’t travelled far from Akaroa. “It was such a great process for me and was so amazing to see the staff and customers really support it like they did,” says Bex. “We have always used Benzie’s eggs. They hold together so well and are so great in any dish – and we should know, we’ve tried a lot of different brands. Fernside Microfarm and Behind the Hedge have been on our ingredient list for a while, in fact Michael from Fernside was a customer before he was a supplier, but Karikaas feta was a new find prompted by entering the competition. It was a great discovery; it’s really firm so you can actually grate it, meaning amazing distribution right through the dish.”

It’s not hard to see why this café won the most votes. Not only is the food fresh and all made from scratch, but it’s an eatery that really understands the broader purpose of a local daytime café: that of a community hub. Every Wednesday at 11am on the dot ‘the boys’ arrive (a group of grey-haired regulars all over the age of 70 who have just done their morning exercise). Mums and preschoolers enjoy coffee and cake, groups of friends roll in for a rowdy lunch full of laughter, there’s even a ukelele group who come after their practice. And when you talk to owners Bridget Philpott and Lydia Fechney you realise this sense of somewhere to belong has not happened accidentally. “We always remind our staff that the conversation some of our customers have with them may be their only one that day so it’s really important they actually take an interest. We want people to feel really welcome in this space. We’ve seen so many friendships form between regular customers who were once strangers, and we love that feeling of community in a time when so many people can feel a bit lonely,” says Bridget. Lydia agrees: “We do great food for sure, but also sponsor sports teams, community groups and hopefully provide a space where people feel part of the Rangiora community.” facebook.com/BWCCRangiora

So if you’re visiting this part of the country, make sure you seek out the local edible treasures. Whether it be at Amberley Farmers Market on a Saturday or PAK’nSAVE Rangiora (not just for the shelves of produce we mentioned above, you’ll also find Harris Farms meat and Karikaas cheese in the chillers and Heartland Coffee being brewed out front), or any one of the eateries such as Black Estate, D.O.T.I. or Black & White Coffee Cartel, it’s a great way to connect with what’s been grown, made and eaten in this beautiful part of the world.

MADE NORTH CANTERBURY

Made North Canterbury is the region’s food-and-drink provenance brand, celebrating the unique origin of products or produce, their authenticity and traceability. It uses internationally recognised provenance criteria that take into account the percentage of local ingredients used, skill level in making and manufacturing, and whether the business is owned and operated in North Canterbury. If you’re heading to this region, check out their handy directory. madenorthcanterbury.co.nz/directory