Locals star in new food porn

Two Wellington cafés star in a new food television series that reveals the secrets of some of New Zealand’s cafés. It starts this Sunday on TV3 at 5pm.

Fronted by top chef, food writer and former café owner Julie Le Clerc, Café Secrets sees Julie meet the owners and find out how they got started, what their signature dishes are and learn the secrets behind them. In return, Julie shares some of her favourite recipes and reveals professional culinary tricks to demonstrate how to create perfect café cuisine at home.

Of the eight episodes filmed, two feature Wellington favourites – Nikau Gallery Café at the City Gallery, and Miramar’s Café Polo. Yes, we know that Wellington has so many great cafes that you could run a Wellington episode each week, all year round, but I guess they had to draw the line somewhere…

In episode two (24 July), Nikau’s Kelda Hains will show Julie how to make her famous sage fried eggs (which I guess means we’ll have to resort to theft, bribery or kidnap to get the legendary kedgeree recipe off her, dang it!). In return, Julie prepares roast pork belly, using free-range pork with a spicy caramel sauce. (If that floats your boat, you might want to visit Bill and his crew at Karori’s Gipp Street Butchery – free-range ‘Murrellen’ pork is their speciality.)

In episode four (7 August), Café Polo chef and co-owner David Thurlow reveals the tricks to his special grilled haloumi salad. I already know what I want to find out: whose haloumi does he use? There are several made locally, and numerous imports. Now my interest is piqued!

Producer Kari Hall says the show’s creators drew up a wish list of locations and then whittled them down. “We decided the café owners all had to have an absolute passion and love for what they do; they had to serve fabulous food and great coffee and they had to have a close link with their local community.”

Congratulations to Nikau and Polo – two shining stars in a galaxy of cracker Wellingon cafés.