We Got Sent Beer! So We Talked Food, Festivals & Fine Dining

Welcome back to the Forkin' Good Podcast with Kate and Simon.

This episode starts with a simple surprise… a “Fork'n Good” rice lager.

But quickly turns into a deep dive into food, drink, and one of New Zealand’s most exciting culinary events… the Flavours of Plenty Festival.

We chat about:
• Our favourite drinks (wine, whiskey, and everything in between)
• The rise of local food festivals and why they matter
• Behind the scenes of the Flavours of Plenty Festival in the Bay of Plenty
• Supporting local restaurants, growers, and producers
• The Plates of Plenty Challenge and how chefs are using local ingredients
• Why food is such a powerful way to bring people together

Plus, Kate sits down with festival organiser Rae to unpack:
👉 How the festival started
👉 What makes it so unique
👉 The must-try events this year
👉 And how you can get involved

If you love food, local experiences, and discovering new places to eat, this episode is for you.

LET US KNOW
Would you come “road hookin” with us? Where should we go next?

Like & Subscribe to support the podcast
Drop your favourite restaurant or festival in the comments
https://flavoursofplentyfestival.com/

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Facebook: @Officialsimongault
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Youtube: Simon Gault

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Forking Good Po the Forking Good Podcast. That's a good one. The Forking Good Podcast with Kate and Simon. And I can tell you that, hey Simon, I I stuffed that up because I've just been sent.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

You're on the beer already.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Yeah, well, I got sent some forking good lagers.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

So Yeah, I I got it as well. I had one with my well, I'm not going to tell you what I had it with, but it's a good food beer, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Well, we both got sent these by the Flavors of Plenty Festival, who funnily enough, we set up the podcast last year, and then they reached out and were like, oh my gosh, we've set out a forking good set up a forking good beer for the for the festival. So I was like, ah, well, we should try it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

As you do. You're not much of a beer drinker, though, normally, are you, really?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

I don't drink beer really.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

I only I've never seen you drink a beer.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Well, only after I've mowed the lawns. Like I've if I've done a day work or I've mowed the lawns and it's a hot day, it's only at that point where I'll I'll pretty much neck a beer and then I'm done. I don't want any more beer. I've always thought that I'm not a beer drinker.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

I kind of find beer bloats me now. I mean, I I mean I I'm a bit like you after doing something like if I've been for a flight in a glider and it's hot and you come down, you put your glider away, you get into the bar. I'm having a beer. I am having a beer. That's but you know, back in the back in my restaurant days, I you know, I probably had way too many beers, so I weren't let's say you you you're done on the beersies now, Simon.

unknown 1:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Well, you know, one every now and again. Yeah, but what do you what are you sort of like? I mean, this is totally going on a tangent now, isn't it? Really? And and just to remind people, make sure you like and subscribe to us to keep up with what our chats are about.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

But yeah, and send us something too.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

We like we like gifts, don't we? We actually do like gifts, so like we don't get many gifts, but you know, I'm quite partial to the odd gift, you know. And we're not supporting drinking, just so that everybody knows. But what is your drink of choice, Simon? Just out of interest.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Actually, it's quite a funny story because one years ago when I had this type 2 diabetes thing going on, and I went and got it sorted out, and you know, was off the booze, and you know, I was on a mission to lose some weight because if you lose weight, that helps with getting rid of the type 2 diabetes. Anyway, I lost a bunch of weight, then I was talking to the guy that was helping me through the whole process, and you know, getting fit, getting healthy, sleeping better, looking after my microbiome and all that sort of stuff, and I was measuring my blood glucose levels all the time. Anyway, it was the first night I went out, and I thought, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna have a drink, but I'm gonna have a whiskey and a really nice whiskey, and I tested my blood sugars afterwards and didn't spike them at all. And I was talking to the guy the next day and I told him, and he said, I didn't expect you to work that out so quickly. So, but yeah, occasionally I I do love a whiskey, and I'm not a it has to be a really expensive one, I mean just a good Jameson's on ice over summer. It's a cool drink, I do love it, but I still love a glass of wine, red in particular, but I like white wine, beer occasionally, the odd gin and tonic occasionally, but yeah, I know. But the gin and tonic, well, the tonic, I you know, I I go for the diet tonic, even though I know it's just as bad, really, with all those sort of sh sugars in there. I mean, your body can't tell the difference between sugar and normal tonic and sugar and diet tonic. So I don't know. Yeah, gin and tonic engaging them.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Everything that moderation Kate. Yeah, exactly. I I've I actually am I became quite partial to whiskey drinking years ago when I was down in Omuru of all pra of all places, and I went to this, it was a really old whiskey shop, and they had these barrels of New Zealand whiskey, and they sort of and I tried them, they were so good. And I sort of I'd never really liked whiskey, and now I am quite partial to whiskey, but unlike you, Simon, I only like a good one. So if I'm gonna drink whiskey, it's like one block of ice with it like with with just whiskey neat. I don't have it with anything else, and I really enjoy it, especially in the winter for me. I find it quite a nice.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

What about we had some grapper over Christmas, right? Like most people hear grappa and they go, Oh, it's rocket fuel. But when you get a good one, and you tried it, was it dope? It was lovely, it was so smooth, wasn't it? That was uh JK14's whiskey from Nardini in Italy, and it's absolutely beautiful. So I think that's my ultimate little tipple is a glass of that is just so so good at the end of a meal at the end of the night. Anyway, we're sounding like a bunch of alcoholics, come on. And we're not I I mean, I really I can go weeks without a drink now. I mean, it's you know, so I'm just getting that in there so that you know everybody does know I'm not a booze hag.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

No, but you know, if I I I'm I very rarely drink. In fact, I when I was talking the other day about catching up with the doctor and she said, How much do you drink? Because that's probab apparently quite an issue in menopause. And I was like, I actually would be lucky if I had two alcoholic beverages in in a week, maybe four a month. I'm not I don't really, I'm not a big drinker, but when I do have a tipple, I do like a good tipple, so I save I save it for when it's good, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Make it a real treat. I mean, with a good meal, it's nice to have a glass of wine, isn't it? I do like that. And you know, red wine's good for you as well, right? So, you know, all those stuckrol or whatever it is in there, and antioxidants, it's good for us. Red wine. I drink that in the Mediterranean, they all live to be a bit older than us.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Oh, there you go. I've got it all wrong, you know, gotta get on the red wine and straight and skip. That's my mission. I'm gonna get you up get you on the red wines. I do like a red. Um I'm a sort of pinot noir is my choice of reds. I actually really like there's a brewery down in Cromwell that I really enjoy. I've been there a couple of times, and they do like a cheese board, and you go in and you get a cheese board and a couple of different wines. And there was one that did an amazing dessert wine, but they had this really good reserve, and I don't even know if the winery exists anymore. I think it was called wooing tree.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Oh, yes, yes, very nice.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah, really lovely wine, and it's a complete treat. But I do love a good New Zealand red from the south, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

If you're talking about being down that neck of the woods, they make an incredible whiskey just out of Wanuker, the Cardrona Cardrona Distillery. That is absolutely fantastic. If anybody's ever down there, it is totally worth calling in. They do sing it's a single malt distillery, they do tastings tours, and you know, the Cardrona Valley is just absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend it. If you're a whiskey girl, Kate, you've got to get there.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Oh, we just gotta go do road hooking down there, Simon.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

I mean, that's just you've just got to road hooking, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01 8:40

We are on the dual road hooking.

unknown 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Yeah, we should tell people about our road hooking, because that they're only on Instagram and Facebook, aren't they? But they're they're very cool. They get a huge number of views.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Yeah. Oh well, it's because we we're going out there and and enjoying a an amazing meal at some of these local restaurants. And I I think especially in the the cost of living at the moment, supporting these, you know, local restaurants is super important when you're, you know, if you're going out and using your local instead of getting, you know, nasty old takeaways, better off to spend save up for a couple of weeks and or you know, month and go out for a a decent meal. So I definitely on I'm saving Simon, so we're gonna have to we need to do another one, don't we?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

I mean, you know, do you remember that lasagna we had at Romulus and Remus? How good that was. And what about what about the leg of goat that we had at Locanta in Auckland? Oh my god, that was incredible on lentils. It was um it just fell off the bone, didn't it? It had a sauce. So good.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

And the and the salad I remember from there, the watermelon and feta salad.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Like these are the nuts over that. The the visuals of that salad was incredible, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Yeah, it was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

But that was such a good combination of the watermelon and the the feta cheese, a saltiness from the feta cheese, and they had some herbs on there. Was so good. But you know, so the road hook. So for those that haven't heard about our road hooking, uh I drive myself round in a mini from East Auckland Mini Garage, so we try and give them a bit of a plug. And so it's me and Kate road hooking in the mini, and we turn up at a restaurant, and we've always been there before, we shouldn't tell people that. So we know it's really good. Well, I do I do the research, Kate. So it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Well, and I've just got to go and eat the food, it's really hard.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Oh, you seem to do all right. It's like it's just so neat to find a great restaurant and then tell people about it. You know, on Instagram it you know can get a hundred thousand views, right? And then you hear the restaurant owner calling me, you know, weeks later and going, You and Kate have changed our lives, you know, it's just fantastic. So look out for our road hooking videos, people, because they are they're pretty cool and we love doing them. We just don't do enough of them.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

I know. Well, we haven't been together enough lately, Simon. We've both been really busy, but you know what? Maybe I set a challenge for you to look up the flavours of plenty. So the flavours of plenty, it's a big festival down in the Bay of Plenty. So I think you you need to look up the the website. I'm gonna send it to you so you can have a look, and I'll put a link below so that people can find it. But there's a whole lot of restaurants doing challenges at the moment. They've been sent to like a mystery box, but like MasterChef, I suppose. They have a mystery box and they've got to create uh an item on their menu for the next month, and then people vote on it. They've got all these different types of events that they've got going on, and it's yeah, it's all happening as I think it was like the first of April, it all kicked off. And maybe we should go road hooking to one of those. I'll send you the send you the booklet and you can decide where you want to go, and we'll we'll just rock up and you know, in the mini and uh give it a go.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Sounds like a plan, I reckon. So festivals of plenty, is that what it's called? Is this where the ro uh the fork and good beer is?

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Yeah, flavors of plenty plenty festival, yeah, that's what it's called. And then we could find one of the guys who are doing the fork and good lager and we can sit and enjoy that with the the food match, you know. The I feel like that's it.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

I sound like I know what I'm talking about, so yeah, but you've already caught up with the the fork and good bear people, right? It's made out of rice, rice, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah, it is made out of rice, but no, I haven't talked to the people who make the lager, I've actually talked to the lady who has set up the the festival. So it's been going for a few years, and it basically when I talked to her, and I've got the interview, so I can share it with you so you can see what we talked about, but I just talked to her about how it had come about, and because Bay of Plenty is so plentiful, which is why we're called Bay of Plenty. Everything grows, we've got an abundance of fresh produce, and and it's all about supporting local growers, connecting local growers with local chefs, and teaching people how they've got cooking classes, they've got all sorts, Simon. It's really cool, it's really exciting, and I'll share the interview at the end of the podcast so that anybody who's interested can see what it's all about because I I think it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

That does sound cool. I love it when you know they do Wellington on a plate. I always used to love that where they get all the restaurants involved, and I know up in Wangaray they do one as well, and especially great when you know it's sort of going into winter, restaurants are a bit quieter, and it gives people a reason to go out and see, well, what was this magic box all about and try a different beer made out of rice? And you know, I yeah, I'm I'm I love those sort of things.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

So I'm because there's the scallop festivals, there's all sorts around the country that that pop up at different times of the year to support the local restaurants. I love it, I think it's great, and it gives like people like me who's not a chef and you know, is still learning how to make things taste epic through, you know, having a friend Simon. But it gives you the chance to go out and try something that you might not normally eat, you know. Yeah. Uh something a bit different for off than just off the menu and having steak and vegetables.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

I I love it in a restaurant where there's a special event. It's like when bluff oysters come out. You know, who's the first restaurant to get bluffs in? I remember one year, this sounds really bad, but we hired a learjet and we flew down to Bluff and we loaded the Learjet up with bluff bluffies, flew back to Auckland, landed, and then the gentleman who owned the jet with owned MBR, and so he was there in his Rolls-Royce, and we loaded all these bluff oysters into his Rolls-Royce, and we had all the people waiting at the restaurant down on Princess Wharf, Euro that I used to have. They were all waiting for the Bluffies to turn up, and we pull up in the Rolls-Royce outside with all these bluff oysters, it's kind of a showing off, isn't it? I tell you the other thing that's called that they have this uh wine in Beaujolais, it's called Beaujolais Nouveau out of France, and it comes out on the third Thursday in November every year, and then it was a race to see who could be the first to be drinking Beaujolais Nouveau. And there was a hotel in London one year, and they did a big publicity stunt, and they had a Harrier jump jet, you know, the vertical takeoff fighter jet, picked up the Beaujolais Nouveau from France and landed on the roof of the hotel. I mean, that's pretty cool, right? That's nuts. That's nuts. And then I in my first restaurant that I had, which was called Bell House, I worked out that we were one day ahead. So we reached out to them over there in Beaujolais and said, you know, because of our time difference, do you think you know we could have it a little bit earlier and fly it out here? So we we flew out, I think about six cases of it, which is you know a dozen in a in a box, and then we had a guy called Vic Williams, who was a restaurant reviewer, and we hired a helicopter, landed at Auckland Airport, and then we loaded it into the helicopter and we flew it to the Halleck Colonial Village and landed it right outside the restaurant, and everybody drank Beaujolais Nouveau in New Zealand before anybody else did in London or France or anywhere else. I was like, yes, pretty cool, eh?

SPEAKER_01 17:29

That's very cool. That's very cool. You wouldn't be able to afford to run a jet now, though.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

So nobody can afford to drive down the road to get a bottle of milk, let alone. Yeah, none of that flash stuff happens anymore.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Man, isn't it isn't it interesting? But we're going to talk about that on the next podcast around the cost of living and some of the things you can do to reduce to reduce the cost of living. And on that note as well, Simon, we had a couple of questions last last week on the podcast. Because of course, I took you for the uh grand tour of like you're telling me about champagne on rooftops. I'm telling you about like food scraps and recycling, you know, and some of the beautiful things you got to see.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Um people out there, would you rather come with me or Kate?

SPEAKER_01 18:20

What do you where do you want to go? Oh, mine's way more interesting. Slightly depressing. You probably need to do both. Come with me first and then go to the bit of rounding off. Start feeling better again. But no, we had a couple of uh people email in in our mail bag. We're actually starting to get a few in the in our in the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Comments. You're talking about comments, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Comments and and and people sending in mail from from the podcast as well. But there was this great one which I'm I'm gonna take full credit for. Oh well, I grumbled about doing recycling, but now I'm hooked after five I find your program so informative. Many thanks for doing it. So that's awesome. That was on our forking goods. So that's really Was that on YouTube or where was that? That was on YouTube. That was on YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

By the way, I jump in there and comment to all these people. Are you doing that?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah, yeah. No, I do. Good. I go, I jump in. Well, if you commented, I'm not commenting as well, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

No, they want to hear from you, Kate. They don't want to hear from me.

unknown 19:32

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Well, sometimes I respond in the forking goods, you know. Because I get confused, like, with all the different all the different accounts. I'm like, which one am I in now? And I'm always paranoid that I'm gonna respond in the wrong one.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

But uh I don't think we've had a rude comment yet, other than oh, when we talked about tipping, somebody had a bit of a crack at us there, didn't they?

SPEAKER_04 19:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Because I I was pro-tipping and that got a bit of attention.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Did did get a little bit of attention, but that's alright. Everybody to their own. And yeah, I still tip people, especially especially nowadays, just trying to, you know, help people out. Always uh there's another one who's said, always can learn something from these podcasts. Thank you. Isn't that annoying?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Yeah, that's it. I love that. I love that. And I did get another one that was around. She said, Great video. You mentioned the lids are recyclable. What sort of lids and where do we take them? So I did actually respond to that one in the little email. Like, you know, okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Well, go give us the heads up on it for anybody listening.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yeah, so you can take the lids to either supermarkets, environment centres, or transfer stations and drop them off there. And if you've got metal lids, then you can collect your metal lids up and take them to a scrap metal dealer, because they're still a beautiful, valuable product that needs to be.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

I know you're probably gonna shoot me here, Kate, but you know, I still reckon so many people don't know that when you you might have your bottle of whatever milk, you wash it out, because we know we know we should wash it because it's being recycled, so you don't want all the stale milk in here. And but most people don't know that you can't a lid with it. So the more you talk about it, the better, I reckon. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

I've got some more videos coming out, so because now I know exactly why lids are a problem in recycling. I always knew, but I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, and now I can speak with confidence.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Actually, going to the recycling center is horrible as it was from the smell and everything, it was really eye opening. And if people get a chance to watch that podcast on YouTube, it is one because it'll change the way you think about recycling. Enough said, but you know, it was it was it was great to see.

SPEAKER_04 21:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

It was also great to see you on the receiving end of end of Professor Grant Schofield last week and Kylie White from Nourished Clinic. What what an awesome podcast. When I watched that back, yes, it it's quite long, but man, all the bits in there about GLP one, which is the injection, it was just on the news just last Tuesday night, where you know they're saying this is a good thing, it should be funded by the government for people. But if anybody out there is remotely thinking of having a trial with GLP1, the injection for weight loss, they must, must watch that podcast. I mean, Professor Grant Schofield, Kylie White, they're two incredible people. Did you enjoy it? I thought it was great.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Oh, I did. I really enjoyed it. And we're going to talk more about that in next week's podcast, Simon.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Well, I want to hear next week I want I want to hear how you went with Kylie, because Kylie's a naturopath, a nutritionist, an expert in DNA. You know, she's she is the guru in New Zealand.

unknown 23:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

And you had one-on-one with her. So I did. Are you going to share next week?

SPEAKER_01 23:17

I am. I am going to share next week. But for this week, I'm going to wrap up because we've got this interview to drop in from the flavors of plenty and the forking good bear guys. And I'm we've answered all the questions in the mailbag. And if you have got any questions or you've got ideas for us to like places we could go, road hooking, or hi, hi.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Well, Nick, just need our address to send us something. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, right. Just ask, we'll send you.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

But you've got to be a subscriber and a liker, though. Yes, you've got to like and subscribe us. Subscribe to us, that's that's a thing. It helps us a lot. It does help us. But also, Simon, I I reckon, and we need to talk about this, but I reckon there's opportunity here to have a couple of competitions, and I'd love to see what people think. What about if we did road hooking and we took someone with us? Love it. I reckon we could do that. And I'd love to hear if people would be keen, you know, if we gave the opportunity for somebody to come road hooking with Kate and Simon in the mini from the Stockland mini garage.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

I wonder if I spoke to them and they could borrow one from them for a day as a treat. I'm sure I could jack that up. Here we go. We're starting a whole plan.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Um, so let's let's let's see if there's any interest out there. So if you've watched this video to the end, like a comment down there. Tell us where we should go, and if you'd be keen to join us, and then we might even set up a wecomp.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Oh, good idea. Well, it'd be good to know if there's some interest in that coming and having a dinner with you and I. Although it is a bit stop start, we have to tell them because I'm like uh Kate can't eat that until I film it. I need a close-up shot and all that sort of thing. There you go. I'm out with a phone.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Don't touch it.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Yeah. It's not like you and I just sitting down for a relaxing dinner, is it, to be fair?

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Not really, but you get to taste some pretty good food. You sure do. So let's have a look. I'm gonna send you that that link to the flavours of plenty side. You're gonna find somewhere that we could go road hooking to. Let's see if people want to road hook with us, and please like and subscribe to support us, and we will see you guys again next week on the fork and good podcast.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

I know, aren't we gonna stay on right now and listen to all about the the fork and good bear at the Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

We'll do that first.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Okay. So hang on, I'm gonna stay and listen. Hopefully, everybody else does. See you guys next week. Kate's gonna take you to the Bay of Plenty. Okay, just Simon for remembering.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Well, here I am having a yarn about the forking good rice lager that's come out for this amazing festival that's coming up called the Flavors of Plenty Festival. And I've got my little guide here, and because I'm based in Fair Plenty, I think this is like I I was having a lot last night and I was starting to get hungry, so I stopped because it's so much going on. So, Ray, welcome. Uh yeah, I I thought it'd be great to catch up. And first of all, like ask about how did you guys because I think we'd started our Fork and Good podcast, and then you guys contacted us and were like, oh, we've got this fork and good beer.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Yeah, yeah. So cute on it. Thanks for having me, Kate. Um, yeah, we didn't, we it was fortuitous. So we had a beer that we ran last year with uh Mount Brewing Co. called the Sunseeker, and it's a pale ale, and we um thought there's so many good breweries in the region that we thought we would do another one. So we caught up with Lumberjack, who are based in Tapuki, and we talked about what to do and something that was sellable and drinkable with the time of year that it is that we're in. And of course, this rice lager came up, and we came up with the name, and it was already kind of designed. And then I was Our Place magazine or Uno magazine, one of the two, and I I read about you, and I was like, this is a virtuous little collaborative opportunity. So we reached out, and yeah, I think it's lovely, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 27:41

It is, it's very cool. I'm actually looking forward because it's we're doing this interview early in the morning, so I haven't cracked open the beer, so I'm gonna save it. Five o'clock somewhere. I know, but you know, I'm gonna savor it with something that I'm gonna get Simon to cook. I'm like, right, match this beer to something that you cook me for lunch, Simon. But I I mean this is so cool. Like I see you've got a lot going on. What tell me a little bit about it, Ray? What's what's what's coming up in the bay?

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Lots of things are coming up in the bay. So we start on the 16th of April, and this is our I want to say fifth year, fifth festival, but I get so confused with the years. I think it's the fifth festival. The first one we ran in the orange COVID level, which feels like a million years ago. And we all had 16 events, and we thought it was really important to carry on because a lot of our objective is about getting people into restaurants and understanding what produce we have in the lands. It was important to carry on, and I think it was a good decision because we've just continued in momentum since then. And this year we started with more than around about 60 events. So we're kind of an umbrella brand, and we we we stretch from Ohi to Waihee Beach, and there's all sorts of things going on in between. And so there's ways to get your hands dirty, learn about fermentation, you can um learn about how to cure your own bacon, you can go to an Asian night market, you can do a like delicious degustation, you can learn about how to do smoky barbecue, and you could just kind of lay back and get really kind of like have delectable treats given to you. It's a lovely, lovely thing. And one of the reasons we exist is because back in 2022, we did a survey through Tourism Bay of Plenty about what about how people felt about local produce in our region. And so 86% of people told us they wanted to see more local food on menus, and 68% of people said they wanted to have a festival that celebrated our locally grown produce. So that was kind of our um inspiration to kind of carry on. We also knew at that time that this the foodie landscape felt quite siloed and a bit integrated, a bit segregated. So we really wanted to kind of integrate it a little bit more and make sure our people were talking to each other and our produce was landing on local plates. So, really, it is kind of for the benefit of everyone. We're not for profit, we just want to see good people doing good things and that getting showcased. So through our platform, we've managed to kind of start getting quite a big voice around our regional horticultural provenance. Last year we got over a million dollars worth of advertising for our region around it. And it's just about elongating the season for people, really. Like this is why we choose this time of year. Partly it's for harvest, and it's also because summer's kind of come to an abrupt end around about Easter. A lot of our hospital tell us, so we want to continue it on and make sure that they still get those bums on seats. So yeah, it's just a good thing for everyone, really. And for our participants, there's tons of things for people to go and do. We've had quite a lot of sell-outs this year already, but there's still tons of tickets available. So by all means, like have a little look through the brochure and I'd love to see everybody there.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Yeah. And I mean, uh one of the cool things about the Bay Plenty as well is that we we grow almost everything well here. We're quite in uh an abundant land in this area, you know, as far as like avocados, obviously, and then we've got kiwi fruit seasons just kicking off. But I mean, I always I always remember like my nana moved to the Bay Plenty from Foxton, and I remember saying to her, whatever she's a real keen gardener. I said, Whatever you plant, just remember if it says it'll grow to a meter, like multiply it by at least 1.5 when you move to the bioplenty. Because everything just grows so well here, right?

SPEAKER_02 31:55

And we have we have everything here. Like my dad's actually from here. I'm Scottish, but he went to Toringa Boys. Like, I'm this is I've always been connected to this place. And of course, I've always known about avocados and kiwi fruit, but we've got chocolate, we've got vanilla, we've got olive oil, we've got macadamias, like we've got so many things growing here. And you're right about that multiplication. Like my garden is crazy. And like everything in my garden can be put in a gin. I feel like that's the rule. Oh because it's also your garden, put it in a gin. But there's it just goes mad. So wherever, you know, wherever we go, there's a season, I'm sure you have it too, where everyone's just connecting with each with like bags of fijo. It's like, oh, I'm coming to visit, bringing you some plums, or I'm coming to visit, I'm bringing you some kiwi fruit. Like that's their love language, right? Like, let's stop produce.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

And that's why our farmers market's always really good around this way too. Um but I I was looking through last night and doing a bit of a read, and I see that you've got the the flavour, the not the flavours of plenty, that's the name of the thing. We're at or the plates of plenty challenge. Yeah, which is just I actually saw because I'm in Caticaddy and I saw that my restaurant's on is number one. I was like, oh, this is good. Oh, it's Huntersman. But I was looking at the the restaurants taking part, and I mean I know I love eating out in Toronto, and the ones that I know is like the Talisman, Macau, Master Kong, Rosie's, like quite a few of these I know, Latitude. And I I actually thought it's this, and I'll take this on page here. I was like, this is really quite cool because it's gonna encourage me to go and try some of the other ones that are taking place in the challenge and and see what they've got on offer instead of just sticking to my local, you know.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Yeah, and actually there's a page on the website where you can see what all of the dishes are, so you can even check out what you're gonna try. So the purpose of the Plate Supplenty challenge, it's actually it's a really nice thing. We we get a mystery box of local produce, and every year it changes. There's around about nine things in it, and it's really eclectic. So ideally for the chef, it's quite a difficult thing for you to kind of come up with a dish. But you have to use three of the produces or more in your dish, and then it's judged, and you get hospitality vouchers, southern hospitality vouchers for the winners. There's a people's vote and there's a judge's vote. And the whole idea is that A, people can go in and try a new restaurant, like you've just said, B, that restaurant will start using that local producer or C, we're showcasing what this local producer can do. And we've seen that loads of times, like Pearl Kitchen and Papamoa, they started using El Hefe bacon, El Hefe sausages thereafter, because they're like, these are amazing. So it's about connecting those producers into those local eateries. But yeah, we we had in the in the past we've run the Plates of Plenty challenge on the same dates as the festival, but we've had some feedback from people saying, like, there's only so many lunches out in a week that we can have, or we also were running ones and we want to try more. So we've elongated it. So it's actually on now, like it started on April 1st and it won't runs to May 3rd. So I'm kind of encouraging all of my like worky pals to do that for their lunch dates or their, you know, your why don't you take your meeting out and have your plates at Plenty Challenge dish and then vote for your favourite and they might get a little, you know, Southern hospitality boost. Yeah. So yeah, it's a nice thing. It is a nice thing.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

And then just saying like the pages of events. So the way like in this in the booklet, I'm I'm just gonna flip, just sort of try and do the backwards flick, but like there's so many pages of events going on, and I saw this lovely map that you've got where all the events are, which is really cool too. Yeah. Because I there's like there's stuff all over the bay, which I think is awesome. But the website that if people want to actually find out more, you want to give the website out.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

It's just flavors of fancyfestival.com and it's all on there. And we've got a lovely new searchable function where you can check out, even if you're only available on one date, you can have a look at that. And there's categories, so if you're really into like learning about you know the kiwi fruit, then you can go and have a little search for that. But there's loads of things going on, and a couple of my favorites. I don't know if you want to know about a couple of my favorites, but I might tell you right. Um we've got one that we kind of we finish off with really the Big Bay Brunch is a really cool event. It's we we hosted last year we hosted it at Amanu Surf Club, and this year we're going to Papamoa Surf Club. So we have a beautiful view of the bay, and we just incorporate all of these brunch suppliers that we've got. So we've got like, you know, mount sourdough and nectar sangria, because of course sangria is a brunch thing that we have to have. And Al Hefee meets and the big smoke barbecue guys come along. We've got tons of brunch suppliers here, chai mai eggs. So we bring them all in and we put on a huge brunch in this beautiful setting. So it's a really, really lovely one for the bay.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Yeah, there's there's just there's loads of things to do in CK. Like something would be amazing. Five Go Wild with food. Last year, this is in St. Amands. It's the guys that have kitchen takeover, and they bring together five of the bay's kind of most prolific chefs. But actually, this year it's kind of seven because like Casey and Karina are like one, you know. So the teams, teams of chefs. And they put on, they use our plates of plenty box and they put on a five-course degustation from the produce of the plates of plenty box. So it's a really lovely one, kind of a deg, like if that's what you're wanting, something a little bit more upmarket. We've got a chili eating competition that's taking over Wharf Street, and we've got international people coming to do this. It's going to be incredible. There's things to do with the kids, there's pesto making at a crop swap fiesta, there's a kids' ki trail, you can do a bake-off up at Toyo Homai, which has got the kit. If you've watched bake-off on television, they've got the same like showstoppers, and you can go around and taste them and judge them with these kids. It's going to be really lovely. So there's loads and loads of things to do. Blind cocktail tasting and flavours of North India.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Um I'm looking at the blind cocktail tasting.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Yeah, that's over. And actually, Bruco are doing something reasonably similar, but they're doing it, they're kind of pairing them with sliders. So honestly, I feel like you just need to get elastic pants on and just try it.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

This is then like from Easter to to to May, it's like just forget your diet, go out, enjoy the food that the bay has to offer. Exactly. And uh then, you know, then try over winter, maybe do some exercise and lose all those extra.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

Try number pack is gonna be like a about a swing of about six kg in festival.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

And then while you're at it, you can try fork and good lager. Absolutely. Pretty much with everything. If people want to get the fork and good lager, is this available at different events?

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Yes, it is, and it's also available in stores, and so is the Sunseeker through my um Mount Bruinco. There's actually a distribution list of where you can find it on our website. So that's at flavorscopefestival.com as well. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

Well, that's fantastic. I'm really excited about it. And luckily, I've got the next like two or three weeks where I'm not actually traveling. So I'm like, this is perfect timing for me to get out there and try some of this yummy food and see if there's any of these, any of these events that we could go to and I might learn something too. But I I just think it's awesome. It's such a cool way to highlight the bay, what we have to offer.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

And food brings people together, right?

SPEAKER_02 39:46

That's it. And we've had some real wins. Um 82% of our event providers have said that they reached a new audience, which is super cool. And they've started kind of collaborating together a little more. We do quarterly forums where we bring people together to talk about things that are important in the industry. So it's it's gaining momentum and it really is kind of benefiting everyone it touches, which is really nice. Like it's not just filling some fat man's pockets because of the good, you know, because they want to make some money. It's actually really helping what we're doing and providing a little showcase on what we have here in the coastal bay. And hopefully that means more visitors will come and they have more bed nights, and it's just a nice big kind of circular positive economy for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

Yeah, and supporting local business, like right from like from paddock to table, really, isn't it? Like it's and everybody in between.

SPEAKER_04 40:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

I think that's really cool. And just make sure, like from my point of view, just make sure if you're out eating, take your leftovers home if you don't quite eat it, you know? Just gonna make sure that there's no food waste. That's what we like.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

We're actually working with we've we're putting on a bit of a series with EnviroHub um about leftovers and waste circulation. And we've got a page on our website with various different ways that various different people can kind of look at their waste circulation because we deal with so many folk. But even, you know, we're gonna be talking about things like what order do you just pop things in your fridge? Because, you know, I've got a little lazy Susie in the top of my fridge because I'm like, I never look at the back, so I can turn this little lazy Susie and I find that garlic that I was not using for months. So absolutely super important this circulation um story. Another thing that we have which showcases a different type of talent in the bay, is we start off with an event called Battle of the Snack, and it's actually sold out this year. It sells out really quickly, but we host it alongside Cuisine Magazine at Saltwater in Mount Monganui. And we've got four of um four kind of nominated by their restaurant or their employer, rising star chefs. They need to be Sue Chef or under, and they are called our mentees or our rising stars, and we pair them with four mentor chefs, and they come up with um two snacks each that we present at an event with 130 people, and Kelly Brett from Cuisine Magazine comes down and they get um judged, I suppose I feel like that's a horrible word, but they get judged, and the winners get coverage in cuisine magazine. So all of a sudden they're rising star, and it's like a four-page spread. So all of a sudden, these rising star chefs that might work in Papua Moss or might work in Harborside are getting national coverage for what they're doing. So it's super cool. And they're also, of course, getting loads of experience working with really accomplished chefs. So it's a really fun night. So that's kind of how we start off. It's become our bit of a flagship event for us.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Oh, look, I think it's just fantastic. And well, there's so many events, and I really encourage people to jump on on the Flavors of Plenty website and have a look at what's around. And while you're at it during the Flavors of Plenty month, make sure that you're, you know, going to your local farmers' markets and buying, you know, good local produce and supporting our good local growers and you know, and and the bears. They need to come up with a forking good wine because I'm not a great beer drinker. I am okay. This is a great idea.

SPEAKER_04 43:19

I think I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Yeah. So can we just sort that out for next year? Yeah. I'm just putting my order in.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

Yeah, absolutely. I'll talk with Karen down at Herringbone Wine. They have an amazing rose. I might just go, let's make a little fork and good rose. This sounds like a lovely thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

And then next year, this following year, we could go with a fork and good gin. I think that would be like this could become a thin.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

See, I might distilleries we have here now. I feel like that could we could have like a Kate one, we could have a Simon one, we could have like we could figure out a little family of gins.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Love it, I love it. Well Well thank you so much, Ray. It's really cool. And I'm I'm gonna have a chat to Simon about these beers. I'm gonna take some, you know, make him drink one. I'm sure I won't I won't have to make him do anything, but uh we'll I'll make him cook something. I'll make him cook something to go with the the uh fork and good lagas. Uh so when you went film it and put it up for you.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Yeah, that'd be fabulous. Yeah, I'd love to see that. I'd love I'd love to taste it.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

Oh yeah. Well I'll I'll get him to share the recipe.

SPEAKER_03 44:33

Yeah, fabulous. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

We'll we'll put it online, we'll make a social story out of it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

Well, thanks, Ray. Thanks for joining me. And that's it from me this time as the Falk and Good podcast with Kate and not Simon. But at least I've got a Falk and Good bear to finish off with. And make sure you join that Flavors of Plenty website and check out what's going on in the bay.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

Yeah, wonderful. Thanks, Kate. Cheers.