Category: Casual
Paolo Pancotti, who returned to Hawke's Bay after a spell back in his Italian homeland, teamed up with Sean Burns five years ago to open Milk and Honey on the sparkling Ahuriri seafront.
He wanted to infuse an Italian influence into the New Zealand surroundings and goes by a simple philosophy.
"I like simple flavours. If you start playing around with it too much you lose the flavour. I never use more than four or five ingredients in each dish. When I serve salmon, I want you to taste salmon."
And in the case of his entry for the Hawke's Bay Regional Signature Dish competition, that stands solid. He has taken a relatively traditional pipe pasta and broccoli dish and made it into something more contemporary and elaborate.