Hawke's Bay restaurants have wowed the judges and featured prominently on a list of top eateries across the country vying for the NZ Restaurant of the Year Award.
It comes as a top chef says fine dining has improved remarkably over the past decade in Hawke's Bay, and the region's strength is its ability to source so much fresh food locally.
The 2021/22 Cuisine Good Food Awards released a list of New Zealand's top restaurants this week, all of which are now finalists for its February 8 awards event.
The list includes seven restaurants from Hawke's Bay including Bistronomy (Napier), Black Barn Bistro (Havelock North), Central Fire Station Bistro (Napier), Craggy Range (Havelock North), Mary's (Havelock North), Mister D (Napier) and Pacifica (Napier).
The awards ceremony will include the prestigious American Express Restaurant of the Year Award, as well as 15 other categories such as Best Regional Restaurant and Chef of the Year.
Regnar Christensen, executive chef of Black Barn Bistro in Havelock North, said it was always nice to receive recognition.
"It's awesome to be recognised by foodies and your peers, and there are lots of good restaurants in Hawke's Bay," he said.
"I'm pretty proud of the menu [at Black Barn].
"I will change items on the menu every one to two weeks, and I think I have brought a bit of my own style of cooking to Hawke's Bay. I think some of my flavours are different to what other people are doing and have introduced something new.
"I like to cook quite simple food and not try to over-complicate it."
Christensen, who has been in charge of the kitchen at Black Barn for just over a year after spending much of his career in Wellington, said the restaurant was in a beautiful location and there was a lot to love about the venue.
He said the reputation of Hawke's Bay restaurants had grown rapidly in the past decade, and there were some great chefs such as Casey McDonald at Craggy Range.
Christensen said a big strength for the region was its suppliers.
"There are incredible suppliers you can work with here," he said.
"Going straight to orchards and picking things off trees or supplying fish [locally], in the cities you don't get a lot of opportunities like that to work so closely with the suppliers."
Seventy-two restaurants have been named for the Cuisine Good Food Awards, all from outside of Auckland. Auckland's top restaurants will be added to the list at a later date.
Cuisine selects more than 40 experts around the country, led by food and dining expert Kerry Tyack, who anonymously judge restaurants nationwide throughout the year.
They then determine the list of finalists and the eventual category winners.
The awards were not held in 2020 due to Covid-19, but the NZ Restaurant of the Year went to Sidart (Auckland) in 2019.
Pacifica, in Napier, won the Best Regional Restaurant of the Year in 2019, and was named New Zealand's Restaurant of the Year in 2017.