Sumptuous springtime on a plate

Peter Poszeluk chose veal as the basis for his dish. Photo / Paul Taylor

The husband and wife duo behind Jarks Cafe, Bar & Restaurant in Waimarama have used the Hawke's Bay spring season as inspiration for their red veal schnitzel entry to the Hawke's Bay Regional Signature Dish competition.

Marianne and Pete Poszeluk developed the veal dish, served with kumara and thyme fritter, marjoram roasted tomato, seasonal greens, sauteed mushrooms and a rose wine, themselves.

"We put a lot of thought in and you've got to work out what products signify spring," Mrs Poszeluk said of her dish in the casual category.

Bobby calves, citrus and fruits were a few of those products, as was the Clearview Black Reef Blush Rose wine which accompanies it.

"It was a matter of using Hawke's Bay products, thinking about Hawke's Bay and how we could represent that. We wanted to red wine, but we didn't want to go anything as heavy as a full red wine so a rose is just a nice soft, spring red.

"We've both tried it and played around with it. We tweaked it to suit what we quite like and we're happy with it."

Mrs Poszeluk said the dish was created in the vein of a "simple food served nicely" philosophy.

"Half of it is about giving us a product which we think our customers will actually like."