Judith Lacy's Jottings: Food Innovation Big Day Out a great idea, but needs some tweaks

Fonterra Research and Development Centre staff Sue Rowe and Simon Davey at the Food Innovation Big Day Out. Research chef Simon has worked in Korea, Thailand, England and Australia. Photo / Judith Lacy

OPINION:

Research chef. Surely it's the best job title in Palmy.

Even better than mayor or editor.

And how did I find out about said research chef? I went to the inaugural Food Innovation Big Day Out last Friday at Manawatū Science Park.

Science park, I hear you ask. It's that collection of buildings off Tennent Drive, opposite Massey University, and home to AgResearch, Plant & Food Research, and Fonterra Research and Development Centre, among others.

The Big Day Out is a great idea, letting the public learn about the work that takes place there, and free food was an excellent drawcard.

Not just any free food, but "planet-pleasing" Plan*t vegan sausages, "brain drink" Ārepa,
and Kinda Ice Cream made from cauliflower.

I know right, it's much better than grating zucchini and carrot and hiding them in burger patties or pills in chocolate fish.

I tried the strawberry and the chocolate ripple. Yum, yum, icecream in my tum. You would never know it isn't dairy and the best thing is you will be able to buy Kinda at Hell Pizza from February.

There was also freeze-dried icecream, also known as astronaut icecream. I didn't like it, but a friend of the Guardian who happened to be passing loved it.

But back to research chef Simon Davey. He works at the Fonterra Research and Development Centre and with his colleague, senior technical officer Sue Rowe, was serving samples of products Fonterra has worked on. The processed cheese lollipops looked fantastic and tasted just as good, as did the raspberry mousse and chocolate shortbread.

The aptly named Grant Kitchen was serving chicken coated in his own Kāuta rewarewa honey. As one sampler declared, it is better than McDonald's.

I gave myself about the time it would take to eat a half-scoop of chips, but I really needed degustation time. As I rushed off, I noticed Fernglen Farm's sign, "ewe are one in a million".

Indeed, I am. As are my tastebuds. And the carparking service was what you would expect at a pricey event. This was free.

One of the stallholders mentioned that oft-trotted-out phrase "bringing town and gown together". She is right. It was a great way to get people over Fitzherbert Bridge to learn about food innovation.

As with any inaugural event, I'm sure the organisers are sifting through what worked well and what could be improved.

There were too many stalls in the main tent, making it hard to hear and to get to the sample tables. The latter wasn't helped, though, by that irritating habit people have of standing just back from a table while eating. Get to the corners, people!

It also could have been much better publicised, with the publicity machine for Jo and Joe Public gearing into action earlier.

Having it on a Saturday or Sunday might help more Publics attend so it is not so much gown to gown.

There's tremendous scope to increase the public's understanding of how valuable these research centres are to Palmy and what they do.

I look forward to some easy-to-digest media releases I can share with readers. Along the lines of the problem was x, we did y, and the result was z. Person A has worked in Switzerland, Person B is from Nigeria, and Person C studied in the United States. Let's move beyond the jargon and verboseness and give everyone something to wrap their chops around.

I loved hearing the different accents at the Big Day Out and look forward to many more. It was organised by FoodHQ, which is a collaboration between New Zealand companies, research and educational institutions.

And thank you to Wayne, aka Mr Scooptruck, for looking after my rewarewa honey - all 1kg of it, while I did some work. It was sweet of you.

This is a Public Interest Journalism funded role through NZ On Air