Black Label Barbecue co-owner Shaun Branson and head chef Mithila Kaluarachchi.
A burger made from a “pest” has taken Rotorua’s Black Label Barbecue to the Monteith’s Wild Food Challenge final.
The local eatery was voted by the public as a top five finalist for its Wild Wapiti burger and will battle it out in a finale cook-off today in Auckland.
Black Label Barbecue co-owner and barbeque pit master Shaun Branson said the Wild Wapiti Burger dish - packed with venison, a creamy blue cheese aioli, pickled wild rocket and a side of kumara chips dusted in shiitake mushroom-chilli seasoning - had been “well received”.
He said the team brought the burger “back to life” after its successful launch at the Ōhope Wild Food Festival earlier this year, where it took the top prize.
The burger featured venison from With Wild, a company focused on turning “pest” species into a “resource”, Branson said.
Wapiti, which the Department of Conservation said was the largest round-horned deer in the world, were considered pests in New Zealand.
The Fiordland Waipiti Foundation said this was due to the deer’s potential threat to native plants like flora and fauna in the Fiordland National Park.
Branson said most customers who had tried the dish “loved it”, and they especially enjoyed the “house cut” kumara chipsfrom kumara grown locally by Kai Rotorua.
“We can see [wapiti] becoming something we use more often.”
Though they were “a bit nervous” for today’s final, he said the Black Label Barbecue team were “no strangers to food challenges.”
They would treat the final like any other time they served their customers, always putting “our best foot forward”, he said.
Black Label Barbecue began as a backyard hobby, with Shaun and his partner, co-owner Alia Branson, cooking over charcoal and wood at home before stepping into competition barbecuing in 2018.
The couple won season one of TV’s Cooks on Fire in 2022, taking out the title of Barbecue Champions.
That win inspired the Bransons to open their Arawa St restaurant before Christmas last year. The business included a restaurant, mobile BBQ trailer, food truck, and catering team.
They said their approach to food was all about bringing people together through good food, fire and surrounding themselves with great people.
Alia Branson said hunting and gathering wild food had been part of NZ food culture forever, but she had noticed more people wanting to reconnect with their food and know where it had come from, either by growing it themselves or harvesting in the wild.
“Hopefully competitions like this help inspire people to try something new and look past what they see at the supermarket.”
DB Breweries senior marketing manager Kate Baars said the Monteith’s challenge, returning after an 11-year hiatus, encouraged Kiwis to back their local eateries and try something adventurous, while giving a boost to the hospitality sector.
“The hospitality industry really needs support right now, and this challenge gives people a reason to get out, try something different and back their local bars and restaurants.”
She said more than 100 venues signed up, each creating a wild food dish matched with a Monteith’s beer. Black Label Barbeque matched its dish with Monteith’s Ginger Beer.
Each eatery would cook for a judging panel, including celebrity chef Ben Bayly, for a $15,000 prize and bragging rights.
The Monteith’s Wild Food Challenge finale would see Black Label Barbecue go up against four other finalists: Smoking Barrel in Motueka, Thirsty Acres in Kirwee, Christchurch Casino, and Saints in Hanmer Springs.