Greetings from New Zealand

[Kiwiross]

Kia Ora and Hello ,

 

By way of introduction I would like to offer a look into why I have asked to be part of this forum .

 

My wife and I are in our mid 70's and could be regarded as semi retired . Over the years we have dabbled in all sorts of creative things and for 18 years owned  a company producing traditional , hand made , Turkish Delight - One of the high points of that period was being asked to make the TD for the  iconic movie "The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe" which was shot here in New Zealand - for the few seconds of fame in the movie where the dwarf offers Edmond the TD as a temptation we made about 100 lb of special size and flavour TD . The initial samples were standard size inch square cubes but were not dramatic enough on the test movie shots so were made almost twice that size . The original Rose flavour was also an issue for the actor who refused to eat it , so it looks correct in the movie but actually tasted like Raspberries.

 

As time went passed , the physical effort involved in making 250 pound batches of product , hand cutting  and packing it all became just too heavy and we made the decision to move the TD business on and set up an artisan /hobby Chocolate business .

 

That happened several years ago and has been an interesting learning curve for us both . My wife had dabbled with chocolate over a number of years and we had acquired a Chocovision Mini tempering machine to give us a start in learning about handling chocolate and with the disposal of the TD business we decided to attack the new "Project " enthusiastically .

 

The result was a custom built studio on our property , insulated and air conditioned , specifically set up for "playing" with chocolate . While its small at around 15 feet long and 10 feet wide it is spacious enough to enable us to make and do pretty much anything we wish in the chocolate and general confectionery . We have a Chocovision Delta tempering machine , a pan type melting/tempering machine and an even smaller version that does about a pound of chocolate . We have been collecting vintage chocolate moulds for a while and these are not used for decoration but as they were intended 100 years or so ago to make hollow moulded items like Sanas and easter rabbits .

 

Much of the early things we did were simple dipped and cast items  but as we grew more comfortable with handling chocolate we ventured overseas and did a couple of Courses at Savour School in Melbourne , Australia where we started in on the real world of ganache , moulding and decorating Bonbons and were exposed to panning as well . The experience there has led to other experiences in the UK and France  and we like to absorb as many new ideas as we can along the way . We are off to Europe again in August and looking forward ro visiting Chocolate World in Antwerp ( where many of our moulds come from ) and the chocolate museum in Cologne  as well .

 

As I had an engineering background the idea of panning was an interesting challenge , but the costs of a small machine were prohibitive . The answer was to design and build one  so that was duly done and at a fraction of the cost of purchasing a branded machine . Works perfectly !!

 

These days we sell some product to specialty retailers , to people who want something unique for a special event ( weddings and the like ) , at weekend markets and a good deal go as treats and gifts to family and friends .

 

New Zealand has a small population spread over a wide area so its not easy to find someone to share experiences with or ask for advice should there be an issue outside of our experience to resolve .

 

Its my hope that this forum will provide an opportunity for that sort of dialogue and that our experience will also make it possible to be a contributor as well .

 

 

[ElsieD]

Welcome to the forum!  You've come to the right place as there are some very knowledgeable chocolate people of this forum.

[TdeV]

Hello. No involvement with chocolate here––except eating it. Wait––I love reading about how other folks do make chocolate!

 

You'll find many expert chocolatiers here, and will soon make fast friends.

 

Welcome.

[C. sapidus]

Welcome to the forums! As mentioned above, my chocolate experience mostly involves unwrapping and eating but it sounds like you are well past that point. 🙂

 

Assuming you occasionally eat something other than chocolate, I am sure many of us would also be interested to hear about food in New Zealand.

[blue_dolphin]

Welcome, @Kiwiross!  I regularly lurk in the chocolate topics and am always fascinated to learn how these beautiful confections are made and all the behind-the-scenes discussion of making a chocolate business work. Sounds like you are a natural fit for the eG chocolateers! 

 

Where in New Zealand are you located?  Such a beautiful country!

 

Have you read the various posts about the mostly annual eGullet Chocolate and Confectionery Workshop?  Next year will be near Austin,TX.  Since they are moving from the US/Canada border down closer to the US southern border, maybe the southern hemisphere will be next! 

[Kerry Beal]

21 hours ago, Kiwiross said:

Kia Ora and Hello ,

 

By way of introduction I would like to offer a look into why I have asked to be part of this forum .

 

My wife and I are in our mid 70's and could be regarded as semi retired . Over the years we have dabbled in all sorts of creative things and for 18 years owned  a company producing traditional , hand made , Turkish Delight - One of the high points of that period was being asked to make the TD for the  iconic movie "The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe" which was shot here in New Zealand - for the few seconds of fame in the movie where the dwarf offers Edmond the TD as a temptation we made about 100 lb of special size and flavour TD . The initial samples were standard size inch square cubes but were not dramatic enough on the test movie shots so were made almost twice that size . The original Rose flavour was also an issue for the actor who refused to eat it , so it looks correct in the movie but actually tasted like Raspberries.

 

As time went passed , the physical effort involved in making 250 pound batches of product , hand cutting  and packing it all became just too heavy and we made the decision to move the TD business on and set up an artisan /hobby Chocolate business .

 

That happened several years ago and has been an interesting learning curve for us both . My wife had dabbled with chocolate over a number of years and we had acquired a Chocovision Mini tempering machine to give us a start in learning about handling chocolate and with the disposal of the TD business we decided to attack the new "Project " enthusiastically .

 

The result was a custom built studio on our property , insulated and air conditioned , specifically set up for "playing" with chocolate . While its small at around 15 feet long and 10 feet wide it is spacious enough to enable us to make and do pretty much anything we wish in the chocolate and general confectionery . We have a Chocovision Delta tempering machine , a pan type melting/tempering machine and an even smaller version that does about a pound of chocolate . We have been collecting vintage chocolate moulds for a while and these are not used for decoration but as they were intended 100 years or so ago to make hollow moulded items like Sanas and easter rabbits .

 

Much of the early things we did were simple dipped and cast items  but as we grew more comfortable with handling chocolate we ventured overseas and did a couple of Courses at Savour School in Melbourne , Australia where we started in on the real world of ganache , moulding and decorating Bonbons and were exposed to panning as well . The experience there has led to other experiences in the UK and France  and we like to absorb as many new ideas as we can along the way . We are off to Europe again in August and looking forward ro visiting Chocolate World in Antwerp ( where many of our moulds come from ) and the chocolate museum in Cologne  as well .

 

As I had an engineering background the idea of panning was an interesting challenge , but the costs of a small machine were prohibitive . The answer was to design and build one  so that was duly done and at a fraction of the cost of purchasing a branded machine . Works perfectly !!

 

These days we sell some product to specialty retailers , to people who want something unique for a special event ( weddings and the like ) , at weekend markets and a good deal go as treats and gifts to family and friends .

 

New Zealand has a small population spread over a wide area so its not easy to find someone to share experiences with or ask for advice should there be an issue outside of our experience to resolve .

 

Its my hope that this forum will provide an opportunity for that sort of dialogue and that our experience will also make it possible to be a contributor as well .ki

 

 

Welcome @Kiwiross.

 

I'd love it if you'd tell us a bit more about the cooling unit you have built in to your panner?

[Kerry Beal]

7 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Welcome, @Kiwiross!  I regularly lurk in the chocolate topics and am always fascinated to learn how these beautiful confections are made and all the behind-the-scenes discussion of making a chocolate business work. Sounds like you are a natural fit for the eG chocolateers! 

 

Where in New Zealand are you located?  Such a beautiful country!

 

Have you read the various posts about the mostly annual eGullet Chocolate and Confectionery Workshop?  Next year will be near Austin,TX.  Since they are moving from the US/Canada border down closer to the US southern border, maybe the southern hemisphere will be next! 

Might be a bit expensive!

[blue_dolphin]

27 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Might be a bit expensive!

Yeah, the combination of travel time and cost would be prohibitive but after I saw Texas was up next, I couldn’t resist the next step!

[Kiwiross]

On 7/14/2024 at 12:52 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Welcome @Kiwiross.

 

I'd love it if you'd tell us a bit more about the cooling unit you have built in to your panner?

 Hi , sorry for the slow response - not sure how to get replies to posts or questions directed to my email at the moment .

 

There is  advice which is a solid state heatpump effectively called a Peltier - small ceramic squares with leads on DC current into the unit creates an intenal situation which results in one side getting hot while the other gets cold  - a link to You Tube shows it working -  then its a matter of providing enough current to make it work properly - mine runs a stack of 4 at 30 volts DC getting down to 6 degrees - the heat side is cooled by a computer CPU cooler bonded to the peltier stack which sits on a custom made alloy tube internally finned and air is drawn through this by an inline fan whch feeds the clear plastic tube which is visible in the photo . Hope this helps .

Cheers , Ross

 

[Kiwiross]

On 7/14/2024 at 12:53 PM, Kerry Beal said:

Might be a bit expensive!

Hi ,

 

Yrp , international travel gets very expensive from New Zealand and at our age not becoming any easier either !!

 

We are located in Wellington , the Capital city of NZ.

 

Cheers , Ross

[Kiwiross]

On 7/14/2024 at 2:56 AM, C. sapidus said:

Welcome to the forums! As mentioned above, my chocolate experience mostly involves unwrapping and eating but it sounds like you are well past that point. 🙂

 

Assuming you occasionally eat something other than chocolate, I am sure many of us would also be interested to hear about food in New Zealand.

Hi , NZ is a mixing pot of food histories  as many countries are . We have become far more international in taste and flavours since my childhood in the 1950's . My parents would never have cooked with garlic or flavoured food with coriander ( which I hate !! ) so it was plain , simple and wholesome which never did us any harm . I well remember the opening of the first KFC in New Zealand in the mid 1960's and take out food was never part of a regular diet at that time . English style fish and chips was probably a family treat - no Thai , Indian , pizza or pasta places - really a backwater I guess . These days there is every sort of cuisine imaginable available in the few larger cities we have but not so much diversity in the smaller centres .

Apparently the iconic Kiwi meat pie is unusual by international standards as North American tradition has fruit pies as a staple in the go to cook book - short pastry with fruit filling  : where the meat pies are flakey pastry with assorted fillings mostly meat based , but even now seafood and vegetarian fillings are making inroads into that area .

 

The change in ethnic diversity in the past 50 years has also resulted in the changes in food tastes . A major contributor in the same period has been the ease of and time reduction in international travel . Back in the mid 50's my family moved from the UK to NZ - a trip by boat that took 6 weeks - next month we will fly from home to the London ( England ) in just over 30 hours .

 

The world has been a changable place in my lifetime and continues to do so at even faster pace today.

 

Cheers , Ross

 

 

[Smithy]

Hello and welcome, @Kiwiross! Your engineering post and your comments on the food history of New Zealand are fascinating. I too have an engineering background, but I confess I've gotten away from it. I'm glad you posted that YouTube video. Your engineering is impressive for making your own panner.

 

Your comments about how food has changed could have been written by me about growing up in central California at roughly the same time as you were growing up in New Zealand. My mother never used garlic in her cookery until sometime in the late 1960's or early 1970's, and parsley was the only herb to make its way into our pantry before then. She was quite good at the fruit pies you describe. 

 

Your comment about seafood and vegetarian fillings in pies makes me wonder: when you were growing up, and for that matter now in the smaller towns, what are the principal protein sources? I'd expect seafood to be readily available, but what types? As @C. sapidus noted above, some of us will be keenly interested to learn more about the food and cookery you enjoy there.

 

C'mon in and make yourself comfortable! If you have any questions about how the forums work or where to post something, feel free to ask a host or ask in the Moderation and Policy Discussion forum.

[liuzhou]

Welcome.

 

Never having been to New Zealand (although I have been to the old one, Zeeland), I too would like to know to about NZ food, especially indigenous foods as opposed to adapted European or other cuisines.

Should you wish and have time to share.

 

 

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

4 hours ago, Kiwiross said:

Hi , sorry for the slow response - not sure how to get replies to posts or questions directed to my email at the moment .

If you haven’t been able to find the Notifications Settings, this post may help. 

[Kiwiross]

13 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Welcome.

 

Never having been to New Zealand (although I have been to the old one, Zeeland), I too would like to know to about NZ food, especially indigenous foods as opposed to adapted European or other cuisines.

Should you wish and have time to share.

 

 

 

Thanks for the welcome . The native people here are polynesian so share a background  heritage similar to all the other groups across the Pacific . basically hunters ,gatherers and fishermen . NZ has a huge coastline relative to the landmass and that is largely where the arriving native population settled ( as did the European settlers ) Easy access to opportunities for seafood gathering and even fishing offshore from canoes . The land was at the time heavily forested , birdlife abounded and some species were hunted to extinction before the arrival of the European settlers . Sweet potato was brought from overseas with the arrival of the migrating canoes and that was probably the first actual farmed crop in NZ . Lots of the native vegetation species were and are edible  ( as well as medicinal in some cases ) so there was plenty of food  potential . The rivers provided a diverse range of fish and eels were particularly prized . Forests teemed with birdlife and the sea shore offered plenty of opportunity to gather shellfish Abalone , Mussels , Pipis  Cockles and a range of Limpets and snails from rockpools . Crayfish ( lobster) were all within easy access form the shore  as were Flounders speared on mudflats or shallow water . So lots of protein availability and Kumera ( Sweet potato ) was probably the main source of carbohydrate in the early days before European settlement .  Pretty much all of the food was cooked in baskets in a Hangi ( ground oven ) or perhaps boiled or over a fire.  Many of the older , traditional , methods are still practiced and the current descendants of the original native people have "customary rights " to hunt and fish in some ares or at some times for Kai ( food) that is not  an option for the average New Zealander .

 

A brief potted history of the early days - by no means extensive and I claim no expertise in the subject - I just hope you find it of interest .  Cheers , ross