Clyde restaurant gets top gong

A dish that takes two days to cook has won the top award in the annual Eat.Taste.Central awards.

Clyde establishment Olivers Restaurant’s 48-hour braised short beef rib was this week announced as the supreme award winner in the awards, which featured 34 dishes and 32 matching beverages over the month-long event.

Convener of judges Michelle McHugh, from MiNDFOOD  Media, said the standard was incredibly high.

"To see the connection between what you put on the plate and your local producers, and to hear the stories behind each dish, was something special. It was also great to see the care and thought that has gone into matching the dishes with some of Central Otago’s standout wines, craft beers and locally made juices. The dishes and the matches would stand up to some pretty serious competition from restaurants across Australia and New Zealand."

The Olivers dish, which also won the best main meal category, had been created by Olivers’ head chef James Waite, and the beef rib was complemented with a truffle mash, confit carrot, crispy shallots, beets and madeira jus.

Other category winners were Best Burger and Sandwich, Courthouse Cafe, Alexandra; Best Pie, Chatto Creek Tavern; Best Sweet and Dessert, Maniototo Cafe, Ranfurly; and Judges’ Award for Best Beverage Match, Ancient Briton Hotel, Naseby.

The Waipiata Country Hotel won three of the four people’s choice categories, coming first in the Burger and Sandwich Challenge and Main Meal Challenge, and first equal with Hannah’s Kitchen @ Hayes (Engineering Works and Homestead), in Oturehua, for the Sweet and Dessert category.

Eat Humble Pie, in Alexandra, won the people’s choice for the pie category.