Young Hawke's Bay chef Sam Heaven wins top award
ABIGAIL DOUGHERTY/STUFF
Sam Heaven’s winning dishes were inspired by his parents' Hawke's Bay olive grove, where he grew up.
A Kiwi chef who practised two meals to perfection during Covid-19 lockdowns has won an award for his efforts.
Sam Heaven has taken out the title of Beef + Lamb's Young Ambassador Chef for 2021 with dishes that delivered a taste of his Hawke's Bay home.
Despite winning over the judges and beating several other promising chefs, the self-described perfectionist says he could have improved on the dishes he served.
“I had to make adjustments on the day," he says. "I'm not used to cooking on induction [so] I had to adjust how I was cooking. After I got home I thought, ‘I could have done this a little bit differently’.
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“The judges seemed to like it. It was a good day,” he says.
The 23-year-old is based in Auckland, where he works as part of the events and private functions team at the Park Hyatt hotel.
But he won the prestigious competition this week, with beef and lamb meals inspired by his parents' Hawke's Bay olive grove, where he grew up.
Heaven's first dish was a wagyu steak aged in koji and kombu then cooked in cultured butter, bone marrow, onion, and herbs, and seasoned with sea water.
Sam Heaven accepts his Young Ambassador Chef award.
The second, a beeswax-aged lamb saddle cooked in lacto-fermented tomato and fallen leaves, lamb and caviar tart, and lamb nasturtium tea.
The dishes included an olive compote as a nod to Heaven's upbringing, and an oil made from nasturtium leaves foraged on his way to the competition. The lamb dish was plated on rocks taken from the river where he used to swim in summer as a child.
Heaven had practised the dishes repeatedly while stuck at home during Auckland's recent lockdowns, even trialling how long the wagyu steak should be aged.
“It's taken me a while to come up with these dishes, [with] a lot of trial and error,” he says. “It does come down to a lot of your time. A lot of people would be going home after work chilling out, watching Netflix. I'm still here at 9pm prepping, practising and refining.”
He's also constantly learning new skills. He recently teamed up with Auckland’s Hannah Childs, also known as A Lady Butcher, to learn how to break down carcasses, age different cuts and reduce waste.
That desire to take dishes to extremes comes from a long line of family cooks, including his father, a baker, and his grandfather, a pastry tutor.
“My father and my grandfather are both perfectionists,” Heaven says. “I think I've got that gene there. If you're going to do something, you've got to go all out.
“You've got to be the best at it.”
*Watch ‘Young Ambassador Chef 2021’ on Play Stuff. The Play Stuff app is available on mobile and TV