SAM HEAVEN

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Beef dish

New Zealand Wagyu aged in Koji and Kombu cooked in cultured butter, bone marrow, onion, Bluff Oyster emulsion, fig leaf and micro shiso seasoned with sea water, served with chargrilled Bluff Oysters cooked in Wagyu fat, pickled baby pine cones, buttermilk and pine oil.

Sam’s inspiration for his beef dish came from working in a fine dining restaurant, where they are always striving for perfection but which sometimes creates a lot of waste. Sam wanted to work on a dish that had all the elements of perfection but without the waste. He decided to use all of the beef off-cuts not just for the sake of it, but to add a depth of flavour to lift the dish. This is where the idea of "beef salt" came into play which he used to finish the dish by micro planning over the rested steak.

He chose to showcase New Zealand Wagyu Beef and aged it in koji and then rapped it in kombu. The idea behind this was to create a "umami boom" of flavours. The Shio Koji cures the Wagyu slightly but mostly acts as if the meat has been dry aged for a long period of time.

Sam also used bone marrow throughout his dish to minimise wastage and add that extra level of flavour and fat that comes from cooking with bone marrow. He cooked his steak by emulsifying together two fats – roasted bone marrow and cultured butter with thyme and garlic using this to baste the steak.

Even the nut paste had been gently nurtured throughout its cooking process with beef broth simmered to perfection using the smaller beef trimmings. To finish Sam sprayed his herbs with sea water to season them just as you would season any other component on the plate.

“I believe my beef dish showcases beef in a way where it can be the star of the dish but also an underlining flavour to all the components of the dish. This shows just how versatile New Zealand beef can be to a chef.”

Lamb dish

Beeswax aged lamb saddle cooked in lacto fermented tomato and fallen leaves, sunflower seed purée, nasturtiums oil and nasturtiums capers, served alongside lamb neck and caviar tart, lamb nasturtium tea.

Sam’s lamb dish was created to be a main course of a nine-course tasting menu. It was designed to tell the guest a bit about where he grew up in the Hawkes Bay - on an olive grove - surrounded by lambs and beehives. Sam said he wanted to include as much as he could that was grown or foraged in his hometown, such as the bees wax from his Grandfather’s bee hives which he wrapped the lamb saddle in to age it.

Sam matched his lamb saddle with a braised lamb neck tart which included an olive compote reflecting on the olive grove from his family property. Not wanting to waste anything Sam made a lamb tea using lamb bones which he brewed into a tea and served with a nasturtium oil. The fallen leaves he finds while walking to work and as well as adding flavour, creates a picture of lambs in the paddocks back home.

Even Sam’s plating has a nod to his Hawkes Bay home by using rocks from a river five minutes away from his family home where he has fond memories of swimming in the summer.

“I tried really hard to make sure everything on my lamb dish had a meaning or formed part of the story of my heritage. It’s a slice of my story.”

Sam’s career aspirations are one day to move to Scandinavia to live and learn to cook Nordic food with some of the best chefs in the world. My hope is to take as much knowledge of cooking the best beef and lamb in the world with me.