Lauraine Jacobs Foodie Favourites

Lauraine Jacobs finds joy sharing the love of fresh, local produce by creating feasts for family and friends.

What’s your favourite recipe book?

Time and time again I fall back on Karen Martini’s Feasting which has the most wonderful array of modern recipes that are laden with flavour and are never too complex. Karen is a chef who worked in Melbourne and Sydney and, after the arrival of her family, has carved out a niche as a cookbook author. Feasting is presented with a series of great themed entertaining occasions that share lots of lovely ideas for dishes. I love the idea of a feast being exactly that – a shared occasion. Excitingly there’s a new book out from Karen Martini called simply Cook. It’s a door stopper-type volume with almost every little bit of information a cook will need. Inevitably it will be up there with another essential book from the great Australian chef-turned-foodwriter; Stephanie Alexander’s The Cooks’s Companion which has been my major source of reference for almost thirty years. Karen, from the next generation of brilliant food writers, has shared all the new flavours we have grown to love.

What’s your favourite ‘go to’ recipe? 

I can never go past my own Harvest Chicken recipe. It was a riff on the old stalwart Chicken Marbella, but with the added twist of wonderful seasonal vegetables. The best thing about this recipe is that’s its cooked in a large oven dish and doesn’t create all sorts of washing up afterwards. I meet so many people who have cooked that recipe over and over.

What’s your favourite kitchen utensil?

I love all my knives and it would be hard to pick which one was my favourite. I am lucky enough to have a husband who’s keen on sharpening knives – probably because he catches and then fillets fish, which you certainly cannot do without the sharpest of knives. The down side of this is that inevitably I cut my fingers frequently! 

What’s your favourite NZ ingredient?

My favourite is the oyster. I know there are some folk who don’t enjoy the texture but for me oysters are more than a treat as my weekends (and even occasionally week nights) would not be complete without freshly shucked oysters. No lemon, no wasabi, not even chardonnay vinegar, comes between those oysters and me. We have two local sources – Orata Oysters in the Matakana Farmers Market, every single Saturday morning, and the funky, funny Matakana Oyster Shed just out of the Matakana Village on the Leigh Rd where Tom, the owner has an almost cult following amongst locals.

What’s your most memorable meal?

Since a trip to Japan with a lovely Japanese friend in the 90’s where I fell in love with Japanese cuisine, my most memorable meals have all been Japanese. The seasonality on every plate, the concentration on both presentation and taste, and the tiny portions that leave you on the brink of wishing for another bite always make a huge impression. I have been to Japan about seven times, and fortuitously we have one of the most accomplished caring Japanese chefs outside of Japan here in Auckland. Every meal I have had at Chef Makoto Tokuyama’s Cocoro restaurant in Ponsonby has been memorable. My favourite of all his amazing dishes is the warm savoury, custardy Chawanmushi, especially when he makes it in whitebait season.