Lucky
me! Last week I was given a ticket for the Gala Dinner held at Otago
Polytechnic on the final evening of the conference. In an email the day before,
we were told to wear comfortable clothes and sensible shoes – a clue that this
culinary feast was going to be out of the ordinary. In fact it was
extraordinary. As Charmian Smith wrote in the Otago Daily Times, Wednesday July 9, 2014, the event “told the
story of the Sargood Centre, from its pre-European history as a Maori place of
learning, through the 1925 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition for which it
was built, to its use as an art gallery and, more recently, as part of the
polytechnic.”
Guests
met and mingled at Manaaki, the polytechnic hospitality centre. After enjoying
parcels of duck and crayfish, plus a beverage or two, we were transported in a
heritage bus to the Sargood Centre where we were immersed in a carnival
atmosphere, complete with quirky booths, gin slushies, popcorn, disembodied
hands offering tasty morsels, and delicious lamb cutlets peddled from a cart.
We
later became part of an art ‘exhibition’ in another building, where we encountered
cubes of botanical gel in spoons embedded at various levels into plinths. We had
to eat the cubes without using our hands. Not as easy as it sounds.
Finally
we were escorted into a funky space with lights and music and handed plates of
lemon curd, passion-fruit sago, tiny balls of sponge, miniature macaroons and a
huhu grub injected with a citrus type substance!
Everyone
had a fabulous night thanks to the amazing Culinary Art Degree staff and
students, and everyone who assisted them.
This
photo of Margo Barton and me was taken in the 1920’s South Seas Exhibition
mid-way through the evening.
