Taste of Te Pae gives power to the people
Saturday, 20 January 2024
A pop up food truck is giving people the chance to buy top notch food - and whether it’s loved or hated, their honest feedback is encouraged.
The Taste of Te Pae food truck is serving up dishes set for the convention centre’s 2024/2025 menu while addressing two challenges.
The main driver is to give Te Pae’s casual staff an opportunity to earn some money during the quiet months, Te Pae culinary director Darren Tait said.
“On the other side of the coin, the stuff that we’re putting on here, are dishes being worked on.”
The food truck parked outside Te Pae on Colombo St opposite Tūranga is trading until March 28, open 7am to 2.30pm weekdays, and 10am to 7pm on weekends during the Buskers Festival selling affordable breakfast, lunch, snacks and coffee.
The menu gives the general public an insight into the food served at the centre’s events to delegates and conference-goers, including a lumina lamb pie Tait said is “off the scale” in flavour, brioche with labneh & berry compote, and the chef’s hot dish of the day.
It allows punters to get “a small glimpse into what we do.“
“We want to show people that we’re not just serving bulk mass produced food. Even though it’s made for 10,000 people, it’s bloody good stuff.”
Showcasing the abilities of its staff including pastry chef Courtney Schimanski and executive chef Desmond Davis, Wednesday’s focus is on Schimanski’s desserts while Davis takes over the menu on Thursdays with low and slow cooked meat and Japanese hibachi grill on Fridays.
Schimanski’s been working on her dishes since December, Tait said, “and she wants to test them out on people”.
“It won’t look like what Courtney does on a plate here but customers will get to experience the whole dessert.”
A QR code on the truck and access to the review link on their Te Pae Convention Centre Facebook page allows customers to scan in on their phones and give a review of the food they’ve eaten.
“To get external people’s feedback on it is gold.”
But the number one priority for the food truck is to give the casual staff of Te Pae a reason to stick around during summer.
“During the quiet season, we’ve lost key staff due to there not being enough hours,” he said.
“We wanted to do something this year to give staff the opportunity to earn some money during the quiet months.”
Known for thinking outside the box, Te Pae won two Entertainment Venue Association of New Zealand (EVANZ) awards in December including Medium Venue of the Year and a staff member being awarded the Rising Star of the Year.
The judges said the venue demonstrated “clear strategic priorities including client success, business optimisation and innovation”. “It clearly expressed the value placed in its people and its role as a custodian of community and sustainability.”
Aiming to be as local as possible, Tait said “about 92% of our food and beverage purchases last year were from Canterbury businesses, which we only work to increase”.
Te Pae work with Spout Milk, a Darfield A2 milk supplier cutting out the plastic and providing milk in kegs.
“It’s eliminated every bit of plastic from our milk chain.”
Tait said the truck was a “great tool … on lots of fronts”.
“It’s not about making money, the prices we’re charging aren’t to take business away from other locals … it’s purely because we just want people to taste them and give feedback. We need the feedback for the … many hundreds of delegates we bring to the city.”
The more events that returned to the centre, the better off the city and its businesses were, he said.