Has Wellington burgered up its food fest?

It’s a marquee food festival meant to showcase the best of the capital’s cuisine, so is Wellington On a Plate a sizzling hit as it enters its 12th year, or is it in need of an overhaul? Sarah Catherall reports.

Dale Keith pauses cooking at his Wairarapa eatery to talk about the problems he sees with Wellington’s annual food festival: it’s too expensive. The 270,000-plus burgers flipped over a fortnight aren’t promoting culinary excellence, and the original vision to showcase local chefs and restaurants has been lost.

Co-owner of Rose and Smith, a boutique venue and eatery at Tauherenikau, near Featherston, the chef who left Wellington for the Wairarapa nine years ago says: ‘‘Everyone gripes about Wellington On a Plate’s fees. It used to be reasonable for eateries to enter. Now it’s more about [the organisers], and if you look at their social media advertising, restaurants in Wairarapa and the Ka¯ piti Coast barely get a mention.’’

Wellington On a Plate is the biggest culinary event on New Zealand’s food calendar and is also now the biggest food festival in the southern hemisphere. Opening on Saturday, more than 300 eateries will take part, returning about $29 million, based on previous festivals.

It’s run by the non-profit Wellington Culinary Events Trust, which relies on sponsorship (80 per cent) and industry fees (20 per cent) and festival director Sarah Meikle and programme manager Beth Brash say they have got the recipe right.

They canvas the industry for feedback and complaints, via surveys and hui, and have adapted the month-long festival accordingly. They argue that the festival programme has got more exciting and innovative over the years and has not lost its bite.

But there are simmering issues: some restaurateurs and cafe owners were prepared to

talk as long as they weren’t named, worried about biting the hand that feeds them.

One said, though, that the festival can be a curse for booked-out restaurants, which would fill tables anyway. ‘‘They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If you’re not part of it, you miss out, so you have to make it work for you,’’ she said.

Another cafe owner said: ‘‘We used to offer a couple of events, but I do think the fees are way too expensive, especially in these Covid times. I also think that it’s turned into a burger festival, which is not my thing.’’

One of the biggest gripes is that the festival is too burger-focused. Before 2018, there was a rule that all restaurants wanting to flip a burger had to also offer a Dine Wellington menu – a set-price, multi-course menu. That year, the rule was ditched. Two years ago, the trust shifted Burger Wellington away from Dine Wellington (the two now run on consecutive fortnights) to ease concerns that burgers were overpowering restaurant set menus. Based on the numbers, burgers still rule: this year, eateries will create 256 different burgers – up from 240 last year – compared to 71 Dine Wellington menus.

Last year 279,000 burgers were eaten over the fortnight. One man munched his way through 90 burgers in 14 days.

Keith says: ‘‘I came over a couple of years ago [during Burger Wellington] and I made a dirty cheeseburger. It was a joke. It was just a meat patty and a bit of cheese and it went nuts. I parked up at Fortune Favours and I sold thousands, but I wanted to point out that that’s really what a burger is and should be. Some of them sell for $35 when they should be cheap.’’

Guy Littlejohn owns two cafes in the region:

Bellbird, at the Dowse, and Revive in Petone. He’s also a passionate foodie who is pleased that WOAP is encouraging people to get out and support the hospitality sector. However, he too is concerned about the dominance of burgers.

‘‘The underlying sentiment is that by focusing too much on burgers we are seeing a dumbing down of cuisine in Wellington. There’s a current movement towards food which is made from cheap ingredients, often deepfried and laden with overly sweet

‘‘It’s a great canvas for the creativity of the sector. No matter how you think something is outrageous in terms of a burger or event, people come into it.’’

artificial sauces.

‘‘Is that really what we want to be doing in Wellington? Is that really what we want to be known for? We once had a reputation for being the culinary capital of New Zealand. Sadly, that ship’s long since sailed.’’

He has raised his concerns with the WOAP team. ‘‘I did mention to them that a change away from burgers would be a good idea, they didn’t seem overly keen, stating everyone can relate to a burger.’’

Bellbird will offer a burger and be part of a local burger event in the square pop-up event. A third of its food sales will be burgers throughout August. ‘‘Whilst that’s good for business, I feel genuinely concerned about the direction Wellington’s food scene is heading.’’

However, Meikle argues that the burgers are creative and accessible to a broad demographic of diners, and they’ve also created a cult following. Burger Wellington was introduced in 2010 so more people could afford to participate in the festival.

‘‘I’m very proud of Burger Wellington. We’ve got some great partners who use it as leverage for their innovation stories. It’s a way for lots of people to participate. If we didn’t have an opportunity like Burger Wellington we’d be accused of being exclusive. Burgers for us were chosen for a number of reasons, but one thing is that they’re a great leveller. Anyone… can create a great burger. That’s not the case for other food styles.’’

Two years ago, the trust asked restaurants if they wanted to shift Burger Wellington away from the festival – to run over another fortnight in the year – but this would cost more in marketing and management fees. The industry said no. They also asked if they should cap the number of burgers. Again, the resounding word was no. Says Meikle: ‘‘Who are we to play god on who should be in and who should be out?… There are some really clever burgers.’’

David Burton has been writing about the festival since the day it opened, previously for Stuff and now for Cuisine, where he works as a food reviewer. He describes Wellington On a Plate as New Zealand’s most successful food festival. ‘‘I’m amazed at the ongoing creativity of WOAP. This festival is the best thing that ever happened to Wellington hospo. As much as we need to carve out our own culinary identity, overseas chefs are essential to keep us up with the play internationally.’’

‘‘If the dining aspect of WOAP has largely reverted into a lowly burger fest, then that is the fault of the public, not the organisers.’’

Burton has been to some outstanding events via the festival, describing Martin Bosley’s sell-out prison dinners as ‘‘iconic’’. ‘‘That would easily be my favourite. I went to the first one and we walked past a bank of wires. The food was outstanding. I got to talk to some prisoners after dinner. That was a fascinating experience.’’

He books for the Dine Wellington menus, which he says give each eatery a chance to push boundaries and get innovative in the kitchen.

If the food critic has one criticism, it is that the events – 120 this year – tend to be overpriced and he wonders why they are often so expensive. ‘‘Who can afford to pay $220 or $250?’’

But Meikle says the trust is constantly making changes to adapt the festival as it grows. Despite criticism from some that the fees are high, Meikle says they’ve stayed constant for five years. Last year, they offered 40 per cent off because of Covid. They’ve introduced a lower entry fee for events under $60 to encourage eateries to create lowercost events. They also don’t set the event fees, and tell some restaurants their prices are too low or too high and advise them to change them.

Of the events, 14 out of 152 cost more than $200 a head; 23 of 152 events cost more than $150. The rest are below those prices.

Brash says pop-ups – 32 this year – also make the festival more accessible to diners who might not be able to afford a set entry fee. ‘‘They’re a magical part of the festival and they’ve grown over the years. Where else can a restaurant completely transform their offering and try something new?’’ she says.

‘‘Burgers for us were chosen for a number of reasons, but one thing is that they’re a great leveller. Anyone… can create a great burger. That’s not the case for other food styles.’’ Sarah Meikle Wellington on a Plate festival director, left

Mike Egan was part of the founding team which set up Wellington On a Plate. Coowner of Boulcott Street Bistro and Monsoon Poon, he’s the president of the Restaurant Association of NZ and on the WOAP board. He says: ‘‘The idea was to fill a hole in winter, when restaurants normally have a downturn.It’s certainly fulfilled its need. It’s a great canvas for the creativity of the sector. No matter how you think something is outrageous in terms of a burger or event, people come into it.

‘‘It’s an amazing marketing machine, which takes the pressure away from restaurants to do that. We’re not good at marketing ourselves. They are. So it’s a really good showcase for chefs and restaurants to try something different and think ‘oh wow people do like this food’, or they will pay this price or eat this burger.’’

Over time, busy restaurants are getting increasingly clever at staging their events when they’re either closed or not busy, such as a Sunday lunch or a Monday dinner. ‘‘You don’t want to turn your regular customers away. It’s clever to use the times you’d normally be closed. We rent chairs to people who want to eat food. It’s clever otherwise you’d have to make the events more expensive.’’

But this year, Monsoon Poon won’t have a separate event because of the widespread skill shortages in the industry. He’s at least one kitchen staff member down.

When entries were called for back in January, WBC owner Clay Toomer said he couldn’t get his head around entering ‘‘because we were right in the middle of a pandemic’’. This year, his chef will cook at a charity dinner at the Laura Fergusson Trust house. He’s also offering a burger but not a Dine Wellington menu. He’s short of staff. But he supports the festival and the vibrancy it brings to Wellington.

The festival says the skill shortages haven’t had an impact on entries: about the same number of eateries are involved this year.

Every August, Kate and Tom Hutchison, of Capitol, are flat out as they cook interesting menus and put on innovative events. That month, Capitol’s revenue is up by about 20 per cent. Offering a set menu and also a burger is what boosts the restaurant’s income – it’s not the one-off events, which Kate says they put on to create a buzz and market Tom’s creative skills.

One thing she does want to stress, though, is that critics of WOAP prices often don’t know that a proportion of every ticket, every burger and every meal sold goes to the festival. Capitol’s $180 a head event this year – an Eat What You Watch film and dinner hosted by Sam Neill’s Two Paddocks winery – sold out within minutes. It will return the restaurant $147 for each of its seats: $8.98 per ticket goes to the festival, and there’s also GST.