First crop of the new season

There was a recent promotion of Mountain River product at the Glacier Hotel in Grindelwald, a village in Switzerland. This was organised by Jacques Beyeler of our import partner, CASIC. A number of Swiss chefs were offered up various samples of venison to try and to ultimately promote Mountain River as their new venison partner of choice. Jacques says that the promotion was very positive. They also appreciated the short and efficient time taken to do the promotion during the lunch and dinner rounds. During the promotion, the chefs tasted the petit tender as carpaccio just with salt directly from the cutting board, also the petit tender as tatiki, try-tip, and short-ribs round of knuckle. Shannon gave a lot of background information around the farming practices, cutting, sustainability and also had discussions concerning the co2 emissions - which is very important to the Swiss chefs. Overall it was a successful promotion and we’re looking forward to seeing the uptake of Mountain River Venison in Grindelwald and beyond!

DINZ chef Shannon Campbell recently presented a roadshow of mini workshops in Stockholm with Menigo. A mini workshop is a 45 minute visit in a potential customer’s kitchen, where we present and cook four cuts. In this instance, it was three leg cuts and short ribs. Prior to these workshops, there was a day of preparation in the Menigo test kitchen in Stockholm. The ribs were prepared so that they could be easily be presented in the client’s kitchens. A carton with all the spices and other ingredients was also prepared. Shannon and the team presented the “Creative Menigo Cuts” to 8 restaurants in 3 days. There were a range big catering restaurants and kitchens - such as Annorlunda Catering - who are catering events, weddings, and corporate dinners to big hotels like the Sheraton. When we enter most kitchens, chefs are very welcoming, but also under a lot of stress. After some small talk about clean green NZ and our pan-ready products, they feel more at ease. After the small talk, Shannon has the first taste of ribs ready, which is then followed by a raw taste of sliced tenderstrip flat to demonstrate the tenderness and the clean meat taste. Then Shannon grills slices of tri-tip with cap on - tasted “au natural” and with soy sauce and mixed with butter. Finally they serve the tenderstrip round, Tataki style with a sauce and a little Kimchi. The chefs were very interested in animal welfare, how the deer are feed and with what. They were also interested in how much carbon oxide is used for the long transport, and the total energy used to produce a kilogram of venison. All these questions are now more important for chefs and diners. At each visit the team were grateful to have the help of an introduction from Menigo salespeople. Especially when chefs are stressed and, at times, skeptical until they understand the idea of our “Creative Cuts”. Which is of course: Pan ready, no waste, outstanding quality, usable in all kinds of kitchen styles, consistency, and available all year round. We thank the chefs in Stockholm for attending the mini workshops and hope they they enjoyed the great quality and taste of Mountain River Venison.

On Tuesday August 20th, Angus from Terra Pacific attended the 9th annual ‘Halperns’ Steak & Seafood culinary showcase, held in the magnificent Oceans Ballroom at the Georgia Aquarium in Altanta. Angus presented Mountain River at the Halperns’ Atlanta roadshow.  Halperns’ are a blue-chip ‘center of the plate’ meat and seafood distributor in the Southeastern USA and have been a valued customer of Terra Pacific and Mountain River since 2005. This event is designed to showcase Halperns’ products to around 1500 of the region’s top chefs, restaurant owners and managers. Terra Pacific has participated every year. The timing is particularly good as it coincides with start of fall and the menu changes the new season rings-in. Although we promote venison as a ‘year around’ menu offering, many restaurant operators are particularly receptive to the idea of a venison dish in the fall and winter seasons. The evening before the show, Halperns’ provide a literal ‘banquet’ for their vendor partners who participate in the event. This is always a fun, casual and relaxed evening that showcases dishes prepared using Halperns’ stunning portfolio of meats and seafoods. It provides the suppliers valuable personal time with the sales representatives who ‘wear out the shoe-leather’ on the streets promoting Mountain River Venison on a year-around basis. We can provide them key product and supply-side updates, new menu ideas and information that they can then pass along to their customers attending the show the next day. Again this year (“back due to popular demand”!) we offered guests at the show a tasting of the now infamous ‘Red berry tea brined and cold smoked venison’ introduced to the USA by Chef Graham Brown. On more than one occasion we were told it was the ‘best bite in the show’! It is always a great opportunity to showcase the Mountain River products on the world stage, among the finest in meat and seafood that Atlanta has to offer. The event was a great success and bodes well for another strong selling season ahead for Mountain River Venison.