A toast!
Kate Underwood, Food Editor
My appreciation for toast runs deep, from hungry youthful days devouring copious slices of fluffy white bread toasted ’til golden and generously smothered in Marmite and butter. These days I take my toast seriously.
It’s the enchanting process of transforming a single slice of bread into a well-seasoned, satiating snack that can turn into a vessel of either familiarity or discovery. It could be the simplicity of salted butter and tart plum jam or lavish experiments such as charred gooseberries with marinated buffalo cheese, coriander, and crispy chilli oil. Often my incentive to toast springs from a desire to want to eat something enticing and delicious with speed and minimal effort.
You eat with your eyes, and to me, successful toasting displays visual appeal. One that speaks to seasonality, preservation methods, and, when executed well – a balance of flavour, colour and texture.
With each creation, I take the opportunity to re-imagine leftovers and piece together peculiar ingredients. Toppings are the best part. My non-negotiables are butter, salt, and pepper. As a genuine peanut butter nutter, more often than not, PB is involved, mostly crunchy, sometimes a Fix & Fogg fiery number with smoked paprika and cayenne. Pickles are key for acidity and crunch, things like gherkins, kimchi, or pickled cherries. Fresh herbs help brighten, like the surprising combination of goat’s cheese, blackberry jam and mint.
Connecting more closely with people in the industry has led me to prioritise good bread. Toast can tell a story; it’s a vehicle for hero grain growers, bakers who transform flour, water and salt into edible magic, and artisan food producers who provide our toast with delicious toppings.
I’ve become a huge fan of sourdough. The lengthy fermentation, sour tang and when toasted, the confident crunch. Seeded, overnight oat, smoked rye, or fruit with plump dried apricots – each loaf offering something different. Good bread is nutrient dense and can be a highly nourishing source of carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins, minerals, and a host of gut-loving bacteria.
As a country, we import around 70 per cent of our wheat from offshore, mostly from Australia, yet we have fantastic arable land for growing a whole host of nutrient-dense varieties, and we produce some of the highest quality grain in the world.
In my role with Eat New Zealand, we’ve been working towards a Local Grain Economy for Aotearoa. Connecting all aspects of the grain supply chain, from farmers, millers, and scientists through to bakers, chefs and eaters – encouraging more New Zealanders to think about where their flour comes from and ultimately to #EatNZGrains.
If we want a resilient and secure food system that doesn’t rely on imports, we must eat local. Next time you’re eating toast, be curious about where the flour comes from.
Toast, and subsequently bread, is an act of nature, science, art, and creativity that deserves to be respected and celebrated. I’ll toast to that.
Jump over to Instagram (@relishthememory) and find the ‘Toast’ series in my IG story highlights for more insight into my love of toast.