Lucy Mutch is head chef for the Martinborough eatery Nara. I sat down with her to celebrate their scooping first prize in the Regional Award for Burger Wellington.
She tells me that the competition has become huge and is now the main focus of Wellington on a Plate (WOP). This year there were 244 entries and Lucy is clearly very excited that they won the award for the Wairarapa region. I ask her about how their burger was devised. The four members of the kitchen staff came together to develop their burger, which they named “Kiss My Rump Cap.” Two of the team come from South America (Brazil and Argentina) and Rump Cap or Picanha is the most prized cut of beef in Brazil. This triangular piece comes from the top of the rump and features a thick layer of fat on one side. This, together with the Argentinian black bean chimichurri, forms the basis of the burger.
Lucy tells me she thinks they won because of the burger’s great visual and taste balance. They worked hard to get the fat, acid, salt balance exactly right.
Lucy tells me she thinks they won because of the burger’s great visual and taste balance. They worked hard to get the fat, acid, salt balance exactly right. It’s all made in house from scratch, even the brioche bun. Nearly all the ingredients are sourced locally from the Wairarapa. Lucy explains that the name Nara is Swedish and means ‘close’ or ‘near’ and refers to the fact that wherever possible, they use local ingredients. Daniel, her partner and co-owner of the business, has spent some time living in Sweden. The cavolo nero comes from the very local Rebel Gardens and the mayo used to make the Peruvian agi verde sauce uses Leafyridge olive oil from Dakins Road.
The team had a brainstorm about the name and settled on “Kiss My Rump Cap” as soon as it was said. The theme of this year’s Wellington on a Plate was ‘Word of Mouth’ and they thought this fitted in multiple levels; as well as describing a mouth and incorporating the main ingredient, it was as much a cheeky evocation of ‘Kiss My Ass’ as it was an invitation to wrap your lips around the burger.
I can tell that Lucy takes entering this competition very seriously. After all, it costs $900 just to enter. The whole team is involved in making the burger and each member prepares separate elements. Because it takes a lot of work and time to create, they asked customers to let them know if they were ordering one when they booked. 650 burgers were made in the three weeks of the competition and every day they sold out. Because of its popularity, they extended sales for a week after the competition ended. They even baked a gluten free version of the bun, made to look identical to the regular bun so that these diners would feel included.
The public assessed the burger and voted on it. They got a lot of ten out of tens. If the numbers are up enough, they hope that next year they will be competing in the whole of Wellington competition, against all the entries there, not just the Wairarapa area. And the good news is that they’ll get free entry because they won this time.
