2009 Cuisine Artisan Awards
It was a struggle to choose just 10 from more than 90 fantastic entries, which is an exciting indication of New Zealand’s thriving artisan food culture.
Salumeria Fontana Sicilian Sweet Fennel sausages emerged as the Supreme Winner. Handmade with the greatest of care and the best of ingredients by Greg Scopas, they exemplify top-notch artisan fare and we wholeheartedly congratulate him.
Of the chosen 10, several producers, including Greg, have appeared in the pages of this magazine before, having attracted attention for their talent and thus showing admirable commitment and consistency.
We would like to thank the more than 400 readers who nominated their favourite artisan producers, testament to your enthusiasm for great real food.
We would also like to thank associate sponsor Selaks Founders Reserve. Hand-picked and handcrafted, Selaks Founders Reserve is produced in line with the same philosophies that guide our best artisan producers.
“It’s exciting to see artisans forging regional culinary identities and local pride, just as the wine industry has done in many regions,” says senior winemaker Brett Fullerton. “For a long time we have graced winemakers with deserving accolades. Now it’s time to recognise our local food heroes, too.”
And we congratulate Selaks Wines, one of New Zealand’s great pioneering wine producers, who this year will celebrate 75 years of winemaking. Visit www.selaks.co.nz
Please note that olive oil producers have not been included here as there will be a special feature devoted to them in an upcoming issue.
The Judges
The judges were Cuisine deputy food editor Fiona smith (who headed the panel); Cuisine food editors Lauraine Jacobs and Ray McVinnie; Cuisine editor of Food, News & Views and Restaurants, Toni Mason; Selaks senior winemaker, Brett Fullerton; founder of Delmaine Fine Foods, enzo Bettio; co-owner of Logan Brown Restaurant in Wellington, Cuisine contributor, television presenter and chef Al Brown; and Farmers’ Markets New Zealand chairperson, Marlborough’s Chris Fortune.
Supreme Winner
2009 Artisan Awards
 Salumeria Fontana
Sicilian Sweet Fennel Sausages
A stretch living with his grandparents in Italy when he was a child introduced eg Scopas to the typical cuisine and flavours there and along the way he developed a taste for fine Italian sausages. Unable to find anything similar when he came back to New Zealand, in true entrepreneurial fashion he resorted to making his own as a hobby, which became a commercial operation in 2000. Lucky for us.
The judges found his Sweet Fennel Sausages beautifully elegant, sweet and fresh, with great flavours, tasting clearly of pork and fennel and with perfect seasoning and tender skin. And all his sausages are preservative and gluten free.
The Sicilian sausages, one of his early recipes, came from his liking for the typical food of Sicily where fennel features strongly. The Spicy Fennel Sausages are a variation on the theme.
Also in the range are Italian Mantova, Italian Spicy, Spanish Chorizo and French Toulouse, along with pancetta and dry-cured bacon. Greg also produces extra virgin olive oil from the grove on his property just south of Wellsford.
You can see they’re good quality. They have a chunky texture which shows they’ve been minced just once, so everything you see is good meat – no sinew or rubbish. You can’t hide anything. Greg says he goes to the “nth degree” to clean up the meat and he uses “the whole hog”, that is, all the good meat rather than offcuts, except the belly, which is saved for making his pancetta. You can see the fat in the sausages, but that’s again because it’s just been minced, not ground in, and it’s all top-quality back fat t 
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