The Plating Game: Kate Sylvester

We asked Kate Sylvester to share her food loves so we could create a dish especially for her.

Kate Sylvester is one of those effortlessly chic women you just wish you could be – intelligent, creative, driven and stylish. Known for the sophisticated and whimsical clothes she designs, which tell a story while flattering their wearers, she’s been one of the country’s most iconic fashion figures for two decades. Here, she tells us about discovering vegetarian food and her love of cooking for others.

Do you like to cook?

Kate: Yes I do. Obviously I like to make clothes and cooking is another way to be creative. I’m not really interested in baking because I’ve always found it a bit stressful and too exact. I far prefer the creativity of cooking, and I’m quite an intuitive cook – if I start with a recipe, I always end up adapting it as I go along. I’ll often put things together in my head and play with flavours – I’ll just think, ooh yes, those two would be nice together.

What's your signature dish?

Kate: When I asked my partner Wayne, he said ‘it’s paella’. But paella definitely isn’t something that you just throw together – it’s very much tied to celebration and I associate it with special occasions. If my signature dish is something a bit more everyday, it might be spinach pie – mine has spinach, feta, lots of eggs and pastry. I’ve got three sons and the last time they came home I asked them all individually what they’d like me to cook, and they all said ‘spinach pie’!

I’ve read that you like Italian food. What do you love about those flavours?

Kate: I used to love pasta, but lately I've actually been moving away from it. I don’t have white carbs in my house anymore – I’ve swapped everything to wholemeal. Generally, I’m becoming much more plant-based so I’ve moved away a bit from Italian, and I try not to cook meat. I still eat it, but I try not to cook it, and for the last year I’ve been really focused on building up a repertoire of vegetarian meals. That’s been my focus more than any particular cuisine – but I do especially love Israeli flavours and Israeli cuisine has lots of delicious plant-based options. Overall, I'd say I now mostly eat modern veggie-focused cuisine.

What are some of your favourite vegetarian dishes?

Kate: Caponata, the dish with aubergines and tomatoes, is definitely a new favourite! And there’s an Eleanor Ozich recipe for Spanish chickpeas that you can make in about two seconds, which has become another real go-to of mine.

Do you have any favourite cookbooks or food writers?

Kate: Apart from Eleanor Ozich, I love the Ottolenghi books. Those have been absolutely fantastic during my journey of discovering plant-based meals.

What sort of food did you eat growing up?

Kate: I grew up in the 70s and my mum was really into healthy food – she was a bit of a hippie. So although the backbone of our diet was quite classic Kiwi, there were a few odd things thrown in the mix. We never had white bread, it was always Vogel’s, and the kids at school always used to laugh when we had ‘grass sandwiches’, which were just filled with a bit of watercress! I vividly remember the first time we tried avocados and for years Mum messed around trying to get kiwifruit to grow. She also made her own muesli, that sort of thing.

I guess the healthy focus I grew up with is coming back to me a bit in adulthood. I do love the fact that I’ve finally got a vegetable garden now, because I grew up with one.

Do you have any favourite food memories – from childhood or otherwise?

Kate: I’ve got SO many favourite food memories – but when I think back to my childhood, the main thing I feel nostalgic for is not so much the food itself but the family dinners where we would all be sitting around the table together. We would have very robust discussions and everyone would be yelling their heads off… we were a very opinionated family and everything would get very vocal, but it always really good fun. I loved that. It was an absolute rule that we always sat at the table to eat dinner and so I kept that going with my own kids – and even now my favourite thing in the whole world is sitting around the table with loved ones, with everyone yelling their heads off!

Do you have any favourite restaurants?

Kate: In Auckland, I love Gemmayze Street – every time I go there I think it’s fantastic. And I can’t believe it took me until the week before lockdown to discover Ozone – I went there for a fantastic breakfast and I just can’t wait to go back.

Beyond New Zealand, we did manage to scoot across to Melbourne for a weekend when we had the travel bubble, and we ate at Embla. That’s an absolutely fantastic restaurant which I really recommend – the food was beautiful. And it has a New Zealand connection because it’s run by the people who used to run The Matterhorn in Wellington.

What would be your last meal?

Kate: I would like champagne and oysters and my mother’s scrambled eggs.

I’ve never been able to figure out what was so special about her eggs,
but she cooked them quite deep in the frying pan and they were always just really… buoyant? Fluffy? They were just amazing – maybe it was just because Mum made them.

Do you like to entertain?

Kate: There’s nothing I like better – and that’s where the paella kicks in. There’s something about cooking a dish that takes time, like paella or a risotto. You have a wine, you put music on, you’re not in a hurry… it’s a lovely process. I love doing that.

The place we really get to have fun with food and entertaining is at our bach up at Mangawhai. Wayne catches fish and crayfish and there’s shellfish in the harbour so there’s plenty of super-fresh seafood. Entertaining friends or family there is my absolute favourite thing and I'm looking forward to doing some of that this summer.

What’s always in your shopping trolley?

Kate: I would say parsley and lemons but I grow them both myself now!

Is there anything you don’t like?

Kate: I don’t like southeast Asian flavours – Thai or Vietnamese, that sort of thing. I just find them a bit too sweet and perfumey. I think it's partly because I don’t have a sweet tooth.

What’s a treat that always lifts your mood?

Kate: Although I don’t have a sweet tooth, I love really good dark chocolate. It can be flavoured or plain, just so long as it’s not too sugary!

Click here to find the recipe for Kate's Roasted Eggplant with Agrodolce, Cracked Wheat and Feta