The Plating Game: Wendyl Nissen

We asked one of our favourite Kiwis to share her food loves so we could create a dish especially for her.

What kind of food did you eat growing up?
Wendyl: My mother hated cooking and resented every meal she had to cook for us. There was a lot of burnt chops, sausages, and frozen mince bashed into submission then cooked with a can of baked beans, which she called chilli con carne. When convenience food arrived in the 70s, she was a huge devotee of the convenience meal.

Can you share a favourite childhood food memory?
Wendyl: My dad loved fishing and diving, and so I have amazing memories of fresh scallops cooked on the barbecue and fresh snapper pan-fried in butter. As kids we would catch pipers off the jetty, which look like tiny swordfish. We would wrap them in foil with butter and lemon and cook them. I never see pipers anymore, so I hope we didn’t catch all of them!

Are there any old family recipes that you still cook/eat today?
Wendyl: None that my mother cooked on a regular basis, but I do still make what she called “ginger-ale Christmas cake”, which is a recipe she got from her mother where you soak the fruit overnight in a small bottle of ginger-ale. It’s really delicious.

What’s your style of cooking?
Wendyl: I’m big on bread-making and over the years have kept many sourdough starters with love and tenderness. So if
I go to a friend’s place, I usually bring a loaf of freshly baked bread and a bottle of wine.

What’s your go-to mid-week dish?
Wendyl: I eat a lot of beans, lentils and chickpeas these days and my favourite mid-week dish is a soup I make from the carcass of a roast chicken at the weekend, which I turn into stock. Then I add rose harissa, turmeric, onion, cans of tomatoes, chickpeas and lentils and some spinach from the garden at the end. It’s very comforting and very good for the gut microbiome with all that fibre!

What’s your style of cooking?
Wendyl: I love baking but I’m no good at it. Nothing will rise for me. I’ve tried using really freshly bought baking powder, but still no luck. My husband, Paul, who is a good baker, says it’s because I’m a bit “slap dash” with the ingredients instead of measuring carefully...

Talk us through a day in the food life of Wendyl Nissen.
Wendyl: I’m one of those people who doesn’t eat breakfast. I like to give my gut a good break to digest everything and also, studies show that your system has a nice old clean out and a reset if you give it a chance. For lunch I make a mean Bircher muesli, which has apple, nuts and seeds, live yoghurt and kefir, lemon juice and berries. Dinner is a big salad from the garden in summer with some chicken (free-range and organic), or in winter a good veg stir-fry with some tofu, halloumi or a steak from our homekill cows. I’m very fussy about trying to eat homegrown, free-range and organic.

Do you have a go-to café or restaurant in New Zealand?
Wendyl: Whenever I’m in Auckland you will find me at SPQR on Ponsonby Rd. I’ve been going there for at least 30 years – my kids grew up there, my palate developed there, I’ve made and lost friendships there, shared secrets and lies there and I feel like I’m home when I’m sitting outside watching the sun go down over those wonderful old buildings. I sometimes wish I could replay every meal I’ve had there as it would be the story of my life. They make a mean martini, which is my favourite drink, and usually have awesome fresh oysters, which is my favourite food.

Do you like to entertain? If so, what would your ideal gathering look like?
Wendyl: Paul and I were big entertainers when we lived in Auckland. There were some very memorable long lunches, dinners and parties held at our house in Grey Lynn. Up in the Hokianga we do have guests but it takes a while for them to get to us, so not often. I like a table of 10 – we have a huge dining table and we regularly sat 12 every Sunday night when we had our kids and partners for dinner in Auckland. So 10 would be nice, always good friends with maybe a few people we don’t know so well so we can get to know them better. Paul always does the cooking of the main meal, which would be a delicious casserole, something roasted with duck fat potatoes and a huge salad – which is where I come in. I’m good at salads and I love doing a huge board of nibbles to start with. Then dessert will be Paul’s sticky toffee pudding or triflova – trifle plus pavlova in layers in one dish.

What cuisines or flavours do you gravitate to?
Wendyl: I love Thai, Indian, Japanese, Mexican and Chinese so I can always find a good takeaway and they tend to be more vegetable and seafood-heavy than all about the meat. When I eat out I tend to order vegetarian because I like to see what chefs do and it might give me ideas for my own vegetarian meals... Unless they have oysters and fresh-caught snapper, which I order with glee.

Tell us about a memorable meal of your life. What was special about it?
Wendyl: This meal was not for a special occasion. It was a simple meal eaten in Barcelona in a restaurant we just walked into. I had the most divine kina served raw in its shell with some sort of amazing marinade. Years later I tried to find that restaurant on another visit to Barcelona and couldn’t – which is probably as it should be because my fantastic memory of that meal might not have matched the reality again.

You’ve mentioned your love of martinis. How do you like these served and do you have any other go-to drinks?
Wendyl: I love a good dry vodka martini with three olives. Not one, not two – three. I also enjoy French white wines because they tend to be made more traditionally with less additives and I love the musty smell and flavour they have. My friends think I’m an awful wine snob because of it and my wine tastes can be expensive. But I would rather have one divine glass of French chablis than a bottle of nasty chardonnay.

Do you have a sweet tooth – or do you have any guilty food pleasures?
Wendyl: I don’t really have a sweet tooth although I do love a good chocolate. Did I mention oysters at all? Bluffs are my favourite treat but I will take any fresh oyster at any time.

If you could dine with anyone, who would it be?
Wendyl: Patricia Highsmith because she too loved a good martini, but was also such a fabulous author I would want to hear how she did it and she was also a bit grumpy and rude, which in my book makes a woman fascinating. Or Jean Rhys, another grumpy and rude woman and a wonderful writer. I wear the perfume she wore, so we would both smell nice.

Click here to find the recipe that Sarah made for Wendyl.