MEET YOUR {OUTSTANDING} MAKER - CRAFT PATE

What do you do when you’re a pastry chef of 15 years who develops an allergy to flour? Travel the world, fall in love and start a charcuterie business in New Zealand! A multi-year winner in the Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards, Craft Pâté received a Gold Medal in 2021 for its Boudin Noir and a Silver Medal in 2020 for Craft Pâté, Chicken Liver Parfait, this is their story.

Bordeaux-born Benoit Gourgues was travelling the world working as a chef visiting New Zealand so he could pursue his love of caving, when he met Anne Karschunke in Nelson.

Benoit had travelled widely with his parents as a child and after working in France for a number of years he set out to explore the world. Knowing he couldn’t specialise as pastry chef after realising that the itching, sneezing and coughing was an allergy to flour which wouldn’t get better, he jobbed around a chef before landing in Nelson where he and German-born Anne fell in love.

Missing the flavours of his childhood in Bordeaux, Benoit started making charcuterie at home. Before he knew it, he had a legion of friends offering their opinions about how delicious and tasty his charcuterie was – and suggested he start a business.

It seemed like a natural move, so in August 2017 Benoit and Anne established Craft Pâté with the intention of introducing Kiwis to traditional French Pâté.

From their home base in Nelson the pair sourcing quality Ingredients – which they say is consistently one of their biggest challenges. Anne explains “we want only the best quality meats. Ideally, we would love to be 100% organic and only use free-range meat and that is what we strive for.”

Small business is challenging too. Initially getting their heads around the regulations was time-consuming – not that they are complaining as Benoit acknowledges its reassuring to know you’re buying safe food. Benoit says he’s also learned only about 30% of his time is spent making products. The rest of the time is spent sourcing packaging and ingredients, organising distribution and finding stores to stock their products as well as attending two farmers’ markets each week.

So what sets Craft apart and has resulted in their winning two coveted Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards medals? Back to Anne; “we believe our quality makes Craft products stand apart. As well as the fact we use authentic French recipes, even though we put a little ‘kiwi twist’ on some of them to surprise our customers and ourselves! Also, everything is literally handmade. From mincing the meat to filling the jars and labelling.” Craft really is a boutique business.

Benoit says “knowing what we have achieved in the past four years including recognition from customers, professionals and colleagues within the industry, keeps us going. Case in point is winning a Gold Medal at this year’s Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards. We value the feedback we receive from our customers and its rewarding to educate people on good artisan products!”

From the original Craft Pâté, Chicken Liver Parfait the pair have extended the range to include a selection of pâtés and terrines, rillettes, grenier, pâté en croute and the gold medal winning Craft, Boudin Noir.

Find Craft Pâté products and meet Anne and Benoit at the Nelson Farmers Market every Saturday or at the Marlborough Farmers Market in Blenheim on Sundays. If you’re outside the Tasman region visit the website for a list of stockists from Waikato to Central Otago.