Foodie Kohu Road

Courtesy of My Generation.

What foods conjure up some of our best memories growing up? Scoops of creamy ice cream bought at the end of a sunny day at the beach, suggests Gill South.

When IT specialist Greg Hall and his wife Yayoi came back from Japan permanently in 2007 with their three young children, they knew they wanted to make a top quality home-made ice cream. It was something Hall had missed in his years in Japan.

The couple behind the Kohu Road ice cream brand – they live in Kohu Road in Titirangi – are now making a decadent, creamy ice cream with the accent on excellent ingredients, and definitely no preservatives, additives, emulsifiers, artificial flavours, sweeteners or colours.

Although Greg is the driving force behind the business, he draws on Yayoi's educated palette when trying out a new flavour. Her background as a Kaiseki chef – that's like nouvelle cuisine in Japan - makes her an extremely valuable partner. They pride themselves on their Vanilla and Chocolate – the vanilla is mixed with a scraped organic vanilla bean from Madagascar while the chocolate is made with a 72 per cent cocoa solid chocolate from France. Most of the other ingredients are organic – the eggs, milk and sugar. The range also includes  Espresso, Cookies and Cream  (Oreos of course) and then a flavour which hints at the couple's background, Macha, an icecream made with green tea powder which is like cocoa in texture.

I’m a devotee of the  Strawberry, made with Geraldine strawberries. Eating a spoonful of this is like eating strawberries and clotted cream in an ice cream. It's sublime. Meanwhile the non-dairy Coconut Rum, made with coconut milk, has just been launched with great success, and a new favourite, Golden Syrup, has the over 40s waxing lyrical. “They are transported back in time,” says Greg. “It's fantastic with chocolate cake and absolutely ideal with Christmas pudding.”

Australian chef Donna Hay who visited Kohu Road at the recent Auckland food show has two distinct favourites - the Dark Chocolate and the Golden Syrup. And Australians are about to have a taste of the brand, thanks to interest from Australian supermarket giant Woolworths' upmarket foodie chain, Thomas Dux Grocer. Other Australian specialty food stores are also lining up.

Meanwhile, Woolworths' New Zealand subsidiary, Progressive Enterprises, is set to roll out the range in its Countdowns, Woolworths and Foodtown supermarkets here from October. It's currently in most New World stores in the North Island and the hotel chains are already selling it – it's named on the menu at Huka Lodge, and is available at the Langham and the Westin. It sells for around $18.90 a litre in supermarkets.

The substantial new orders have led to the company's investment in new premises in Portage Rd, New Lynn. So far the Halls have done it on their own, but they're doing their first round of funding at the moment to finance the move and they have a big name in the dairy industry prepared to put some investment in and to go on the board. 

It won't just be just a factory – there are plans for a big commercial kitchen, a small shop and possibly a cafe.

The ice cream maker, who likes to draw parallels between wine and ice cream (he strongly advises letting the ice cream sit for a few minutes before serving)  is planning tastings there for visitors and school trips. “It'll be like going into a vineyard and wine cellar for wine tastings.”
 
His refusal to put any emulsifiers or ‘crap’ into his ice cream means that export markets other than Australia are out at this point. He would consider setting up satellite sites in Europe though. 
 
The energetic foodie is already thinking about more products. Sorbet is an obvious one, and he reckons there are no truly Parisienne-style glazed gateaux and patisseries in New Zealand.

“We wanted to have a small cottage business when the kids were in pre-school but it's just exploded,” he says.

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