Many visitors have marvelled at the large kitchen, scullery, larder and butler's pantry, and the dining room with the long table set for a dinner party, but what sort of food was prepared and served there? Charmian Smith investigates.
It's not easy to discover what the Theomins ate. Newspaper reports of functions such as Mrs Theomin's ''at homes'' and their daughter Dorothy's coming-out ball in 1907, shortly after the house was built, describe in detail the arrangements, the floral decorations and what people wore, but, frustratingly, not the food.
Prof Helen Leach, who researched this topic some years ago, says ''it was not the done thing for guests to comment on the food, even favourably, and the reporter for the Otago Witness would not have dared infringe this unwritten rule of etiquette.''
All we get in the papers are comments like: ''A dainty supper was partaken of in the dining room'', or ''In the dining room delicious tea, coffee and cakes were provided, while in the small adjoining room fruit salad was enjoyed'', or ''Ices were served, and notwithstanding the coldness of the weather they were partaken of freely'', she says.
But there are other sources of information. In 1976, Brenda Bell, of Shag Valley Station, a lifelong friend of Dorothy Theomin (1888-1966) and a regular guest at the house, made some notes about life at Olveston.
The large house required staff to run it and David Theomin brought out English staff, such as a cook, head parlourmaid and lady's maid. Such experienced staff could train juniors, and, according to Miss Bell, the staff usually consisted of a cook, housemaid, housemaid-laundress, parlourmaid and Mrs Theomin's personal maid.
There was also an English governess for Dorothy, who later stayed on as secretary to Mrs Theomin who was heavily involved with the Plunket Society and Karitane. There was a gardener and his assistant, a chauffeur and a live-out laundry maid and seamstress, who made uniforms and did mending. When relatives from Australia came to stay, a butler and extra maids were engaged.
Miss Bell remembers a new young maid, said to have been brought up on a hulk at Port Chalmers, standing open-mouthed in an astonished trance watching the butler prepare the dessert service for a dinner party!
As Mrs Theomin became more involved in the Plunket Society, Dorothy took over running the house. In later life she told friends that her mother said she should not expect staff to carry out tasks that she could not undertake herself. Brenda Bell says ''the house ran on oiled wheels'', everyone knowing their place and looking neat in their morning and afternoon uniforms.
Besides being a wealthy business family, the Theomins were Jews and the kitchen was designed for Jewish dietary laws, there being double sinks so utensils used with meat could be kept separate from those used with dairy products. Ceramic sinks were used for washing meat and vegetables, and the large copper sinks for washing pots and tins. Dishes were washed in a bowl in one of the copper sinks, according to Miss Bell.
Jewish dietary laws required animals to be killed by an authorised Jewish butcher and the blood to be completely drained from the flesh. Meat had to be fresh; pork, shellfish and crustaceans were proscribed, and meat and dairy products had to be kept completely separate in the kitchen and were not allowed to be served in the same meal.
''Once a maid told me how they'd run out of sandwiches [during a party] and she'd hurriedly made more using her own jar of fish paste and didn't remember till later that it was a variety forbidden to strict Jews and that the chief rabbi was a guest ... However, no-one noticed or, if they did, said nothing,'' Miss Bell wrote.
Prof Leach discovered some of the recipes in a well-used copy of Wholesome Cookery had been amended, probably to accommodate Jewish practices - milk and butter were crossed out in a potato soup recipe made with stock and perhaps served at a dinner at which meat would also be eaten, and scallops and lobster were crossed out in a recipe for baked fish.
Miss Bell mentions that, although cooks came and went, the same cakes and biscuits were made.
''Food was very simple. No elaborate decorated dishes or sauces. Both Mr and Mrs Theomin had to be careful about their diet,'' she wrote.
''Sunday midday dinner was always roast beef on an enormous silver dish with a vast silver cover, replaced when the carving - done on the window table - was complete!''On Sundays there would be three maids handing round the plates, vegetables and sauces instead of the usual two, she says.
Wine was served only if there were guests. However, in keeping with the rest of the house, which had every convenience of its day, there is a large wine cellar in the basement. It still bears the remains of a label ''1870 port'' and another ''Benedictine''.
On her many trips climbing in the mountains, Dorothy sometimes cooked in the huts, and after World War 2 did most of her own cooking at home, although she had a live-out housekeeper and a gardener.
According to Margery Blackman, author of Dorothy Theomin of Olveston (2007), Dorothy says little about food on her mountain trips, but there is a gem in one of her letters to her father in 1932. She had gone with her guide, Peter Graham, to camp overnight at Alex's Knob (above Franz Josef) to see the sun rise on the mountain tops.
''Peter built an enormous fire and we toasted bread with some very tender cold mutton and had weak tea. I can tell you nothing would have tasted better at Buckingham Palace,'' she wrote.
When World War 2 started in 1939 and it became impossible to get domestic staff, Dorothy invited her hunt club friends, Stan and Stella McKay, to live in part of the house for companionship and security. Their son, Alan McKay, who grew up there, remembers she was like a grandmother to him and his brother.
''She would take just the two of us to the Savoy. We learnt to drive in her Wolseley car and, when we got our licences, we'd take her downtown and pick her up afterwards.''
In those days, Dorothy did her own cooking, eating breakfast in the kitchen and dinner by herself in the dining room at the small table by the fire. Although they only ate together on special occasions, she and his mother would sometimes share cooking, he said.
''I can remember Mum cooking the main course and Miss Theomin cooking the dessert and things like that. She was a plain eater but a good cook. From what I remember she never ate a lot - what meals she had would be very small meals.
''I used to hate rice, but she could make a rice pudding that was pink - I remember that - and it set like a jelly and it was bloody beautiful!''He remembers Eskrick butchers and Johnson's fishmongers delivering to the scullery window, which had a bell outside. The delivery window was also useful for taking his hunting kills into the kitchen to cut up, he said.
''We used to come home with all our wild animals, the pigs, the deer, and cut them all up on that big wooden table in the kitchen. The biggest work-over the kitchen got, I dare say, was when we came home from hunting trips.''
Miss Theomin gave few receptions, although ''there were a lot of very posh people turning up there at different occasions'', he said.
The only time he remembers the great hall being used in the 25 years they lived there was for his 21st birthday party. They rolled up the carpet and it took six people to carry it.
Miss Theomin didn't have many relatives and only two or three close friends, he said.
''There were always hundreds of people coming and going from our side and that kept her interested. If we had something at our end of the house, she'd come down and join us,'' he said.
''There seemed a lot more [friends] when she died, a lot of people who talked about her being such a family friend I never heard of or saw and certainly didn't see them at her funeral.''
This is probably one of the recipes Miss Bell refers to in her recollections - that even though cooks came and went, the same recipes were cooked.
This one comes from Wholesome Cookery, a well-used cookbook that has lost its cover. Instructions about adding milk and butter have been crossed out, no doubt for kosher reasons - Jews were careful to keep meat and dairy separate.
It's a plain soup and depends on good stock and well-flavoured potatoes. White pepper would have been used for seasoning as it would not leave black flakes in the creamy-coloured soup. However, black pepper gives it more flavour.
It's important to use floury potatoes as waxy ones will make it gloopy. Quantities can easily be varied.
Ingredients
500g potatoes (floury ones like agria are best)
About 1-1½ litres stock (or water and bones)
1-2 onions, finely diced
a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
salt and (white) pepper to taste
Method
Peel and slice the potatoes. Put them to cook with the stock and finely diced onions, finely chopped parsley and salt and pepper to taste (the stock may already have salt added).
Simmer until the potato slices have softened and disintegrated - you will be able to crush them against the side of the pot. This may take half to three-quarters of an hour, although the original recipe said to simmer the potatoes for 3-4 hours, strain and then simmer for another half-hour (if you are using bones instead of stock, remove them). The soup should be quite thick - about as thick as pea soup, which is quite thick.
Mash or puree the soup and adjust seasoning. Serve sprinkled with more finely chopped parsley.
Ice cream
This recipe comes from Brenda Bell, Dorothy Theomin's lifelong friend who lived at Shag Valley Station near Palmerston.
300ml cream
140ml milk
1-2 Tbsp caster sugar or to taste
1 tsp rennet
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Whip the cream until thick. Continue beating while adding the milk.
Sprinkle over the sugar, and add the rennet and vanilla.
Continue beating until it is all incorporated.
Spoon into a container with a lid and freeze for 2-3 hours until frozen.
Stella's buns
Having compared other bun recipes from the early 20th century I also tried a version adding about half a cup of milk to the mixture. This gave a softer dough and made a more cake-like bun. These might have been sprinkled with sugar to serve for afternoon tea.
Ingredients
Makes about 12
110g butter, softened
85g sugar
1 tsp golden syrup
1 egg, lightly beaten
250g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup sultanas
Method
Cream the butter and sugar until pale, then beat in the golden syrup and egg.
Sift the flour and baking powder and stir into the butter mixture with the sultanas. Shape into balls and bake in greased muffin tins or on a greased baking tray at 200degC for about 10 minutes until nicely coloured on top.
• Stella McKay and her family lived in the house from 1939 until after Dorothy Theomin's death.
