It is a staff kitchen like no other - gleaming stainless steel, polished subway tiles and an island bench the size of a small runway.
Rebecca Fox discovers there is more than just noodles and baked beans being cooked in Fisher & Paykel's Dunedin staff kitchen.
For foodies, it is the ultimate: being paid to cook for fun.
At Fisher & Paykel, a small group of its staff, all keen cooks and food lovers, get time out from their desk jobs to cook.
Yes, they get to try out their favourite recipes, old and new, in the company's staff kitchen.
However, as befitting a company which makes kitchen appliances, the kitchen is not a poky cupboard featuring a microwave and jug but a gleaming open-plan space with views over George St.
It features a wall oven, a very large freestanding oven with gas cook top (be still, my beating heart), stainless steel benches, trendy subway-tiled splashback and an induction cooktop - not to mention every baker's delight, a 3m-long island bench.
Did I mention this was only the inside kitchen? They also have an outdoor kitchen upstairs for the summer months.
While the company has official ''kitchens'' where its products are developed and tested, this kitchen is where the ''informal'' testing is done.
It all started about six years ago when a group of staff, all friends who regularly shared recipes, were encouraged to start a blog.
There was already a lady's morning tea group, a cake club, a roast club, curry club and, of course, ''Friday beers'', so it was a natural progression to funnel that creativity towards a blog.
''It was organic, really. It grew out of so many of us being passionate about food,'' cooking and dishwashing chief designer and original blog member Lauren Palmer says.
The blog Our Kitchen has developed over the years as participating members' skills have grown.
They now also contribute recipes towards the company's Grill magazine, which is published for the North American market.
The next edition will feature salsas and tortillas, grilled lamb and Mediterranean vegetables, all developed by the Our Kitchen team.
They comprise mostly design and technical staff members who spend their days at their desks or in meetings coming up with new products and improving old ones.
Creating recipes and cooking, while giving them a creative outlet, helps the team understand how the products they design work.
These days, there are about six team members based in the Dunedin office who have one or two days a month to create in the kitchen for the blog.
''We've got a range of experience, from trained chefs to self-taught cooks, so there's something for everyone.''
Some of the team also do their own photography and food styling, and over the years have collected enough bits and bobs to fill their own ''props'' cupboard with dishes, material and knick-knacks to use when styling.
''It's a different thing to learn. You're not just cooking the stuff but working out how to document it as well. How to tell a story in a visual way,'' Richard says.
Ms Palmer says looking over photographs taken over the years you can see the evolution of people's skills.
''I'm hugely proud of the site.''
The blog is read by people all over the world and they often have comment, including about the photography.
The team members all speak of an interest in food which grew out of different life experiences.
For Ms Palmer, while she loves cookbooks, she finds she
reads food sites and blogs for inspiration and often cooks from them.
''I've always loved baking and cooking. As a teenager, I loved baking cakes, and right through university I continued to bake quite often.''
As an industrial designer she finds working on the blog is a ''nice way to inform the design process and be hands on with the products''.
''You learn so much from this sort of informal interaction. Like, here, the cooking process is always interrupted, like it is at home when the phone rings or the kids need you.''
Team member Jessica Philips is from the United Kingdom and her husband also works at Fisher & Paykel.
''Ever since I was little, Mum and I did a lot of baking and cooking.''
She looks after new cooking products, project-managing all the new parts that go into a project so spends a lot of time ''sat behind a desk''.
Getting out from behind the desk is the bonus of joining the blog team about four years ago, she says.
''Living in New Zealand makes being a foodie very easy, from fresh fish to the wines of Central Otago.''
Industrial designer Richard Borrett specialises in dishwashing products, so really enjoys taking a break from that process and learning about how the cooking appliances work.
''It's really nice to get hands on.''
Since moving to Dunedin, he has enjoyed being able to go hunting as well as continuing his love of spearfishing.
''I really like the process from the animal to turning it into food.''
He admits much of his cooking involves meat but is endeavouring to try some baking.
''Baking I'm learning to love.''
Lydia Findlay is the newest member of the team, having joined after starting with the company four months ago as a technical writer for user manuals and support literature.
A Dunedin woman, she heard about the blog during her induction to the company.
''I thought I'd be interested in doing that. It sounds interesting and I was roped in quickly.''
A keen baker, she only recently discovered the joys of cooking, but only because she has dietary issues which forced her hand, she says.
''The last couple of years, I've been on a restrictive diet so I've had to get creative about what I cook. It's led me to be a bit more experimental and creative, which is quite fun.''
She has found being involved with the blog has been a good way to learn how appliances work, which is always good when writing the instruction manual, she says.
Sara's cooked ham
If you have the same problem as the team at Fisher & Paykel and have a ham left over from Christmas tucked away in the freezer, now is the time to get it out to have a late midwinter Christmas or just enjoy some ham on fresh bread with your Friday drinks. In the team's case that is hot spiced apple cider.
Ingredients
ham*
approximately 20 cloves
Coating for ham
juice and zest of 2 oranges
1 Tbsp cardamom
1 Tbsp wholegrain mustard
4 Tbsp brown sugar
Glaze for ham
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
*I used half a ham; take note of the weight as you will need this to work out the cooking time
Method
Take the skin off the ham (try not to remove any fat when doing so). Score the fat in diamonds. Place ham in an ovenproof dish.
Mix orange juice, grated zest, cardamom, mustard and brown sugar in a small bowl and then spread this over ham with a pastry brush.
You can either marinate the ham overnight or cook straight away.
If you are marinating overnight, wrap and refrigerate.
If you are cooking straight away, preheat the oven to 160degC on bake.
Pour or ladle off the excess orange juice mixture and save. Stud the scored fat with cloves (at the points of the diamonds).
Bake the ham for 20 minutes per kg.
While the ham is cooking, mix the water, sugar and leftover orange juice mixture in a saucepan over heat to dissolve the sugar.
Fifteen minutes before the end of cooking, increase the oven temperature to 200degC and baste the ham generously with the sugar syrup as well as ladling the juice collecting in the dish back over the ham.
Repeat basting every couple of minutes until the fat has turned golden brown and crispy.
Depending on how strong your oven shelves are, you should be able to pull the shelf out a little to baste (instead of removing the ham each time).
Once cooked, remove the ham from the oven and let cool in the dish. Display on a large platter and slice to serve.
Lydia's spiced apple cider
Dunedin has been experiencing quite a cold snap recently, and with snow and ice driving us to stay inside by the fire, this spiced apple cider is the perfect recipe for a drink that will warm you up from the inside out. This is a twist on the classic winter go-to drink, mulled wine. The cider gives it a lighter, fresher taste, while the cardamom and vanilla add a beautiful fragrant flavour. The addition of whisky balances the sweetness of the apple nicely, and gives it just a little bit of kick.
Ingredients (Serves 4)
1 litre apple cider
4 cinnamon quills
tsp cardamom seeds
1 vanilla bean
60ml vanilla syrup, to sweeten
120ml whisky a small apple, finely sliced
Method
In a mortar grind the cardamom seeds to a fine powder.
Slice the vanilla bean along its length with the tip of a sharp knife. Use the back of the knife to scrape out the seeds from inside.
In a medium-sized saucepan, add apple cider, cinnamon quills, ground cardamom, and the vanilla bean and seeds.
Cook over a medium heat until cider just begins to simmer, then reduce to a low heat and cook for a further 15-20min.
Cooking on a low heat allows the mixture to warm and the spices to infuse.
Be careful not to let the mixture come to a boil as this changes the flavour.
At the end of cooking, add whisky, sliced apple and vanilla syrup.
The vanilla syrup adds sweetness, so more or less can be used depending on preference.
Serve in a heatproof mug, using the sliced apple and cinnamon quills to garnish.
