Ambassador finds hidden culinary talents

U.S. Ambassador David Huebner was a bit out of his element in the Kiwi’s Best demonstration kitchen at Fieldays, New Zealand's agri-business extravaganza. “I can’t cook to save my life,” Huebner told celebrity chef Al Brown. Nonetheless, Huebner carefully followed Brown’s directions to sautée veal medallions, accompanied by a cream sauce with honey liqueur and a hash of root vegetables.

Huebner is no stranger to Brown’s approach to cooking. He has eaten several times at Logan Brown in Wellington, honored as Cuisine NZ’s 2009 restaurant of the year. Huebner also praised the variety of ethnic cuisine he’s tasted since taking up his duties in New Zealand six months ago.

Dressed in a crimson polo shirt and blue jeans, Huebner was clearly comfortable on stage, asking in jest for cilantro (coriander), a popular ingredient in Mexican food. He held up a copy of Brown’s latest book, Go Fish, and quizzed him about his new TV series, Coasters, which portrays people who live—and eat—along New Zealand’s coasts. When the veal was ready to serve, Huebner drizzled the sauce artistically around the meat and vegetables. Brown praised him for the attractive presentation.

Trained as a lawyer, Huebner headed the Shanghai office of an international law firm before President Barack Obama appointed him ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Before taking up his culinary duties on stage, he attended Wednesday’s opening ceremony and attended a luncheon with Prime Minister John Key.

Huebner listened attentively to Key’s support for New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to slow global warming. “Both New Zealand and the United States are determined to show good stewardship of our planet – and that requires addressing the serious and long-term challenge of global climate change,” Huebner said in a prepared statement. (Read more on the ambassador's blog about U.S.-New Zealand efforts to reduce greenhouse gases from agricultural sources.)

Huebner likened Fieldays to the Los Angeles County Fair, which he attends whenever he is at home in California. “I feel very comfortable amongst farmers, animals, crops and machinery,” he told me after the cooking demonstration. “Farmers, wherever they are, share something in common,” he said. “American farmers and Kiwi farmers share the same problems, they same challenges, the same joys in what they do.”

Asked whether he owns a pair of gumboots -- the standard rural footwear in New Zealand -- Huebner acknowledged that he did, but hasn’t had occasion to wear them. “I spend all of my days inside, in the embassy in Wellington – I haven’t been outside in the rain or the mud yet.” He will no doubt have an opportunity to get his boots muddy in the months to come.
First published in Fieldays Exhibitor. Photo: Barker Photography