Diary of a Chef

Behind-the-Scenes with B-Guided TV

2011-12-21T16:36:00.000+13:00

Recently, B-Guided TV (BGTV) came to film The Rees Hotel as part of the Air New Zealand in-flight video for Queenstown, which includes me whipping up a few culinary delights!

BGTV is a quality travel show created specifically for travellers, to inform and engage, ensuring they experience the "real New Zealand" and come away with an authentic experience. Part of the BGTV mantra is that "by meeting the locals [travellers] will get a taste of [the] regional culture."

This makes them the perfect partner for us to work with. At True South Dining Room our guiding force is using locally grown produce wherever possible and creating a local culinary culture, unique to our place in the world. That way, when guests come to our restaurant they are experiencing new flavours, that they could only try by coming here. This is part of the magic of Queenstown and what keeps people coming back!

We have worked with the crew from BGTV before and they are a great bunch, so hopefully there are more projects with them on the horizon!

If you've ever wondered what goes on behind-the-scenes on a shoot like this, I will give you a bit of a run-through.

Firstly, the film crew do some general filming around the hotel. This will be used to give a good overview of The Rees Hotel, including our lakeside view, the rooms, apartments and the restaurant.

Next up, I cook a dish. It’s best not to go with an overly complicated recipe as it will all be edited down to a quick clip. We went with the strawberry trifle that is currently on the menu. It not only tastes great, but it looks good for the camera and has an easy flow while making it (perfect for a short video).

Put this all together and voilà, there you have it - several fantastic reasons to come and visit!

TOP THREE Currently on Chef's Culinary Radar

2011-11-15T16:00:00.000+13:00

1. Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, and Maxime Bilet

This cookbook is the latest item on my wishlist! It weighs 20kg and costs around $900!!! All the authors have collective knowledge encompassing the realms of science, invention and, of course, cooking. Author Nathan Myhrvold was the CTO of Microsoft, before he set off on a mission to make the world's greatest cookbook.

Modernist Cuisine is one of the most complete cooking references you could ever get. It tells you how to do something and why, with techniques that translate to both commercial and domestic kitchens. Filled with stunning photography, this would be a lifetime investment for any food fanatic.

2. A Tasty Drop or Two

At the Taste of New Zealand Festival recently I was privy to some of France and New Zealand's finest drops. Here's a few of my top picks (there were many!):

Rolly Gassmann Gewurztraminer, Alsace, France - Dinner with Rick Stein introduced me to a host of amazing French wines and this one really stuck in my mind.
Stolen Rum - The lovely ladies on the stand were very good to us and I thoroughly enjoyed both the white and gold.
Hawkes Ridge Tempranillo, Hawkes Bay, NZ - This is a traditional red variety from Rioja in Spain, adopted by kiwis and grown here in our very own Hawkes Bay. We love local!

3. Upcoming 'custom greens' for True South

We have been busy here at True South organising our greens for the summer menu. Our suppliers 'Goodies from the Gorge' and 'Basil, Parsley and Partners' have been getting things ready for us.
We are still waiting for the sun to really heat up and get the plants going, but you can definitely look forward to beautiful and fresh pearl onion, golden & striped beetroot, wet garlic, rainbow beet, cavalo nero and basil!

You will have to wait and see which dishes we will be transforming these into, but I definitely having a few top secret plans under way that will be revealed in good time, so stay tuned ...

Passionate Foodies & Taste of New Zealand

2011-11-11T09:09:00.001+13:00

Being recognised for your culinary passion and what you believe in is always going to be an amazing feeling.

I was fortunate enough to experience this first-hand at the recent Taste of New Zealand Awards (TONZA) when I received a 'Premium Award' at the Taste of New Zealand Festival that is dedicated to recognising leadership in the creation of a New Zealand culinary identity.

Taste of New Zealand was a great opportunity to meet like-minded people, share knowledge and gain a new perspective from the other award winning chef's who share similar beliefs to myself about the importance of using local, quality produce.

I was so impressed with the inaugural awards ceremony, as well as the entire Taste of New Zealand festival. The whole event, from start to finish, was extremely organised and well run.

Fantastic to be invited from the very beginning, and I can only see this event exponentially getting better and better as the years go by. It is backed by such a passionate team and supported by an equally passionate industry of foodies.

Checkout this showreel from the Taste of New Zealand awards ceremony as it sums up the entire time for me nicely: Incredible food ... wine ... people and experience!

Crispy Twist on a Ham Classic

2011-11-04T15:12:00.000+13:00

In England, there are several key dishes that are traditionally served with a pint down at the local pub. So for me, this is a taste of home.

Inspired by the classic English pub dish consisting of ham, egg and pineapple, I decided to spice it up a little.

My challenge was to take it away from being a greasy bite to a culinary delight. With the highest quality ingredients and a few tweaks, this was achieved.

In order to enhance the crisp of the meat, I traded traditional ham with a delicious cut of shoulder pork from Havoc Farm Pork. Grown relatively locally near Waimate and delivered to us straight from the 'hunter', we get free range pork that has been reared the proper way. The taste is incomparable.

Havoc Farm Pork is free range, allowed to roam naturally and are NEVER given antibiotics or growth promotants. They are fed on locally-grown grain (from carefully selected suppliers) with cider vinegar and garlic to keep them in top condition!

Just like Havoc does, we believe in happy, healthy hogs so it is great to have a local supplier with pigs that are free to explore and wean their piglets at six to eight weeks - much later than most farmers. Each pig even has it's own specially built shelter!

Now back to the dish. A perfectly poached egg yolk sits atop a bed of greens. Top this off with the key ingredients, chargrilled pineapple and a sprinkling of chilli. The spicy vs. sweet goes together harmoniously. Perfectly cooked, quality ingredients will triumph over 'pub-grub' any day!

How best served? Wash it all down with a pint of craft beer from your finest local brewery.

New Season Asparagus Inspirations

2011-10-25T12:56:00.000+13:00

It’s that time of year again! Asparagus is now in season. We have just received a fresh bundle of crispy, green asparagus from our friends at Goodies from the Gorge – grown especially and just for us!

With all this fresh asparagus around, inspiration struck....

This is a new season asparagus dish that I have been working on and is it now available on our menu at True South Dining Room. Organic asparagus, both raw and cooked, is served with a manuka smoked egg (cooked at 63 degrees celsius), sweetcorn ice cream, Blue River Dairy's Curio Bay Pecorino, maple roasted seeds, polenta biscuit and salsa verde. If you really want to add something extra, I like to put some local french style garlic sausage in the mix.

And in the famous words of French gastronome, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin: "The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star."

The Culinary Creative Process

2011-09-15T14:10:00.001+12:00

Coming up with new and inspiring dishes is a complex creative process and it’s different for everyone.

I usually start off by choosing an initial ingredient to build the rest of the dish around. I try to use seasonal produce or and keep up with our suppliers new products or interesting cuts of meat. It’s great to have a new ingredient to work with and of course it’s always good to be taken outside your comfort zone every now and then to keep you on your toes! Chatting with suppliers often helps you remember some of the great ideas that you may have neglected or forgotten.

Once we have pinned down this key ingredient, we build on this with other flavours, bearing in mind textures, balance, contrasting notes and so on. This experimentation process helps the team and I to formulate an idea, develop it and solve how we can include all these harmonic elements into one dish. It's an evolving process of trialling different approaches until we come up with a recipe that we are all happy with.

One of our most recent creations was a chocolate, avocado, lime and chilli dessert. I guess you could say the initial inspiration for this was the fact that we acquired a chocolate spray gun! I wanted to create a dish concealed in a shell of chocolate. It’s very satisfying to crack open a chocolate shell to reveal all the hidden layers encased inside. The surprising layers make it so much more interesting to eat, due to the differences in flavour and texture.

I also wanted to experiment with a chocolate/olive oil/salt dish. We built on this by adding the acidity of lime plus the refreshing-ness of avocado – perfect for cleansing and added interest. From here we went in the direction of mexican guacamole flavours, adding a little chilli, raw cocoa and coriander.

Sometimes this tasting process can veer off in a new direction, reminding you of a taste you’ve had before or what you think it would go with, even sparking a forgotten idea or creating a new one. But in the interest of getting my way, I still ensured that we finished it off with some Marlborough sea salt and Central Otago olive oil!

I don’t consciously follow food trends, nor do I subscribe to any ‘foodie’ magazines or celebrity chefs. I try to just be myself and have inspiration come organically through a culmination of the influences I am surrounded by, rather than having to seek out.

Spontaneity & Mystique of Our Culinary Series

2011-07-08T12:30:00.000+12:00

Our Culinary Series are 5-course meals with a difference. A range of contemporary New Zealand wines are matched with a seasonal and custom designed ‘mystery’ menu with a dash of my humour in the mix!

This differs from the regular approach as you would normally put complementary food items together to create a dish, but here we are basically deconstructing the wines and putting together all the foods that are a good match.

Every dinner in the series starts a few weeks out when three of us from True South Dining Room sit down: Chef, Sommelier and Restaurant Manager. We begin by tasting all of the wines one by one – tough work! We are looking to match wines or complement them with food so we try to pick prominent notes, flavour profiles, textures, aromas, mouth feel and sometimes just the way the wine can make you feel.

We list our findings, talk about possible foods that would go well with each wine and then refine the process further by tasting to arrive with our core ingredients.

I then go away with my notes and a few ideas impregnated in my mind, and generally, the dishes come together on the night for the first time. When the guests eat them we are trying them for the first time too – it all adds to the spontaneity and mystique!

We aim for three main outcomes - great wine, great food and having fun. It’s a relaxed atmosphere, not all wine toffs coiffing and deliberating. Everyone gets the chance to drink some great wines that may not be readily available, plus some slightly crazy food that gets everyone talking! For those who are keen, there is great knowledge to be gained from meeting the winemakers.

The most recent Culinary Series event starred Kumeu River Chardonnay and their winemaker, Michael Brajkovich M.W. This collaboration came about due to the passion of our Chief Executive, Mark Rose who is a HUGE fan of all their Chardonnays. Not to mention, all those ‘in the know’ are aware that Kumeu River is a world-class winery! We have received fantastic feedback, as well as a nice email from Michael himself.

Of course, everyone had their own favourite course or what they felt matched the wine best or an adventurous dish they weren’t quite sold on - but this is what it’s all about !

We want to see people think about, discuss, deliberate and dissect everything that is going on.

Diary of a Chef | Day 11: "Goodbye NYC - Hello QTN"

2011-05-28T13:20:00.000+12:00

'Eataly' Packed to the Rafters

Next day I was packing furiously.....then a quick walk Uptown to locate a camera shop....which turned out to be shut on a Saturday!!! Unbelievable. We also stopped at a place called eataly (a pun on Italy) this was in Union Square and a massive indoor Mediterranean Market, a really impressive selection of meat, cheese, pastas and even places to eat. On our way back to the apartment we had heard about this little restaurant called ABC kitchen, recipent of a James Beard Award for 'Best New Restaurant 2011' and set at the back of a houseware store. We stopped here for a quick lunch. Mark (our Chief Executive at The Rees) had wholemeal pasta with veal meatballs and I had homemade ricotta raviolis with tomato sauce. It was literally a pit stop lunch before heading to the airport, but the food was simple and tasty. The owner is one of New York's most well known chefs, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. What a fantastic last meal to remember NYC! Then it was off to the airport for the epic journey home... and here we are back in Queenstown, back to reality.....

Diary of a Chef | Day 10: "Eccentricity at WD-50"

2011-05-27T23:59:00.000+12:00

The next day was when the body gave up and rest was required. We went to an interview in the morning with Daniel Gritzer at Food & Wine magazine to discuss New Zealand produce, which he was intrigued. I took to the streets of New York after that for a little afternoon siesta.At 10 o'lock we headed with Jesse Webster and Matt Lambert of Public to WD-50 (WD stands for Wylie Dufresne), a neighbourhood restaurant very casual and relaxed not your usual Michelin starred restaurant!
We started with a selection of their homemade cocktails (where they infuse their own gins and vodkas) these were novel - like gin and celery concoctions, one with shiso and cucumber and another with yuzu juice. We all opted for tasting menu and were lucky enough to have a few extra courses thrown in (contacts help!) all washed down with some great American wines. The food was out of the box! Wylie Dufresne`s style is both fun and eccentric. Really playing with the imagination such dishes as poached egg with edible egg shell, spaghetti made with shrimp, aerated foie gras, a deconstructed eggs benedict were all unbelivable. The textures and flavours spot on and i have to say one of the best meals I have ever eaten..... only one Michelin star seems not possible. After a brief chat and thank you to the chef himself, we finally left around 1.30am in the morning!!!

Diary of a Chef | Day 9: "Teamwork & Traditions"

2011-05-25T21:39:00.000+12:00

Photo | 'The Mercenary Chef Team'

The big day finally arrived and after the media had finished their luncheon journey 'round New Zealand on a plate', the chefs and I answered questions about my 'Flavors of New Zealand' menu and specific information about the fourteen New Zealand producers we drew on for ingredients. Then back to the kitchen for clean up followed by a takeaway pizza to refresh. Most of the chefs looked ready for sleep!!! Camera's were snapping ... a quick pic with the Consul General Paul Gestro and an interview with Regina Varolli of The Huffington Post.
Matt and I signed the chef's jacket in the dining room (a James Beard Tradition) followed by group chef pictures at the front of the house. Then back to preparing for the evening event ahead.
Dinner was smoother than lunch as the mercenary chef team had more of an idea about how the dishes should look and be served!
Extra additions were the venison tartare and the seabass. Post dessert and question-time with the guests, we took a bow a la 'parade de chefs' - at last a chance to personally thank all the guys and gals from Public and Double Crown for their invaluable help and support - without it, this would have been an impossible task!
Then the kitchen and a few well deserved glasses of wine, beckoned and a chance to breath and reflect. Every one seemed to be enjoying this part! Then it was time to clear down, say our thank you's and relocate all of our equipment back to Double Crown.Whew, it was a long night!

Diary of a Chef | Day 8: "My Downunder Dessert"

2011-05-20T15:07:00.004+12:00

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Diary of a Chef | Day 7: "Eat TV and the CIA"

2011-05-18T21:41:00.000+12:00

Photo | First prep team - Monique, Ethan and I

My day was kicked started under the cameras in the studios of Eat TV demonstrating my take on the quintessential Pavlova with lemon verbena icecream.

Filming took 4 hours for the video-based online food magazine and what a privledge and experience it was! Eat TV is an entire channel dedicated to covering great food.

Missed the next interview as the filming went way over time. Sprinted back to Double Crown to begin more prep for 'Flavors of New Zealand' in earnest. Worked through until midnight – and felt knackered!

Back to Double Crown at the crack of dawn to join our first prep team – Monique from Double Crown, a New Zealander formerly from Wellington where she worked with Martin Bosley and Ethan Oh, a young up-in-coming chef working at Lincoln Restaurant, the brand new $20 million Italian dining room opened by Jonathan Benno previously under the wing of Thomas Keller at Per Se.

We were joined in the kitchen by a couple of students from Culinary Institute of America (CIA) – one from Boston who is doing her “internship” at Public Restaurant and the other from Hong Kong via Cambridge (UK), Oregon, SF who is about to graduate.

Ethan and the two students are giving their time to us in exchange for the experience of working with our food. It's going to be a long day!

Diary of a Chef | Day 6: "Tales of Jing Fong's Dim Sum and 18,000 Plates"

2011-05-17T22:07:00.000+12:00

Photo | Jing Fong 1000 seater

My early start was worth it to secure a place in the long queue for New York's largest luxury Cantonese restaurant - the 1000 seat Jing Fong Restaurant on Elizabeth south of Canal.

It was 11.25am and I was handed ticket number 49 as the dining room was already full. Minutes later, we're in and GOB SMACKED! We'd entered a room as big as a football field covered in tables, every one of them full!

Laden trolleys of Dim Sum pushed by older Chinese ladies in flowery hats pass by. We feasted on six plates each (is that 18000 plates per sitting?). Our table was part New Zealand contingent along with 6 other nationalities (UK and Taiwanese).They laughed when we told them the population of Queenstown was 10,000 and here we were sitting with 1000 others in the dining room!

I discovered the most ginormous pizzas I have ever laid eyes on at historic Lombardi’s – opened since 1905. My queueing skills were put to the test once again and the queue was still there when we left at 9pm. Everything is supersized – Italian staff appeared everywhere apart from the Mexicans who cooked the pizza!

Back home to the bar below our apartment to watch the Chicago Bulls deal to the Miami Heat – nothing more American! Our 'local' was packed with cheering Americans (men and women) who were all good natured and lots of fun!

Diary of a Chef | Day 5: "Monkfish and Hibiscus"

2011-05-15T15:20:00.005+12:00

Photo | Corton's signature style and precision plating up

So today was tourist day!
My feet did the walking and I paid hommage to 'Ground Zero', cruised along the Hudson, looked out to the Statue of Liberty, saw the oldest suspension bridge in the US - the Brooklyn Bridge and visited Wall Street.

The kitchen soon beckoned and I popped back into 'Double Crown' to fine tune our team's preparations for 'Flavors of New Zealand' and managed a stroll up one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world, 5th Avenue.

Tonight I headed out with Mark Rose CEO of The Rees Hotel for heart of Tribeca to dine at one New York's finest called 'Corton', named after a region of Burgundy and another Michelin award winner.

Chef Liebrandt’s modern French menu at 'Corton' is a cross between classical and contemporary. His flavours were clean, precise and intense. Stand out dish had to be the monkfish with hibiscus and blond morels.

Corton's winel list is exemplary with a selection predominantly from the Corton hill in the largest area of Grand Cru in Burgundy.

Diary of a Chef | Day 4: "From Organics to Oxtail"

2011-05-15T15:11:00.002+12:00

Photo | Wholefoods organic market

My retail therapy highlight had to be discovering 'Wholefoods' a natural and organic organic market chain that maintains strict quality standards with an unshakeable commitment to sustainable agriculture.Was that place full of amazing and interesting produce!

My shopping expedition was quickly followed by an interview with Cheryl Carlesimo at The Huffington Post and then I headed straight to the kitchen at 'Double Crown' to begin our preparation for 'Flavors of New Zealand.'

There was a little stocktaking and reviewing all our ingredients and then time to create my marinade to moisture, tenderise and boost the flavor of the meat selected for the 'Flavors of New Zealand' signature menu. I was ahead of schedule and managed to squeeze in finishing a sorbet before wrapping up by 6 o clock.

Post-prep, I had a cheeky beer at 'Madame Geneva' with tasty snacks like squid and bonemarrow nibbles, then regrouped at 'Public' for a chat with Executive Chef Brad Farmerie (and victor on Iron Chef of America) who produced a 'stand out' menu of oxtail and snail ravioli, cervena venison, smoked eel with beetroot and quails egg completed with dashi custard with lobster.

All matched perfectly by a superb selection from the New World and Old World regions like Greece, Lebanon, Hungary and Alsace! Thanks guys a truly awesome evening.

Diary of a Chef | Day 3 : "Good Ale, Raw Onions and No Ladies"

2011-05-15T14:55:00.002+12:00

Photo | McSorleys - An institution and the oldest Alehouse in NYC

In the lead up to 'Flavors of New Zealand' we've started to receive goods for Thursday's event and finalised ordering in preparation for beginning to cook tomorrow.All systems go!

Media calls this week are with The Huffingdon Post on Friday and eatTV on Monday, I'm looking forward to putting 'New Zealand cuisine' on the map (or plate if you like), whipping up a 'pavlova' onscreen as they've asked for the quintessential recipe!

Lunch today was at Daniel Boulards bistro and beer cafe specializing in beer and food matching and I just has to pay a call to the oldest alehouse in NYC McSorleys (had to be an Irish pub!) complete with sawdust on the floor! A fantastic place full of history - no woman was allowed in until they were forced to by the government in 1970 - their motto still stands, "Good Ale, Raw Onions and No Ladies."

Diary of a Chef | Day 2: "Like a Kid in a Candy Store"

2011-05-15T14:36:00.004+12:00

Photo | JB Prince - I was like a kid in a candy store!

Highlight of the day had to be paying a visit to 'Korin' - Voted New York's number one for fine tableware and chef's knives. It's home to perhaps the most extensive collection of Japanese chef knives in the world - including Japan - plus the rarest natural sharpening stones.

Located in the heart of Manhattan, Korin was VERY tempting for my wallet and boasts an inventory that caters for any 'kitchen samauri'.

Only a short yellow cab ride away is 'JB Prince' that sells specialised chefs' tools, utensils and equipment used in the preparation of fine cuisine.A 'must do' as it'll turn any chef into a kid with it's Aladdins Cave bounty ... My wallet was truly exploited here!

In the afternoon after months of email and phone-tag, Mark Rose, The Rees Hotel's CEO and I finally met the Team at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) who have kindly assisted with all the arrangements of 'Flavors of New Zealand' - finally we get to put faces to the long list of ladies' names.

Post meet and greet with NZTE, we made a short journey to Michelin Award winning, 'Public Restaurant' where we were greeted with their signature brilliant hospitality from Matt and Jesse!

What can we say gents, but we devoured the uber delicious "tapas" - fried oysters drizzled with yuzu and wasabi mayo, seared scallops spiced delicately with sweet chilli, anchovies with quinoa fritters, Kobe beef tongue peppered with cumin and aubergine pickle and fantastic charcuterie all washed down with a good cold beer.

Next on the 'to-do' list was a visit to 'Public's' sister restaurant, 'Double Crown' for more of the same hospitality and boy, we weren't disappointed. The highlight had to be gin cocktails mixed with homemade jams!!!

Diary of a Chef | Day 1 : "The Rees Takes on Manhattan"

2011-05-15T13:57:00.001+12:00

Photo | Ben Batterbury outside James Beard House

Welcome to my 'Diary of a Chef'! Tune in for foodie tips (streamed live from the Big Apple over the next week) and tales from my True South Dining Room kitchen at The Rees Hotel on the shores of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, New Zealand.

We've survived the long journey, got the nod from Customs and finally arrived in New York in the lead up to our 'Flavors of New Zealand' event at the James Beard Institute on 12th Street in Manhattan and we are in awe already! There's a reason why Time magazine calls the annual 'James Beard' awards "the Oscars of the food world". This is the culinary mecca of the USA!

After an early "jetlag" rise and foot tour around NYC, I found a superb organic store with surprisingly, a lot of NZ lamb and a drool worthy cheese counter ...... Heaven on a plate!

Then on to a whirlwind tour of James Beard House by the wonderful and super organised, Izabela Wojcik - Director of House Programming and Event Manager - Victoria Jordan, thank you ladies, we can;t do this without you!

Now it's time to roll our sleeves up ...