The Wānaka Table: 3 Local Food Legends on Creativity, Produce and Cooking Among the Mountains

Tell us a little about your food journey.
I’m from the UK and moved to London when I was 16 to work at the Park Lane Hilton, one of the big hotels right on Park Lane. I did an apprenticeship there: butchery, fishmongering, all that sort of stuff. I think there were like 110 chefs. Absolutely crazy. But it was a good time to learn to be a chef. You were getting whole animals in and breaking them down. It was a very important period of learning for me.

From there, one of the head chefs left to open a restaurant in Selfridges, so I followed him and ended up being head chef there for four years in a restaurant called The Premiere, briefly working with Gordon Ramsay during the buildup to a book launch he was doing. Because the restaurant was in a department store, we launched lots of chefs’ books there.

And then I met a Kiwi girl, moved over to New Zealand, and started working at Pegasus Bay Winery in Christchurch. I was there four years, then heard about a job in Wānaka called Whare Kea, a luxury lodge near Rippon. I was the executive chef there for about eight years, doing a six-course tasting menu every night. And then I started opening up a few restaurants after that.

I opened Francesca’s Italian Kitchen in Wānaka in 2012, and then Kika in 2016. I had about four Francesca’s across the South Island. That was my first restaurant. Kika, Paloma and arc are the ones I have at the moment.

Tell us about your restaurants.
Kika's kind of my baby. That's where I'm based most of the time. It's a very creative outlet: we change the menu frequently, and we’re driven by produce there; it’s something that needs me to be in the driver's seat all the time.

With my ex-head chef of Kika [Sam Cooper], about five years ago, we opened arc together. It's a five-course tasting menu, but it's not a pretentious tasting menu: just good quality stuff, local producers, and we change it every month. This monthly changing menu has developed a cult following now! Sam's the head chef in there every day. We work together on some bits, but he’s really in the driver’s seat. He does an awesome job.

Paloma, I've always been an enthusiast of Mexican food and tortillas, and we really wanted to make traditional Mexican tortillas from scratch, from nixtamalising corn, which is an ancient process. So we set about teaching ourselves how to make fresh tortillas. We do that every day. We have a parrilla, an Argentinian grill, and we grill and serve it with tortillas. [Mexican cuisine] is so complex. Italian or French cooking follows a set pattern. They all start with a foundation, whereas Mexican food turns everything on its head, and you really have to learn it. It’s not something you can just pick up. It’s different. That’s what I find really interesting.

We don't really claim to be authentic Mexican because of the produce, but we're respecting the process. I like to think, if you dropped someone with that background in Wānaka, how would they interpret it with what we can get here?

How would you define your cooking style?
When I started at Pegasus Bay, it was a very small kitchen. I was used to big kitchens in London, where there are loads of chefs and where you can make dishes so intricate because you have the staff to do it. At Pegasus Bay, there were two of us, sometimes three of us, to do 100 covers. It was crazy. So taking stuff off the plate was really important, to make it a bit more minimal. I found I got my own style from doing that. It kind of forced me into a different approach. I always try to make sure everything is on there for a reason; there are no extra bits.

New Zealand produce is amazing, so you want to showcase it. You’re not trying to hide it. So I feel like that shapes the way I cook.

Where did your love of food come from?
We used to travel a lot growing up, with my mum and dad. We used to go [being from the UK] to Greece, Spain, Italy, France, all that sort of stuff, a few times a year. They were really into food, so we were exposed to a lot as kids. Not many other kids in my school were going to Italy and eating Parmigiano-Reggiano and balsamic vinegar in the early 80s. I found a love for that. I love travelling, love food and was open to everything. My mum still is a brilliant cook. Food was a big deal; we always sat at the table when we ate every night. It was a big focal point of growing up.

Speaking on that for a moment, is there a specific home-cooked meal you can recall?
Oh, that’s a good one. Loads actually. She makes an amazing fish pie. Steak and kidney pudding, my great-nan taught my mum how to make that. My nan’s mum was amazing as well.

There are often things I'll ring her about, and be like, ‘Hey, how do you make so-and-so?’ Like a pudding or a crumble topping. Proper English food. Yorkshire pudding advice: my mum is always the first port of call. Ann is her name, they live in my hometown, Gravesend in Kent. She’s still a brilliant cook. There's always a list when I get back home: ‘Can you make that for me?’

What's the relationship between Wānaka's outdoors and creativity within your food?
I'm probably not the most outdoorsy person, I’m normally inside cooking. I’m not a run up a mountain kind of guy, but the foraging side of it has always been quite important. It's amazing to be in a country where you can do that. Living in London, you're not going to go around the parks trying to get watercress. Being in such a beautiful place opens up so many more ingredients you physically can't buy. Think of it as a larder. I can’t order any of what I get through foraging.

What's the process for creating a new dish?
Kika is the [kitchen] I’m in the most. The menu at Paloma does change, but it’s a bit more seasonal, a bigger change with each season. Kika is very fluid; we have a few staples that stay on, but the rest of the menu changes all the time with what we can get. It's incredibly produce-driven. I think that’s how all the dishes start: produce and the season.

Someone will say, ‘Oh, we've got these amazing mushrooms’, then the conversation will start in the kitchen, we’ll chat about it, then I’ll come in early when no one's there and just start working on things until we get something of interest. It’s simple in the sense that we just follow the seasons and try to think of interesting things with them.

What's your favourite dish in Wānaka?
I'm a big fan of the French onion soup at Bistro Gentil. It's a really good version of it; Mario is awesome. That’s something I always get. And currently on the menu at Kika, we have quite a simple tomato carpaccio with a chilli and smoked tomato sorbet. That's my favourite dish we have on at the moment. 

Tell us a little about your food journey.
Personally, my interest in food started as a kid, growing up in a food and cooking-centred home. Professionally, it started while working at Persephone Bakery/Picnic in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where I was exposed to the world of seasonally inspired menus and croissants! From then, I knew I wanted to do something similar at home, here in NZ. When I opened Scroggin, it was my first experience designing a menu, and I really leaned into the ideas of seasonality, simplicity, and quality. Those three things inform pretty much every decision we make.

Tell us about your cafés.
Scroggin is brunch and lunch-focused, with an emphasis on seasonality, simplicity, and quality. The design is a tip of the hat to the beauty of our backcountry huts, where we try to cultivate that same experience of being in a hut with a few friends, sharing a meal before the adventure continues. Our menu incorporates as many local products as possible, with lamb and eggs from Royalburn, berries from Red Bridge, burrata from Wairiri, and all our breads and pastries are made in-house.

Crumb is where we let our pastries and baking shine. Simple and cosy, with the pastry cabinet, oven and proofer front and centre, Crumb is aimed at providing moments of refined simplicity and indulgence. We offer a range of croissant-based pastries that also change seasonally, as well as fresh-baked sourdough loaves, toasts and toasties. Crumb not only shows off the products but also the process behind them.

How would you define your food on offer?
We like to offer local, seasonal and quality options on our menu. We never like to stay the same and are always changing it up, emphasising fresh ingredients and as many things as possible made in-house.

Where did your love of food come from?
I grew up in a house with a passionate, food and cooking-focused mum and auntie. Family holidays would be planned around what we were going to be cooking, and so many of my childhood memories are in a kitchen, helping with any task they could throw my way. Christmas is a big one for us. Mum would spend days prepping our Christmas turkey with all the trimmings.

What's the relationship between Wānaka's outdoors and creativity within your food?
I think the beauty of the landscape we exist in profoundly influences everything we do, and how we exist in the landscape is equally as influential. One part of that I'm particularly drawn to is the humble red DOC hut. It's such an important piece of public infrastructure, providing access to the outdoors for everyone, shelter from storms, and a place to share meals, memories and moments. Meals in these places are communal, and we try to create an atmosphere that fosters the same feeling of community and connection.

What's the process for creating a new dish?
The menu development process usually starts with what ingredients are in season and available locally. I always have a running Pinterest board for inspo and then pull from what's in season to come up with ideas. From there, I'll take these ideas to our kitchen team, they'll put together a few variations on the idea, and we'll refine it a few times until it's perfect.

What's your favourite dish in Wānaka?
I can't go past the halloumi bagel from Curbside Bagels. It's the best.

Tell us a little about your food journey.
Of course, it began in NZ, where I fell in love with the chaotic and hedonistic lifestyle that hospitality has to offer. I knew I was going to travel, and left home for 15 years using hospo as a way to support my travels. As I moved about, I learnt that this could be more than just a way to pay for the next plane ticket, and started to view it as a career. I was lucky enough to work with so many incredible and diversely talented people from Melbourne to Mexico. They taught me so much and made me realise how important hospitality is to the world. People say things like 'it's not rocket science or curing cancer', but there is massive importance to enjoying life and to do more than just survive. People trust us with their most public celebrations (or most private affairs), and we have a responsibility to ensure they are well enjoyed!

Tell us about your restaurants.
Francesca has been there for about 14 years now and has gone through a few different owners. It has great heritage, and our team has worked so hard to revitalise all aspects of the experience, fully refitting the kitchen, dining room, and terrace and shifting to use as many local producers as we can find. Italians are renowned for travelling and taking their cooking to all parts of the world. We like to imagine ourselves as one of them in Wānaka, trying to recreate that nostalgia but using Kiwi ingredients.

Sofi is a love letter to the Mediterranean. I was lucky enough to help my two friends Emme and Chris (ex-Noma) in Mexico City with their incredible restaurant Taverna. They taught me that you don't need 15 elements on a plate to make things taste good. Lemon, olive oil, salt, maybe a touch of chilli: those four things are all you need when the ingredient is good enough. We were lucky enough to secure a lakeside space, and again, our team has created this dream restaurant, becoming beloved by much of the town, to whom we are so grateful. Sofi is about moving slow, eating family style and enjoying the company as much as the food. We want to get people around the dining table as much as possible to share stories, great food and good wine.

How would you define what your restaurants offer?
For me, the menu is the vessel of the experience. It is often the reason people will choose a restaurant but it should not define the evening. There are so many moving parts to a good restaurant. I always tell new staff that the prices attributed to a dish are not just for covering food costs. If people just wanted to eat, they would go to the supermarket, so we have to justify the extra expense. Of course, the food needs to be delicious, but the lights have to be right, the music has to be good, the servers need to host the table, and the guests need to feel taken care of. I have a saying: ‘f**k fine dining’ (coming to t-shirts soon), we do ‘fun dining’. A good dining room has a kind of hum when things are just right: people laughing, glasses clinking, cutlery scraping, ice shaking, the kitchen sizzling. At the end of the day, people want to have fun, which is what we take seriously, creating the right environment to have fun.

Where did your love of food come from?
Of course, my mum was a great cook, but I don't have one moment that really defines my love for food. I would say it comes back to the first time I was taught about creating, in my opinion, the perfect dining experience. I got a job in Berlin at a place called Crackers. It's in a very touristy part of the city but extremely well hidden. You could walk past the door 100 times and not see it. Not in a tropey speakeasy way but oozing Berlin grunge. You walk down a dark, graffitied-up alley, and the only indication that you are in the right place is a small sign that says ‘you’re f*****g free’. You push through a very worn door and find yourself in a neon blue tiled kitchen with chefs hurriedly cooking and carrying on as chefs do. Now startled, you push through another door into the dining room, with black walls and super high ceilings, neon chairs juxtaposed against wooden tables, and a DJ playing loudly. There are no windows, and guests would often stay from 7pm to 3am, properly enjoying themselves without the burden of the open sky telling them what time it was. It was incredible to be a part of, and that team was just the most fun.

What's the relationship between Wānaka's outdoors and creativity within your food?
It's about the producers. In a big city, there is always a middleman between you and the produce. Not here. We are so lucky to have direct relationships with growers, winemakers, brewers and distillers. The creativity often comes from what they have in the garden, and we are proud to show off their creations. Thanks, everyone, for making such delicious things!

What's the process for creating a new dish?
Seasonality plays a massive role. We don't do big menu changes but rather a couple of dishes at a time as produce rolls in and out of readiness. It's never stagnant, and there should always be something new each time you pop in. Generosity always plays a big part too: the dish should always look worth its price on the menu, even if it's with an expensive ingredient. Finally, simplicity: we are not trying to educate people, we are trying to feed people. The food should not steal everything from the dining experience, but rather be the reason people come together to have a good time.

What's your favourite dish in Wānaka?
[At a] little gem called Zuka, a very humble Japanese restaurant that seats about 20 people. Michi is a tempura wizard, and the bento boxes are maybe the best value dishes in town. I'm not sure what the sauce on the beef tataki is made from, but I am guessing hard drugs are involved because I am addicted!