In the kitchen: with Simon Wright at The French Café

My first dining experience at The French Café was an accidental one. What was supposed to be a cocktail in the bar quickly became a more elaborate dining experience. After a delectable amuse-bouche that mysteriously appeared on our table (I was holding company with someone who had friends in high places) it wasn't long before we started rationalising the need for just a wee entrée...and maybe a main... dessert anyone?

This I can tell you was the kind of accident you want to happen to you often. And as it happened, I "accidentally" found myself averaging weekly visits during my month long trip home to Auckland.

For the uninitiated, Simon Wright and Creghan Molloy-Wright (a formidable husband and wife duo with Simon running the kitchen and Creghan on front-of-house) have been winning awards for their French-influenced ‘fine-dining’ since 2004. So when Simon said I could spend a day alongside him in his kitchen ‘chopping and talking’ I of course said YES! without hesitation. I wanted to know how a restaurant so young and so consistently successful stays on top of its game, what sparked Simon's inspiration, and was the kitchen really as slick as the floor staff would have us believe? Simon invited me to stay for service, so it looked as if I was going to find out.

I arrive just after noon to find prep for the evening service well underway. The roster of 9 chefs are already there, but it’s calm and quiet, except for the sound of knives on chopping boards like an advancing army. Simon greets me warmly, shows me my ‘station’ for the day and throws me a chef's jacket and apron. He gives me a few simple prep jobs - roasting garlic/field mushroom with thyme, chopping basil - and just as well. Chatting and chopping to the standard of the FC is not as easy as it sounds.

British born and raised, and London-trained (with the likes of Marco Pierre White no less) Simon is as passionate about food as he is humble about his Antipodean success as chef and restaurateur. He has imported a typically European, if not French style to running his kitchen: quiet and hard-working. He has a relaxed, unpretentious character and there’s certainly none of the back-slapping, Kitchen Confidential atmosphere that is synonymous with many American kitchens.

Simon is well known for being a hands-on executive chef. A two page prep list is pinned to the station wall in front of us. In between making kumara mash (handy tip for making purée - salt the cooking water for the kumara/potatoes well, and you will need much less salt than seasoning the cooked vegetables), pea purée, stocks and jus that will be reducing down for the rest of the day, and filleting snapper fresh from the previous day's catch, he answers phone calls from suppliers, personally orders for additional sauté pans, and works with his staff to perfect the confit tomatoes that will début on this evening’s menu with a new lamb dish. As with everything I’ve observed so far, he is meticulous and completely uncompromising on quality: from making absolutely everything from scratch, to total commitment to sourcing naturally reared meat and the freshest possible fish (it will only be fresher if you catch it yourself). And herein lies the secret to their continued success. Creghan and Simon have found a winning formula between Simon’s exquisite menus - confidently walking the fine line between keeping diner favourites, and an evolving, seasonal menu - and Creghan’s smooth front-of-house service. As soon as you walk in, you are drawn into a welcoming glow of understated lighting and decor, mirrored by wait and bar staff who are not so over friendly that you think they might pull up a chair and join your table, but so charming you almost want them to.

Back in the kitchen, the army is still advancing and Simon shows me how to quickly and cleanly fillet and pin bone a snapper, trusting me to complete a few myself.

By 5:15pm all the prep is done. Every surface is spotless and ready for the evening’s service ahead. It feels like the calm before the storm, but something tells me Simon and his team don’t weather too many cyclones. Fastidious prep and a streamlined team on dedicated stations (salads & sides, cold entrées, hot entrées, meat and fish, the pass, and pastry) mean plates flow out of the kitchen with ease. And his staff all clearly love what they do, you wouldn’t be in Simon’s kitchen otherwise.

Jo, the pastry chef, whom I had met earlier in the afternoon while she was preparing tart cases for the fondant au chocolat, scans her latest culinary acquisition Oriol Balaguer’s Dessert Cuisine for inspiration in her down time. This is no book for beginners though, so she suggested The Roux Brothers on Patisserie and Gary Rhodes Sweet Dreams (apparently his pastry recipe is fantastic and one shouldn’t be put off by that hair!!!).

Jo’s desserts are beautiful compositions of colour, flavour and texture. A classic rice pudding is elevated to the ethereal by raspberry & rhubarb compote, champagne sabayon, vanilla ice-cream, a dusting of powdered strawberries and two mini doughnuts injected with raspberry purée.



Jo works alongside Simon to develop new creative twists for their menu - But Simon often finds his inspiration outside the kitchen. On his time off you are more than likely to find him on a peninsula a few hours from Auckland with a fishing rod in hand, and a notebook nearby to scribble down ideas.

And as if he hadn’t achieved enough already, he has also written a beautiful cookbook, its recipes a source of inspiration for diners to try at home.

I’ve taken this fragrant summer salad from The French Café Cookbook:

Salad of Buffalo Mozzarella, Figs, Orange and Beetroot Carpaccio with Walnut Vinaigrette

Serves 4

4 large beetroot
olive oil
salt
2 oranges
150g sugar
200ml water
250g buffalo mozzarella
6 figs, cut in half
watercress leaves
fig vincotto


Walnut Vinaigrette

40ml chardonnay vinegar
50ml walnut oil
80ml olive oil
50g freshly chopped walnuts
1 tbsp chopped chives
salt


Preheat the oven to 180°C. Wash the beetroot and cut off the tops. Rub in some olive oil, season with salt and wrap each one in tinfoil. Make 4 small piles of salt on a baking tray and sit the beetroot on top. Bake in the oven for about an hour or until a skewer goes through to the centre easily. Allow to cool. Unwrap the beetroot, peel and slice thinly. Use a 5cm cutter to stamp out discs from the slices, then put aside.

Peel the zest from the oranges and cut into strips. Place these strips in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. As soon as the water is boiling, drain and repeat the process twice to extract any bitterness from the skin. Put the sugar into a small saucepan, add 200ml of water and bring to the boil. Add the orange strips and cook over a gentle heat until tender. Use a sharp knife to peel the pith from the oranges, then cut the flesh into segments.

Make the vinaigrette by mixing all the ingredients.

To serve, lay the beetroot slices slightly overlapping in the middle of a plate. Cut the mozzarella into even slices and place a slice in the centre of each beetroot slice. Arrange the fig halves, orange segments, orange strips and watercress around the mozzarella and drizzle with walnut vinaigrette and fig vincotto.