It’s been a while…

Posted: 12/08/2011 12:35:02 p.m.

A question that people keep asking me is what is your new restaurant all about?

Depot is a reflection of where I currently am in my cooking career, a window on how I see hospitality I guess. Food these days seems to me is more a vehicle for good times and for bringing people together around a table — the way I look at it, the less formality the better! As Kiwis we love to do things well but we don’t like things to be too stiff and formal. I have done fine dining at Logan Brown — a fantastic restaurant and one that I am still really proud of — but to have the chance to go to the other end of the scale and now work to make dining as super relaxed as possible has been great fun. Logan Brown is a restaurant that while never stuffy is grand, with Depot I want people to feel that the weight comes off as soon as they walk into the eatery. I don’t want people to have to worry about what they are wearing or what to order — I trust it will all just make perfect sense.

I think Depot has a wonderful Wellington feel to it and it is nice to know that I have brought a little of my hometown to Auckland. Many of my suppliers are from Wellington: Tuatara beer, and Havana coffee, a very Wellington blue collar and working class drop, which Depot is all about.

I have always had plenty of ideas but I often feel I need people to help me articulate them and turn them into reality. The vision I had at the beginning of all this has been realised by bringing in people who’ve given me the confidence to do it and to help me through the process: the unbelievably talented Gary Stewart from Gas Project, working on all the collateral; Charlie Nott, architect extraordinaire, from Christchurch; and Andrew Missen, who’s work as a designer I have always admired, has left his talented mark throughout this space. This team (and wonderful friends) have added such a lovely dimension to the eatery, I am stoked with how fresh, new and original it looks.

Now what I am most looking forward to the most is watching people come into the space. It has all been about bricks and mortar and now suddenly the human factor is being introduced. It is not just about the look anymore, it is the product, the food, the order of service, and most importantly it is the people and the personalities that will make Depot.

Opening this Saturday, here is the website if you would like to check it out. Come on in and refuel and spend time and unwind. Whether it is for a cup of coffee first thing in the morning with a plate of warm beignet or late at night for half a dozen oysters and a tumbler of sauvignon blanc, we would love to see you there.

And as for my other projects… I am thrilled that Stoked, my new book, has headed off to the printers and will be coming off the press early October and Get Fresh, the new TV series due out mid-September, is being delivered as I blog. It has been a hell of a year with lots of projects on the go but hopefully I will be able to get back to blogging in the months ahead when a little of the pressure is off and I can waffle on about things that don’t mean much or may even cause a little bit of controversy…