My Account
The joy of food in all its guises is one of the things that makes Matakana tick and one of its principal drawcards for the thousands of visitors who flock to the region every year. Growing, sharing, selling, cooking, creating – from roadside stalls to restaurants, and market stalls to chefs’ kitchens, there are countless ways the passionate cooks and producers of Matakana share their knowledge and enthusiasm with the world.
For a village its size, the sheer number and diversity of outlets focusing on food is phenomenal, and visitors and residents are genuinely spoilt for choice. From a dozen different street foods at the Saturday markets to coffee and patisserie at the many cafes, through to lazy lunches and degustation dinners, even the most fussy (or allergy-prone) eater will find something to suit their mood, palate and pocket.
However, while the faces of shopkeepers and stallholders may be familiar in the village, it’s not often that diners get to meet who’s cooking in many of the region’s most popular kitchens. Their stories are just as interesting as anyone else’s in the melting pot of Matakana locals and migrants, so we decided to get to know a few of them a little better …
Atesh Ram, Plume Vineyard Restaurant and Cafe
How did you get into cooking professionally?
My grandfather was a local chef in a small village in Fiji and so I think it’s in my blood to cook. And I became a chef as I admired my mother’s cooking – I was her little helper.
What are your most popular dishes?
Modern fusion dishes with a touch of classic ingredients.
What are the best and worst parts of the job?
Best is the new menu planning with creative ideas and implementing it, and doing large numbers for a la carte in a short span of two to three hours!
Worse is nothing so far, as I am still in the same industry and profession for 17 years.
What inspires you – how do you decide on new menu items?
Being creative and seeing the “wow” impression on customers’ face is my inspiration.
Do you cook much at home, or is it too much like work?
I cook at home on my days off to have involvement with my wife and son, and sometimes even to compete with my wife!
What is your favourite comfort food?
My mother’s version of duck curry with dhal soup, roti and rice.
Dan O’Donnell, Jin Jin
How did you get into cooking professionally?
It was a huge mistake, I wish I’d never done it … No, not really, it was because my family was involved in restaurants. They had a cafe in Vulcan Lane in Auckland in the late 70s. I used to get the bus after school from out west and made my pocket money there for the very first Space Invaders … I was destined to be involved. I did half my apprenticeship in Australia, in Kiama, south of Sydney, and my final years at AUT. We moved up here in 1998.
What are your most popular dishes?
Our roast pork steamed buns. And the Thai green curry.
What are the best and worst parts of the job?
It’s a fun industry, and you meet lots of interesting people. And being small has its advantages; you can hold back on staff and purchasing. Hospitality is a seven day a week industry, you have to turn it all around and do it again every day, that’s probably the worst – it’s every day.
What inspires you – how do you decide on new menu items?
The change of seasons more than anything, it gives you that something to be excited about, that next range of products that are coming in and working out what you want to do that’s new, and bringing back old favourites. And you can have a crack at a few things you couldn’t get to last year.
Do you cook much at home, or is it too much like work?
I cook at home a little bit; sometimes, not all the time. If I do cook at home, it’s usually a family activity, so we might make lasagne and I’ll get the pasta machine out and the kids have a crack at it.
What is your favourite comfort food?
Noodles in broth.
Lindy Neumann, The Tuck Shop
How did you get into cooking professionally?
I did a cookery course at the Cordon Bleu culinary school in London when I was 17. I think I’d had my name down for that since I was 13 and decided that was what I was going to do. I went on to do boardroom cookery and worked at a boutique hotel in Kensington. I married a Kiwi and moved to NZ in 1991 and worked in the head office of the National Bank in Wellington. Then, when we moved to Auckland, this was our bolthole and we eventually moved up here.
What are your most popular dishes?
Our burgers and our salads.
What are the best and worst parts of the job?
The best part is pleasing people with the food that you cook for them. The worst aspect is that it can be very stressful, having to get everything done.
What inspires you – how do you decide on new menu items?
Reading very current magazines and books; Pinterest is good, and the internet. And watching what’s happening in Auckland.
Do you cook much at home, or is it too much like work?
I love cooking at home. I’ll cook at home on my day off because I love cooking.
What is your favourite comfort food?
Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Or maybe a roast chicken.
Phuong Graham, Viet Q Foods
How did you get into cooking professionally?
In a roundabout kind of way. When we first arrived in NZ, I was nine and there was very minimal Vietnamese food available back then, so my Mum needed to learn how to cook all our traditional foods, and I grew up learning alongside her. I ended up getting my Bachelor of Technology and majoring in Food Science from Massey University. I worked in the wine industry for eight years, but then decided I wanted to do something that I really loved, which was also flexible so I could be there for my boys.
What are your most popular dishes?
To be honest, they are all pretty much on a par with each other, it just depends on the week, but if I had to pick one, it would have to be the lemongrass chilli chicken with vermicelli in the truck and then the rice paper rolls and pork steam buns at the market. We have quite a different group of customers in the truck and at market; in the food truck we get all local people who we see and catch up with every week, and at the market we get more tourists and day trippers from Auckland.
What are the best and worst parts of the job?
I think the main reason I do what I do is I get to see people enjoy my food and that is the best thing about my job. The worst part? Probably the paperwork.
What inspires you – how do you decide on new menu items?
I have always been a big foodie and a biased one at that, because I just love Vietnamese food! It takes me home. We have dinner with my family once a week, and they inspire me with what they make for us for dinner. Also, because our customer base is all locals at the food truck, we chat to them all and get feedback on what they want the special for the next week to be. Some people come to the truck and say they’ve been to Vietnam recently and tried this dish and loved it, can I put it on the menu! So then I go off and check all my cookbooks, talk to my Mum and try my best to get that on the menu.
Do you cook much at home, or is it too much like work?
Yes! I love cooking and do it all the time, and my boys are big foodies, too, so I love cooking for them as they are my biggest fans. It doesn’t feel like work because I can cook anything I want and not just Vietnamese, and I also love baking.
What is your favourite comfort food?
Whatever my Mum makes for dinner! Actually, Mum makes the best duck congee in the world, so I guess that’s my comfort food.
Tim Higgins, Leigh Sawmill Cafe
How did you get into cooking professionally?
I really wanted to be a fighter pilot but I literally couldn’t fit into the planes. I was too tall and broad; I literally couldn’t move in there. And it was a fighter pilot or nothing. Cooking was my second love. I went to college and one day there was an opening in the best restaurant in town at the time, and that was that. I lived in Auckland for 15 years and we used to come and stay at the Sawmill, then moved up here nine years ago.
What are your most popular dishes?
Soft shell taco platters, our fish of the day, burgers, and lots of pizza.
What are the best and worst parts of the job?
Having service run smoothly. Every meal you have the chance to do it really right or really wrong, and a lot of that is down to points of communication between the team – and the customer is part of that team. We rely heavily on the front of house staff getting the orders right and the customer knowing what they want. Meals coming back for any reason and last minute changes put a kink in it.
What inspires you – how do you decide on new menu items?
Coming across new flavours, products or seeing the freshness and colour of seasonal produce, and working out how to best present it and show it off.
Do you cook much at home, or is it too much like work?
Cooking at home is cooking for pleasure. My wife loves it and hates it in equal parts.
What is your favourite comfort food?
Peanut butter on toast and a cup of tea or a roast chicken dinner are my go-tos.
Shoori Khosravi, The Hungry Elephant
How did you get into cooking professionally?
A passion for cooking runs in our family – my grandmother could make everything taste absolutely delicious, even her fried eggs, and my mum was the same. I travelled with my husband throughout Iran, which is a vast country with so many different influences, and we picked up an encyclopedic knowledge of different foods and restaurants. We ran a very successful, very avant garde restaurant in Iran for 12 years. We came to NZ in 2011 and I was so keen to try the lamb and dairy, but after a couple of months I couldn’t touch it, and started to be vegetarian, and then vegan, so I started to adapt Persian cuisine to vegan, and the results were fantastic. I started working at Wise Cicada (in Newmarket), then opened this business a year ago, and am now working on my own in the kitchen.
What are your most popular dishes?
People are very fond of our organic salads, and our soups and hot meals of the day.
What are the best and worst parts of the job?
Innovation – you can try new ideas and it’s really gorgeous in the kitchen. And when you see the smile on people’s faces it makes you so happy, it’s so rewarding. The most difficult part is the paperwork.
What inspires you – how do you decide on new menu items?
I love serving food to others and knowing that I’m contributing to their health and vitality, and that makes me inspired all the time. I don’t ever feel tired!
Do you cook much at home, or is it too much like work?
My husband and I are both raw vegans, so it’s not cooking so much, but I love making food for everyone. Sometimes I fast, and my husband says I make the most beautiful food when I am fasting.
What is your favourite comfort food?
A sprouted bread, which I’m making in the dehydrator, made of buckwheat, and serving it with dehydrated caramelized onion, tomato relish and marinated shiitake mushrooms.
