Actually our wedding anniversary isn't until the 8 Feb, but with various things happening prior to that, we decided to escape up to Auckland for a couple of days of relaxing and eating out and enjoying each others company.

Our daughters were somewhat nonplussed that we didn't appear to require their presence, but once they'd adjusted to the odd notion that their parents were going to go away without them, they got on with what they were going to be doing anyway.

Booked into The French Cafe for our celebration dinner, and had a stunning menu degustation. When we get to finally do our alterations at Somerset, one of the things we are keen to introduce, is the concept of a kitchen table, and we will do a degustation style menu for that table - so interesting to see how these guys presented the food, and kept it flowing. I think there were 11 courses all up - but they are small ' amuse bouche'- tastes that tempt the mouth rather than overwhelm.Combined with some French champagne, white burgundy and then muscat de beames de venise for dessert - we departed replete and very happy! Friends of  ours were there, also dining that nite, so we got to share coffee and a chat at the end of an evening - and then a taxi back to our respective hotels. Its a small world, which in large part makes it a nice world!

We'd eaten the nite before on  friends recommendations at a Thai restaurant, Khao, which is in O'Connell St, off Vulcan Lane. It was, I discovered, after we found it, actually in the building that use to house the late, great Le Brie, which was one of my first seminal eating out experiences when I was in Auckland as a university student back in the late 70s. ( Not sure who paid, or who I went with - but do recall the French bistro style food and the bustly, fantastic atmosphere!).Khao was lovely - a worthy replacement, the food had a freshness to it,  which was delightful.  Much more interesting than most Thai restaurants I've eaten in to date. We will most certainly return.

We'd preceded that by a cocktail at the Bellini Bar at the Hilton, as you do, and reminded ourselves that we intend being in Venice for our 25th anniversary, which is rolling around rather quickly. I wonder if our daughters will handle being left behind for that one too!!

And then today we had a late breakfast at Gala - a cafe that Maggie Mowbray recommended to us some time ago, and which we keep returning too, becos the cooking is so interesting and sophisticated for cafe food. Intelligent and quality focused - I think its absolutely delightful. Its round the back in Mt Eden, just before you get to Sabato, in a developement that rather interestingly appears to be about moulding commercial and  residential  with state of the art design. All rather impressive.

We stayed at Elliot St Hotel - in part cos we'd gone looking for the food retail developements they've done there, last time we were in Auckland, becos I'd read about them, and was curious to see whether they'd managed to capture the European feel for small specialised retailers  that they were obviously hoping to achieve. And in discovering that we also noted that there was a hotel, which reminded us of the boutique one we'd stayed in in Bordeaux, so decided to give that a go this time.

Nice to have a bit of old Auckland architecture thats been cherished and restored, and the hotel felt small and comfortable, and just right.  Being on the corner of Wellesley and Elliot St its also nice and close to Symonds St, where our daughter will be based this year - and I'm sure we'll need to pop up occasionally. As you do!

Enjoy the big city buzz of Auckland, but am never sorry when we hit that southern motorway on our way home either. Looks like we're in for a reasonably busy nite tonite at the restaurant, so had better get myself organised, cos have some cookschool queries to follow up, before guests start arriving for evening service.

I remember reading reviews of this book when it first came out in 2003 and  meaning to buy, but somehow never getting quite round to doing so. Was very pleased therefore to discover it in a friends bookcase after yet another wonderful lunch chez Byant. Monday was wet and miserable and my mood matched, so took myself off to  a  quiet corner and absorbed this stunning book.

It really is a world history, becos salt has been integral to the progression of mankind thru the ages, and this fascinating book describes how we have extracted it from the earth, moved around the globe in search of it, and traded and fought over it.

I love history - in fact there was a period during my college years when  I carried around a somewhat romantic notion of being an archaelogist, but fortunetely I grew out of that inclination, becos I'm in no way tempermentally suited to that sort of dogged nitty gritty focus. This book is much more the sort of history that appeals, in that it discusses in broad strokes the various civilisations back thru the ages, and the way in which their dependency on this ubiquitous commodity shaped their developement. It makes for intriguing reading on a whole series of levels - not simply in terms of food.

We need salt in our diet - sometimes a fact overlooked in the hysteria of some of the ' Don't touch fat and salt becos they'll kill  you brigade' - its crucial to our ability to digest. And for millenia it was also crucial as the sole means of preserving foodstuffs - especially fish. It was only in the early 19th century that canning and then later refridgeration took away our dependency on salting foodstuffs. Now the majority of salt is used for desluicing roads, which I see as a rather ironic sign of the times.

I've read other single subject books, one on oranges and another on coffee spring to mind, and I love the amount of detail that can be amassed around a single object. From a food perspective a book like this helps explain why certain cultures have certain foods as integral to their diet - salt cod, salt preserved meats and sausages - alot of these  go back to pre Roman times, which kind of helps give an angle on the significance of it all. And for someone who comes from a culture like NZ, that doesn't track back food habits by centuries or millenia, it helps explain  alot.

It really is a memorable tale.

Have just watched the preview of this new movie on wine and decided already that I think I'm going to enjoy it - and not just becos Alan Rickman is one of my favourite actors....http://www.decanter.com/news/174931.html?aff=rss,,,,,,

One of the electronic wine emails I suscribe too, sends me interesting titbits from all around the world, and I thought this was an article worth passing on :http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120069310588201343.html?mod=weekend_leisure_banner_left .

I tried the taste test in the article and came up with a 6, and was a little nonplussed to see that one of the wines I should try were Sauvignon Blancs, cos as a grape type they are probably my least favourite. He didn't however mention NZ S/blanc in the list, so maybe the others are not as astringent as the ones we get here...

I was curious about his idea of listing wines on restaurant menus in degrees of intensity - becos I've been pondering for a while a better way of classing our wines. The way we do it at the moment - divided into grape types - a customer unfamiliar with the wines is very dependant on staff for advice, and I sometimes wonder if with wines like Rieslings especially, I shouldn't be listing them sweet to dry - becos the sugar levels can vary hugely.

Hmmm...

 

One of my New Years resolutions is to treat this blog as an opportunity to just flick quick ideas out there. Links that I enjoy, that I think other people might and should therefore pass along.

I've tended over the past year to regard the writing of blogs as a form of dissertation, which needless to say makes the process a little more longwinded, and therefore  less likely to happen quite as regularly. So in 2008 expect more short, sharp blogs that are simply me passing along a contact or link that I think may be of interest.

Have just read the following blog ( froma newsletter that discusses all things Italian- www.italianwinereview.com) and thought the comments that the erudite Italian winemaker made about the wine media and large companies controlling distribution were particularly interesting...

http://iwronline.blogspot.com/2008/01/dozze-case-basse-and-more-being-138th.html

 

 

I find much of what is on the Food Network to be truly dismal - very few of the presenters have the kind of credibility that makes me want to kick back and relax and watch them. Most times I find myself cringing and reaching for the remote. It appears to be mostly about hype and youth and looks , and the wow factor. Very little about excellance and knowledge build over years of experience, and empathy. Rick Stein  and Mario Batalli are about the only 2 that I watch with any sense of enjoyment - and I'm distinctly off Rick Stein since I found out his moved on from his wife for a younger model! Have to remind myself that that doesn't bear any relation to his food knowledge!!( And is essentially none of my business!)

Bill Burford wrote a superb article in The New York Times that captured the pressure for commercial success that seems to outweigh food credibility on the Network

Michael Ruhlman, an American, who's an author, and judge for the Iron Chef in the States, writes a good blog that I check out frequently. I also have a number of his books - found his ones about training to be a chef at the CIA ( Culinary Institute of America) especially fascinating. He is close friends with Anthony Bourdain, who's determinedly non politically correct approach to absolutely everything is one I've longed admired. Niether of them are fans of what the Food Network has become, and this link is to a blog that Anthony Bourdain wrote about one of his first TV series being hauled out of the archives for a reviewing ( and interestingly, without first any consultation with him. It would appear that keeping the 'talent' in the loop is not considered a necessary part of the business!)

 

Danny Meyer is a political science graduate who made the decision in his late 20s to follow his heart and open his first restaurant, the Union Square Cafe, which over the last 20 years has become one of the most famous restaurants in New York. He has grown from that one restaurant into now being the CEO of one of the most respected restaurant organisations in the world, based in New York, and this book is a description of the lessons learnt on that journey. It is fascinating stuff. So fascinating in fact that I've been back on Amazon to order another few copies becos I want some of the people around me to also read it and be as inspired as I was - but I don't want to let my copy out of my sight!

I've been thru it again and jotted down notes - little points that I thought were particularly apt. For example:

-a great restaurant is one in which good food is served with thoughtful care and consistency

or:

-'to go thru the motions in a perfunctary or self-absorbed manner, no matter how expertly rendered, diminishes the beauty. Its about soul- and service without soul, no matter how elegant is quickly forgotten by the guest.

or;

-'we want as many of our guests as possible to be proud to identify themselves with our restaurants. Our job is to give people a story worth telling"

I could go on. The book is littered with fantastic advice and commentary. He is a man totally passionate about good service, who had the happy serendipity to be in the right place in the late 80's, just as American society was prepared to finally regard restaurants as a legitimate career path and something worthy of entrepeneurial pursuit. I well remember a waitress we had working for us in the early years - a mother, who had a toddler at home the same age as Hannah, and who wanted to get out of the house for a bit of stimulation. Her husband however, regarded waitressing as something beneath her,  and in doing so he was very typical of general societal attitudes to our industry.

I note when I go to the Dept of Statistics to get data on pay rates, that restaurants and cafes do not pay well relative to other industries, and I ponder how much that creates a self fulfilling prophecy. To attract skilled people with the right kind of attitude to grow and enhance businesses, you need to be able to offer competitive pay rates and an attractive career path. For much too long in NZ, waitering has been viewed as something you did on your way to something else. You waitressed as you worked your way thru varsity ( as I did), or you did it to fill in while you waited for a 'proper' job to come along.It wasn't seen as a career choice in itself. I like to think that perspective is slowly shifting, and there is a certain cachet attached to the food industry, that just simply wasn't there 20 odd years ago.

Naturally, I've always looked on the restaurant as a very valid career option for myself - and I very seldom need to let slip in conversation now that I have a qualification in another field, as I used to in the early days of Somerset, becos I am proud of what I do, and don't feel the need to validate myself in any other way. Danny Meyer has built up a business conglomeration of major proportions based on the simple precept that good food served with care and attention will bring return business that will make your business viable and allow it to grow. And he is totally passionate about the notion of the way service in all its various forms generates an enlightened cycle of business success. Thats a somewhat succinct synopsis of what he does say - but in essence is what the book is really about. Care about what you do - care about your staff, your customers, your community, your suppliers and your investors,  and you will create enduring restaurants that have a soul, and as a result enduring financial success.

He talks throughout the book about decency and integrity, and I have found a real resonance in that. In part becos I totally agree with all his premises, but what he has done for me also is to make me stop and  analyse and give meaning and shape to ideas that I've carried around in my head for years, more as a vague kind of notion, and now I'm able to look at them from a new angle and with a more analytical approach, and I'm really enjoying that process.

He's a much nicer person than I am. His efforts with difficult customers go far and beyond the kind of slack that I would cut to obnoxious people, but I can't argue with his basic premise that you need to turn negative situations to your advantage by creating a positive out of them- and you want people around you who will endeavour to achieve that end. Businesses succeed in the end, not by avoiding mistakes, because mistakes are an inevitable part of the human condition, but by the successful handling of those mistakes.

I hope I'm not starting to make the book sound like one of those ghastly bullet point editions on how to improve your profits in 100 days, becos it is in fact the total anthesis of that type of approach. He presents thoughtful ideas that have stood the test of time and of significant business growth, from a completly personal perspective.

Reading the book hasn't changed the way I look at our business, but it has certain helped underline key factors for me that I think are especially important going forward, and it has actually confirmed in a nice way, that alot of those things that we've done instinctively becos they've felt like the right thing to do, can be defined within a business context as being correct.

 

The restaurant reservation book for 2007 - well thumbed and well used...

- and our 2008 version, brand new, and ready to be filled with all the details of the new year.In a few short months it will end up looking just like the one above and the 20 odd that have preceded it!

We've been closed for the last week, between Christmas and New Year, and I've just come back over to the house having spent a few hours in the restaurant kitchen with Rick helping him prepare vast quantities of salmon escabeche for a catering job we have on tom, on the day we reopen, and also for a large outcatering wedding that is looming on Friday. Becos the restaurant reopens tom, it means it will be a huge prep day for the kitchen team as they prep everything from scratch to get service up and happening again. Rick therefore has been over there, yesterday and today getting some of the catering prep out of the way so as to ameliorate the pressure. The fact that we don't have any deliveries either today or tom, compounds the need to have stuff organised in advance, and my husband is good at that!

We're heading out to dear friends for lunch and what I strongly suspect will segue into a leisurely afternoon of chat, so have no doubt that the work exertions of the morning will rapidly recede and we won't feel too deprived of holiday time.

I've been clearing the answerphone over the week that we've been closed so it doesn't fill up - and that is never a job that I look forward to this time of year, becos people ( some people), are often somewhat incredulous that we would choose to close and they are therefore forthright in expressing their indignation. Its an interesting one. I'm totally comfortable with the call that we have made - that after a huge December, the staff and we all need a little rest and recuperation. Its about quality of life, not economics, and means that everyone returns refreshed and recharged ( once they're over the New Years Eve hangovers - the younger generation anyway!). But the problem I encounter is that hospitality is now a 24/7 concept and not everyone agrees with my priorites, which means I occasionally get to wince at some of the comments that people leave on the answerphone. But I think my shoulders are broad enough to deal with that..

The carpets have been cleaned while we were shut, and Wendy spent alot of time in the restaurant yesterday, literally scrubbing it from top to bottom. So things feel clean and sparkling which is especially apt for the start of a new year.

Boxes of cherries have kept arriving - we have a standard weekly order with an orchard in Central Otago - even over the holiday period. I guess they keep ripening regardless of what the day is, and therefore need to be picked and dispatched. Most of them are being destoned and cooked in a red wine syrup, and will eventually end up on our dessert menu, once Simpson Print get back from their holiday and print us some new menus. Yesterday I pickled one of the cases in verjus and cloves, and they will find their way into the menu with the terrine and possibly also with the Hohepa cheese, once they've had a couple of weeks to macerate.

We get up cases of verjus from Gibbston Valley Winery, and as people who come to the cookschools know, we are strong advocates for using it in lieu of white wine vinegar, especially this time of year, when its lightness seems to particularly suit summer food. The mention of verjus always reminds me of Maggie Beer, becos she was the person who first introduced verjus ( or verjuice) commercially in the Southern Hemisphere, and I can remember back when we first tried hers, thinking how novel it was. Which of course it isn't. The Italians have been using it in their cooking for centuries - we just came to the idea a bit later!! Bought her latest cookbook just before Christmas, Maggies Harvest. Its beautiful, and has the added bonus of been full of great ideas and lots of information. Not dissimilar to the Cooks Companion of Stephanie Alexander, in that the recipes are linked by ingredients.

Looking ahead to the upcoming year - there feels like there is lots happening. We're not sure at this stage whether the trip to Mexico will get of the ground. I believe we need another 2 people for it to be viable for the organises, and Annie Sale the travel agent, has indicated that she'll have to make a call in the next couple of weeks. So if I can't convince someone we know to come, we may have to shelve that idea for another year. Will be a shame becos most people I talk to who've visited Mexico talk very positively about it, but we just may have to wait a wee while longer. And thats life!

Have been firming up dates with Juliet Harbutt, in anticipation of a return visit from her for 2008. The cheese lady - a guru on all things to do with cheese, and one of those rare experts who is able to impart her knowledge in a way that is a totally enjoyable learning experience. We've had massive amounts of comments since her last visit, and I know those classes will be heavily booked. She's not due till June, and I will sent out the dates in a newsletter closer  to the time.

We have a few other projects bubbling away in the background, and if they come to fruition in the way I hope they will, then we are in for an extremely stimulating year. The prospect of which, I look forward too!!

 

Happy New Year!!