SPRINGING INTO A NEW MENU
With the change of seasons comes the changing of menus and the move from a winter menu to a lighter fresher spring menu brings a lot to be celebrated.
We asked Ambassador Chef, Phil Clark of Phil’s Kitchen in Auckland how he goes about creating a new menu. He said inspiration always starts with the produce and what is in season. He looks at previous dishes he has done and works on ways to refine them using variations of ingredients. He says you can always trust your own products that have been well received by customers and as a chef this gives the opportunity to experiment and progress and become more detailed in your own craft.
At this time of the year there is plenty of delicious produce around, from spring lamb to the freshest newest shoots of spring vegetables and herbs all packed with freshness and flavour.
But how does Phil pull all that is available into his astonishing dishes? He says the environment gives him ideas – some of the most simplistic things he sees in the landscapes around him can seed an idea which ends up as a masterpiece on the plate.
Phil loves his weekly trips out to Kumeu each week where he gathers fresh produce and forages for unique New Zealand herbs such as borage and cresses, which he uses to put the finishing touches on his dishes. He takes note of the environment he is travelling through, the texture of the land, the sand hills, the trees and the livestock grazing in the paddocks. But it’s not just inspiration from the land that gets Phil excited about creating new dishes. The urban environment of Kingsland with the train station right outside his restaurant window, reminds him of his London days and those memories create inspiration for his menu too.
Phil has an amazing entrée dish featuring a New Zealand beef bavette with beetroot puree, crispy kale, black garlic, soya and maple glaze. He says this dish is a nod to his time working in Arbutus in London, which was a restaurant well known for using cheaper cuts of meat and still being able to produce Michelin star quality food.
He explains that although this dish is a bit of an Arbutus experience with added tastes and textures from the New Zealand landscape, it was also a bit of an experiment. He decided to take the flavours of a maple-glazed Kingfish Ceviche dish he had been serving throughout winter, and turn it into a beef dish. He wanted to bring those sweet Asian flavours to the beef and contrast it with some earthy flavours from the New Zealand landscape such as kale and black garlic. He added a linseed cracker on the side to give a satisfying crunch and an extra subtle layer of flavour.
On his main course menu is a Manuka smoked Greenstone Creek eye fillet with braised brisket, asparagus and a black pudding crumb. Phil says this dish is very much inspired from the land. He packs the smoker full of the Manuka wood chips and gets it super-hot. Adding the cold beef into this really hot environment for no more than a minute, infuses that white cloudy soft smoke which creates a really nice fragrance as a starting point for the dish.
He matches the eye fillet with a braised brisket, which is a great way of adding a rich flavour to a smoked product and keeping the secondary protein soft adds a different texture to the dish. The brisket is brined first with sugar, salt and water which draws as much flavour and sweetness into the brisket first. He then cooks it using a special braising liquid which has been used throughout the year again and again – it might be from some beef cheeks that he braised earlier in the year, and this creates a deep rich flavour. A portion of this braising liquor is also used to make a red wine jus which he then breaks the brisket down into, resulting in a sweet, sticky and delicious quenelle of brisket.
The black pudding crumb is the texture crunch of the dish but also adds a nice soft flavour. The crumb is a labour of love being roasted off and then broken down by hand, cooking again and broken down again until it is a really crumbly crisp texture with an intense flavour.
Phil says this dish was made to be matched with asparagus which he Frenches to keep the dish classic and is a good way to keep the dish nice and tidy.
We asked Phil what his favourite new menu dish is and he says without a doubt it’s his new lamb dish which is getting him the most excited. He loves it when the orders come through for this dish as it’s a lot of fun to plate up. The dish features a New Zealand lamb loin with glazed lamb neck, Jerusalem artichoke, crispy cabbage and red onion and berry jam.
The dish was designed with three main ingredients used in three different ways which has turned into something quite special. New Zealand lamb loin was Phil’s choice as the main protein as it’s a nice clean piece of meat which looks stunning on the plate. It’s a beautifully tender cut of lamb which he doesn’t have to do too much to, so it’s less labour intensive unlike the rest of his dish! Lamb neck is the secondary protein which is braised and delicately shaped inside cabbage leaves and also served as a clean piece, glazed in a jus with a ginger and red onion crumb on top.
Phil spends a lot of time prepping the cabbage – such a humble ingredient – but one that takes this dish to another level. He says it was a bit of an experiment, and his method may sound crazy to some, but he braises a whole cabbage in butter which adds an extra richness and level of flavour to the cabbage. Nothing is wasted as Phil uses the whole cabbage – the outer leaves are pulled away and cut while warm, then roasted off to create a thin crispy texture. The inner leaves are the perfect vehicle to fill with the soft tender lamb neck which Phil makes into balls and finally the inner heart or whiter part of the cabbage is cut into wedges and cooked down again using the same butter the cabbage was originally cooked in. Phil says it’s about creating levels of flavour from something very simplistic and is worth the extra work.
Jerusalem artichokes are abundant at the moment and their earthy flavour is the perfect match for lamb. Phil uses them on this dish as crispy chips and glazed dehydrated balls. The remnants are made into a smooth and luscious purée, perfect for scooping onto your lamb loin. With the savoury flavours of the cabbage and the lamb, the addition of the red onion and berry jam adds a delicious fruitiness creating a beautiful harmony on the palate.
New Zealand lamb loin with glazed lamb neck, Jerusalem artichoke, crispy cabbage and red onion and berry jam.
Plating is key to showcasing Phil’s dishes. He likes each dish to remain as natural as possible and to look like each component has effortlessly fallen on to the plate. By hand picking and foraging for his ingredients he gets great ideas on how to place them on the plate to capture that natural look as if its has come straight from the environment. Phil says it can take several weeks of trial and error to get the plating right and nothing goes on social media until he is 100% happy with it. From there on it’s a lot of fun in the kitchen, plating and serving each order and seeing his customers reactions to his new dishes.