31 January 2013

THE FRENCH CAFE'S FRENCH KITCHEN

I’ve always thought that the very best restaurants are those that continually work at reinventing themselves - but not changing direction nor completely modifying every single detail from the menu to the décor. Rather, the canny restaurateur knows how to refresh, tweak and invigorate the business constantly while retaining the things that their loyal customers love best and return again and again for. Just like Simon Wright and Creghan Molloy Wright do at The French Café.

Last night I attended a sublime dinner at The French Kitchen at The French Café, and was completely bowled over by this talented pair's newest initiative. They must be Auckland’s most consummate restaurateurs, as everything, as always, was perfect. I’ve been dining at the French Café for the best part of thirty years, ever since Annie Mantell and Barrington Salter opened it in that little back room that you had to enter through a side door of a lane that led to the Symonds St building’s courtyard.

Well now, not only does that courtyard contain the most stunning kitchen garden to supply the restaurant with herbs and seasonal vegies, but on the far side there’s a new state-of-the-art airy kitchen with space for dining, cooking demos, parties and events for up to 25-30 people. There are white walls, big glass doors, a great Electrolux modern kitchen, a fantastic wooden floor (made from floorboards in the old Orange Coronation Hall where my mother used to dance with Bill Sevesi) and some well chosen art.

Simon Wright cooked for us: five fabulous courses that were light, and formed with superbly well thought-out combinations of vegetables, herbs, and seasonal treats. We stood first in the courtyard, admiring the garden and nibbles on pre-dinner appetisers including little round toasted sandwiches filled with whitebait that were buttery, crunchy and that almost stole the show from the meal that followed.

I’m not sure if the dishes were on the regular French café menu, but if the kingfish ceviche with crème fraîche, caviar and garden greens is listed I’ll be back to eat that dish, and the egg yolk confit on smoked potato with peas and the last of the season’s asparagus, and that perfect seared duck breast with spiced fresh cherries, parsnip and red wine, and the strawberries and cream that came with meringue, cream, raspberries and mint. As for the accompanying wines – total delight, especially the demi-sec Roederer with dessert.

Service at the French Café is always stunning. And now it’s combined with the theatre of the French Kitchen. It’s a real treat to watch the intensity of Simon Wright and his chef, with their complete focus and concentration on cooking and plating the food, only metres from the tables. Like so much of the alterations, additions and fine-tuning they’ve brought to the restaurant over the years, this new project should yet again catapault them into the premier position on New Zealand’s restaurant scene. Well done!

The French Café, 210 Symonds St, Auckland City T 09 377 1911