New chef stirs the Keg melting pot

Ruapehu Bulletin, 6 August 1991, Page 6

New chef stirs the Keg melting pot

Plus Garden Bar Ohakune style

PROFILE

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Advertorial Chef Chris Mitchell thinks the Powderkeg is great, with the ideas that proprietor Paul Scarf has incorporated into the complex all winners. That's why he has taken on the job of running the restaurant at the Keg.

"I like the idea of Paul's Powderkeg. It's an excellent complex," said Chris. "When I thought about coming to Ohakune I wanted to be part of a place with atmosphere - something high profile." His background starts in Dunedin, taking in Auckland where he cooked for eight years at places like De Brett's, Kilarney Street Brasserie, Cin Cin and the Cotton Club, which he owned and operated. He has also worked in Ohakune before - at the Sunbeam Restaurant in 1989. Before taking on the job he said he had visited the Keg on several occasions and liked the ideas, the atmosphere and the food. But already he has seen room for a little improvement and so is working on a few changes. He has redesigned the manu to better suit the kitchen and equipment, while retaining the winner dishes. He's added a few of his own favourites and he is working to co-ordi-nate the staff to operate as a team. "The restaurant has worked really well over summer, with some great ideas and great effort - now we're hoping to put all

those people and their experience and ideas into the melting pot and come up with something even better." "Cooking is half of being a chef and the other half is organisation," said Chris, "So we've worked out a menu that will speed up the service to diners at the same time as offering a wider choice." Some of the changes in the menu are small, such as to the famous "Flintsones" style spare ribs which although popular, were difficult to eat and time consuming. Chris has made a few changes to the dish to make it easier and less embarrassing (for some people!) The Gunpowder steaks stay - but "anti-passive smokers" who griped about the voluminous clouds of smoke coming off the slab of wood on which the hot granite was placed will be pleased to know they've devised a way to lift the hot rock off the wood so the steak, and not the timber, cooks at your table. Venison steaks will be offered cooked in the same unique way. Some of the new things on the menu are: the Tomato and Mussel

Gumbo - a cajun Creole style stew-soup served with rice - 'hot and spicy and quite filling - almost a meal in itself; Pastrami and Gruyere crostini with olive pat6, homous, pickled onions and gherkins - 'like a ploughman's lunch - good for the vegetarians'; smoked chicken with crispy noodles, spicy peanut sauce and salad - 'a light meal and pleasant to eat*. Specials will feature at the Keg when available - things like game, fresh fish, tiger prawns, mussels and scallops to add extra interest to the menu. A chocolate freak's magnet is the rich chocolate cake with chocolate marquise - 'a very rich fortified chocolate mousse - irresistible' and treacle pudding with berry coulis - 'full of walnuts, sultanas and dried apricots - like mum's pudding'. Chris is introducing a better range of vegetables to the Keg - he says the local produce is good but limited so he will be supplementing it with produce brought down from Auck- ; land three times a week. "So locals should get things they don't normally and visitors will get what they are used to," said Chris.

Lots of the lunch and snack food remains - the loaded shells, stacked sandwiches and the like, with lots of the main dishes also offered as entrees or lunch time food. Although the Powderkeg is as busy as ever, most regulars will know by now that it's easier to eat there,

with the opening of the garden bar which is new this season. "We've had 200 people in here partying and still served 160 people for dinner," said Chris. "And that was after serving 140 for lunch!" "It's great on closed days, you can sit out here and watch the world go by. It's good for families - they

can have lunch, the parents can pack the kids off to the pool, onto some hire- mountain bikes, throw them off a bridge (he means bungy jumping) and sit back and relax." Planned soon is a salad pit and barbecue for the garden bar, to provide yet another dimension to the Powderkeg - Powderhorn ensemble.