Cook with tips from star chef
Dining in Auckland is about to be taken to new heights with some of the country’s best chefs serving gastronomic delights at a table suspended 50m in the air.
Renowned Kiwi chefs Simon Gault and Gareth Stewart are among those involved in Dinner in the Sky, which sees 22 diners seated at a specially engineered table hoisted by crane over the city.
Diners board the platform at ground level and are strapped into seats with a harness with legs left dangling underneath. Guests are told to leave all belongings, apart from a camera or phone, on the ground.
“The table is a good size so as long as people put their camera in the middle it will stay there. It is very stable,” said Events in the Sky director Steve Chung.
The platform is raised into the air and stays there for the hour duration of the meal. Toilet breaks before takeoff are strongly advised — no one wants to be the person for whom they have to lower the whole table.
The meal is prepared and cooked in the sky at a central kitchen station by the chefs who are harnessed in but can walk around.
Chung said he has never had an issue with a chef scared of heights.
“Chefs are a pretty resilient lot and they are usually pretty daring and adventurous.”
Chung has suspended tables in more than 50 countries, including Tokyo, London and Paris.
Now it is Auckland’s turn to host the exclusive sky-high events with the table suspended at the waterfront, near the Cloud, from February 1-18.
“New Zealand’s food and restaurant scene has really exploded in the past few years,” Chung said. “It was the right time to bring our concept here.”
Gault of Giraffe, Stewart of Euro, Phil Clark of Phil’s Kitchen, Fraser Shenton of Fish, Juan Balsani of Augustus Bistro and Giulio Sturla of Christchurch restaurant Roots will cook at separate events.
“We take care of our guests and give them the most amazing experience with the very best food, matched award-winning wines and champagne, and the best views.
“It is a very special event and everyone, including the chefs, really do like being involved,” Chung said.
World famous Michelin star chefs such as Heston Blumenthal and Joel Robuchon have created dishes in the sky-high galley for guests including Prince Albert of Monaco, rock stars and A-list actors.
The event was postponed last year because of freight delays due to industrial action in Sydney.
Chung said the experience was worth the wait and offered some of the best views of Auckland Harbour and looking back toward the city.
He had looked at taking the event to other parts of New Zealand, including Wellington and Queenstown.
As well as star-studded dinners, the company had also hosted weddings, birthdays and a bird’s-eye view of rock-concerts and motorsport events around the globe.
He had even started researching the possibility of offering the “best seats in the house” for the upcoming America’s Cup.
Tickets for the events range from $248 for cocktails to $498 for dinner cooked by Simon Gault.
There are seven “flights” most days: one brunch, two lunches, one wine tasting, one cocktail and two dinner flights. Your new secret kitchen weapon? Smoked cheese — and Simon Gault.
The restaurateur and former MasterChef NZ judge is the Herald on Sunday’s new food columnist and he promises recipes with “an extra 5 per cent magic”. You can find him on p17 of Sunday Travel.
“I think a lot of people know how to make bacon and egg pie, right? But let’s use a smoked cheese that transforms it from the ordinary to the extraordinary — do a tomato salad, but with a dressing you wouldn’t expect.”
Gault is planning a weekly reader giveaway (this week, it’s a box of Curious Croppers tomatoes) and recipes that are “very achievable at home”.
He aims to give “a whole bunch of little secret weapons.”
Gault, who owns Giraffe restaurant and recently launched a 100 per cent vegetablesweetened tomato ketchup, says the one thing he’s repeatedly asked is how to cook a steak. “So I’ll be doing a column on that very soon!”
And, while the focus will be on familiar food made fabulous, he also plans to share a few secrets.