IN FINE STYLE

As executive chef of award-winning restaurant Atlas, James Pask brings a new take on New Zealand cuisine to Wellington’s Customhouse Quay.

SINCE ATLAS’ INCEPTION IN

August last year, it has already been recognised as one of New Zealand’s best restaurants. With an executive chef as talented and experienced as James Pask at the helm, it’s no surprise.

Atlas offers contemporary cuisine using the finest New Zealand produce. As Pask explains, it’s food that’s straightforward and modern, but realised using “a lot of technique”. “It’s two-to-three-ingredient cooking but there’s a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes with those ingredients,” says Pask. The chef brought much of his team from his former restaurant, Whitebait, to work with him at Atlas.

At least one dish on the Atlas menu is changed each week, adapting to reflect “seasonal sensitivity and the tireless efforts of the people that work the landscape”. Ingredients are sourced from all around New Zealand and Atlas has about 65 suppliers. The produce is predominantly organic and the meat and fish “carefully sourced and ethically raised”.

Atlas’ winter menu will feature desserts made with ferments that Pask and his team made in summer. Black truffles will also appear on the menu, ahead of white truffles further into the season. As for proteins, Pask says duck will feature shortly, as well as Wagyu ribeye that has been ageing in beef fat since January.

Clockwise from top: Dishes from the Atlas menu; Executive chef of Atlas, James Pask, cooking up a storm in the kitchen.