Restaurant owners’ frantic kick-off
When Janette and Peter Stevens took over Ford’s Restaurant on Trafalgar Street in August, they thought an off-season opening meant a chance to get everything in place before the summer rush.
Then the All Blacks came to town. ‘‘There was a queue six deep at the bar for two hours,’’ Peter said. ‘‘I don’t think Nelson hospitality will see anything like that again.’’
Peter runs the business, while Janette’s the brains behind the food.
The chef has Cordon Bleu and City Guild qualifications to her name, but long before formal training, Janette learned how to make boiled sweets from her grandmother, and made terrines under her mother’s instruction.
Come shearing season, the farmer’s daughter from rural Gisborne learned how to cater for large groups of shearers and their rousies.
The shearers started work at 5am and so would teenage Janette: lunch needed to be on the table by 10am and was always meat and two veg. ‘‘It’s a high energy job and they needed high calorie meals. You don’t see a fat shearer.’’
Years have passed and culinary styles have changed. Janette’s worked as a pastry chef, experimented with French cooking, and run a lunch cart. When nouvelle cuisine was en vogue, she made tasty, tiny meals.
‘‘Then you’d stop at McDonald’s on the way home and get a hamburger,’’ she remembered.
But whenever she walks into a busy kitchen, it’s her formative experience cooking for shearers that comes to mind.
‘‘The shearing shed reminds me of the kitchen, it’s organised chaos.’’
With her own kitchen to work in, she has the freedom to do what she likes, which is making hearty fare using local ingredients.
The couple plan to maintain the traditional cuisine that Ford’s is known for, but step it up a little, adding more vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options and expanding the wine list. ‘‘Ford’s has a reputation as being one of the quality restaurants in town,’’ Peter said. ‘‘We focus on traditional cuisine and do it well.’’
‘‘Janette’s philosophy is to keep it simple,’’ Peter said. ‘‘Food is over complicated, with 15 or so ingredients. Janette likes to keep it simple, using six or seven ingredients.’’
The couple have plans for Ford’s. Next winter, they’re hoping to renovate. They’ll keep the menu fresh with seasonal variations and expand their wine list. But for now, they’re looking forward to October 1, when upper Trafalgar Street closes, signalling the start of summer for restaurants.
‘‘There was a queue six deep at the bar for two hours. I don’t think Nelson hospitality will see anything like that again.’’ Peter Stevens, Ford’s Restaurant owner