Discover Your New Local – Ben Bayly’s Less Obvious Guide to the Best Restaurants
We live in a golden age of chefs. Between the move towards consumers seeking a more personal and authentic dining experience, Auckland is bubbling over with cooking legends who not only practice world-class gastronomy but also manage to remain authentic with more focus on craft than profit. Ben Bayly, one of the judges on New Zealand’s My Kitchen Rules and the rockstar executive chef at some of Auckland’s finest restaurants (The Grove, Baduzzi and The Grounds), couldn’t be further from the ego-fed stereotype of a celebrity chef. It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon in the M2 office, but things couldn’t be more different over at The Grove kitchen. “Yeah, can I call you back? I’m actually cooking at the moment.” For some reason, it didn’t even occur to me that, Bayly – technically a TV chef personality – would be feverishly turning out meals in the kitchen at 2pm on a Tuesday. “Buddy, I work everyday,” he simply says. He is a just regular guy after all – nothing near the sort of chef that only saunters around the restaurant to eat up praise and applause.
At just 36, Bayly has already experienced a stellar career by working his way up the ranks of Michelin-starred restaurants in London and France. Yet despite his incredible success overseas and at home, Bayly has a welcoming, unpretentious ease. With a humble upbringing in Te Awamutu, he is particularly fond of “down and dirty-type places”, places that are “less about PR, and more about cooking good food,” he says. He is reverently and undeniably passionate about the ins and outs of the culinary scene, and the slog and hard graft that goes hand in hand with being a chef.
“You look on the face of the chef and you see his eyes drooping, you see the wrinkles, you see the crow’s feet, and you go ‘mother******, you work hard’. Then you taste the food and you can taste the hard work. The guy has been up since 6am, baking his own bloody bread, and the people just eat it and shrug their shoulders… they don’t even know the sweat that’s in that thing. But I see it and I appreciate it.”
Bayly’s culinary credo is simple: passion, drive and an impeccable work ethic. And passion for the job is clearly something he possesses in abundance. That much was clear from the 30-minute conversation we had, in which, in quintessential Bayly manner, he managed to blitz through four stellar restaurants, extensive back stories and all while scattering unexpected knowledge and wisdom (turns out ‘fusion’ is essentially a swear word in the culinary scene “a bit like saying the c-word in cooking”).
For Ben Bayly, eating out in Auckland shouldn’t be a stab in the dark but rather, be research driven. In an unlikely metaphor, Bayly compares the experience to betting on a horse at the races, in that you need to know the jockey (the chef) and who trained the horse (the previous restaurants they’ve worked at). Bayly strongly believes the main ingredient in the success of any new restaurant venture is training and mentorship, and the following restaurants are prominent examples of that focus. From a fabulous Lebanese food venue nestled in the iconic St Kevin’s Arcade, to an authentic Pan-Asian cuisine eatery situated in the quieter suburbs of Penrose, these new unassuming places will certainly become old favourites in no time. Here are Ben Bayly’s picks of underrated dining spots that are legitimately carving out names for themselves. Mark his words: “they will be famous, they will be well known.”
Gemmayze St
When it comes to wining and dining in Auckland, it’s easy to get caught up and enamoured with the big names and hot spots in the likes of Ponsonby. But, surprisingly, beneath the superficial sleaze and ‘red light’ guise, Karangahape Road is a treasure trove, brimming with lesser known cuisines and bars that are well worth your time. Thanks to the recent refurbishment, St Kevin’s Arcade is shaping up to again be one of the city’s most eclectic and alluring foodie destinations. Nestled in the back corner of this notoriously edgy precinct is the vibrant Lebanese eatery Gemmayze St, the brainchild of chef Samir Allen and his mother Liane Farry. Having spent five years cooking alongside Ben Bayly at The Grove, he manages to effortlessly combine the sophistication of his former workplace with the warmth of his Lebanese heritage.
With a feature wall of Arabic script (hand-painted by Samir’s auntie), family portraits, mismatched furniture and copper paneling, Gemmayze St is an incongruous hybrid of casual yet refined, eccentric yet inviting. The menu is a true reflection of Samir’s Kiwi/Lebanese upbringing, with traditional smaller staples such as tabbouleh, hummus and falafel, which have all been given fine-dining finesse and are brimming with flavour. “The best thing about Samir is that he’s a chef who makes humble ingredients like cabbage and red pepper taste amazing,” Bayly remarks. For bigger appetites, there’s grilled octopus complemented by creamy taramasalata and deliciously crunchy quinoa, or a braised lamb shoulder served with glazed onions, kohlrabi and caraway seeds. Wash it all down with a glass of Lebanese red or a couple of Gemmayze St’s iconic Jiddi Sours. With the mother running front of house, son in the kitchen and aunties and uncles milling around the restaurant, Gemmayze St is very much a family affair.
Ampersand
Auckland’s latest boutique hotspot, Orakei Bay Village, is on the fast track to becoming the ultimate weekend destination, thanks to the likes of Ampersand Eatery. Open from dawn till dusk, this stylish cafe/bistro offers the usual eggs benny and smashed avo, but also something for the more adventurous palates, with breakfast ramen and devilled lambs’ kidneys in the morning, and crispy squid in the evening. According to Bayly, Ampersand beats all the other cafes out of the park: “It is a cafe, but it’s a cafe with a really bloody good chef,” One of the best meals he’s had this year was by Ampersand’s owner and chef, Mikey Newlands (ex-Bracu) – the fresh stuffed pasta. But be wary: its deliciously creamy butternut filling may spurt out and cause you to accidentally send your mezzaluna flying across the table (!!).
With its lofty ceiling, raw wood structures and overflowing greenery, featuring a vast deck that offers a generous view over the Orakei Basin, Ampersand is undeniably a very charming location. The somewhat hipster name was originally intended to be a cheeky jab at the number of restaurants using the common conjunction & in their name, but, fittingly, Ampersand is about connections, collaborations and bringing people together.
Big Fish Eatery
Tucked away in the unassuming industrial hub of Penrose, this gem of a restaurant is all about Pan-Asian cuisine (food from all corners of Asia). From Korea, Japan and China, through to Vietnam and Malaysia, Big Fish Eatery offers a range of dishes that touch all the Asian bases. With its laid back, fuss-free interior, the food is definitely the star of the show. For an unusual business lunch, leave your spreadsheets in the office and venture to Penrose for the tuna tataki – succulent, seared slices, all artfully displayed on a long platter; or big king prawns bursting with the complex flavours of the fiery housemade sambal sauce; and finish off with the highly-rated cookie dough dessert. Fresh, tasty and absolutely authentic, this place is a winner on all fronts.
Chef and owner William Chung grew up in a chinese takeaway environment but has the experience of cooking at Michelin-starred restaurants in London. “He cooks it the way it’s meant to be. He’s bringing the Pan-Asian cuisine to you, you don’t have to travel the world to taste it,” Bayly says, adding that he could not stress enough Big Fish’s authenticity. “It’s not Asian food for white people. It’s legit. It’s authentic… if it’s spicy, it’s spicy.” While the address will definitely throw some people off, this undiscovered spot in Auckland is definitely worth making the effort.
Apéro
Another K Road favourite for Bayly is Apéro, situated next to the iconic Family Bar. Owned and operated by a two-man band, Leslie Hottiaux (ex-sous chef at The Grove and Baduzzi) and partner Mo Koski (ex-maitre d’ at Sidart and Meredith’s), this French-inspired (specifically, Toulousian-inspired) eatery is intimate, humble and warmly atmospheric. The cuisine is traditional French and precisely executed, with impressive handmade sausages, which can be ordered by the metre or parts thereof, then presented as a pinwheel on the plate.
As for the wine selection… it is small but comprehensive. “Mo has wines from all over the world. And they’re not expensive wines – just awesome stuff from parts of the world you would’ve never heard of and you didn’t even know made wine,” Bayly says. “He knows what wine you want, by talking to you.” Aptly named after the French phrase Apéritif, Apéro acts as an inner-city watering hole where you can pop in for a glass of wine before a meal, but with the utterly delicious cuisine on offer, you’ll end up settling in and spending much more time than you originally intended.