How green is his garden 

chef profile - Jonny Schwass

Standing out amongst the trend for kitchen tricks and flavour mixes that would have had the great Escoffier weeping into his stock pot are a handful of chefs in New Zealand preaching a simple, back-to-basics message that puts ‘product first’, and the fresher the better. By Alan Titchall.

One such vegetable garden-loving culinary champs is Jonny (no ‘h’) Schwass with a boutique namesake restaurant in Christchurch and a passion for organically grown vegetables.  He was captain of the gold-medal winning New Zealand Culinary Team of 2004 and has the sort of ‘classical’ background the venerable Escoffier, the great-grandfather of the modern kitchen, would have approved of. 

Schwass is the sort of generous-sized chap that looks like he woofs 250-gram steaks for breakfast (and there’s no shortage of meat on his menus), but he’s actually a devotee of fresh local produce, natural flavours, simple presentation and the sort of ‘whole earth’ dishes that would have a vegan over the moon. He is also a believer in “gravity” presentation — arranging food naturally on plate, or the antithesis to the stack-smear-and-drizzle contemporary school of plating art.

I first met Jonny Schwass at the last Savour NZ culinary event in Auckland during the winter of  2008. His masterclass presentation was called ‘The cook and his gardener’ where, with a talent for stand-up comedy, Schwass literally demonstrated recipes from a basket of fresh and gnarly vegetables hauled up to Auckland from a 12-acre organic garden outside of Christchurch. 

This garden is contracted to supply his 40-seater restaurant in Phillipstown – not the most salubrious inner city precinct in the Garden City, but this eatery makes the best of its modern interior and capable kitchen and has picked up a numerous accolades, such as
Cuisine [magazine] Restaurant of the Year Finalist 2008 and Michael Guy's Eating Out Regional Restaurant of the Year 2009. 

From his basket, Schwass prepared an earthy salad of different beetroots, roasted hazelnuts and goat cheese - while pushing his ‘keep it fresh and simple’ mantra. In the cause of food costing he even suggests saving the skins from the roasted hazelnuts to whiz into flour used to flavour gnocchi and other doughs.

The salad ingredients were literally dropped on to the plate. “Don’t try and intellectualise about food,” he pleaded.

“Let the food speak for itself with good honest flavours.” 

Recipe descriptions on his menu are  refreshingly simple with a dab of cottage charm: Salt cod croquette and yoghurt sorbet; sugar cured pork cheek and watercress; wild and tame mushroom risotto; peas and chive butter; crumbed organic poached egg and young fennel; roasted heirloom beetroot, goats ricotta and beet leaves; and manuka honey brulee, boysenberry sorbet and poached apricots.

It also features some very cute perspectives on modern dining. “Use of mobile phones in our dining room will cause our ovens to stop.

“The animals that have joined us for dinner are chosen from free range farms or the wild. “The joy of good food is to be encouraged at all times and you are welcome to lick your plates at any stage.”

QUESTION TIME – Jonny Schwass

Most overrated ingredient? NOS or anything foam, people will soon cotton on that you are charging them for air

Most underestimated ingredient? Pork Fat

What scares you before service? Running out of coffee and no customers turning up

Milestone career experience? Every day is a new day but winning a gold medal with a bunch of unknown Kiwis in Singapore was pretty special

Toughest cooking lesson? Don't wear new shoes to a cooking trial - 18 hours later and I couldn't walk for two days

Ideal customer? Someone who likes to eat and knows what they like

Customer nightmare? Someone who doesn't like to eat and doesn't know what they like

Restaurant catches fire, you save yourself and … An old bottle of Scotch my dad gave me.

You are limited to three flavourings - what? Duck fat, butter and salt

Favourite cookbook? The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson

End of service treat? Three Boys IPA and a full til

What do you cook at home? Whatever is left over from the restaurant on Saturday night and whatever is in the garden on Sunday

Always in your home fridge? Three Boys IPA

Pet peeve about other restaurants? Not everyone wants to eat lamb shanks and Caesar salad. Do not be afraid to offer your guest something a little different - they may just thank you for it. Restaurants who sell their wine list [to suppliers] for a few free menu covers, some aprons and a beer fridge, you now look like a supermarket with tables and chairs

Always within reach? My Blackberry. A lot of people make bookings via the internet and we need to react quickly otherwise they go somewhere else
 
Food aversion? None - other than food cooked without love and passion
 
Recipe you would never repeat? I don’t use a lot of recipes, but Peanut Butter Chicken with frozen chicken drumsticks and commercial peanut butter (circa 1982) is unlikely to make a comeback

 Preferred cookbook? My favourite is Fergus, and my preferred is the Edmonds Cookery Book

Cooking superstitions? Freezing does not affect the texture of flesh... Bullshit! The only things that are good in the freezer are ice cream, peas, vodka and ice. That is it
 
Day-off recreation? Sitting

Cooking philosophy? Local and delicious

Worst meal ever? To numerous to mention but always involved a young chef who thinks he's Heston Blumenthal and has got all his education from YouTube. Pull you pants up, lose the attitude and make me something delicious from something that grew in the ground, walked on the land or swam in the ocean

Favourite cooking tool apart from a knife? I'm in love with my Rational [oven], could not survive without our dishwasher, love the contents of my winefridge and cellar, would not be here without the coffee machine,but ultimately its a spoon my grandmother used to use

Recipe inspiration? Mother Nature

Expensive food indulgence? I don't think food should be expensive or exclusive, I much prefer to make tasty things with the bit and pieces that no one else wants

Favourite table decoration? Smiling customers and Black Amex cards

What’s the next career step? Opening a big, boisterous pub with a focus on whole-animal sensibility, craft beers and barrels of wine

What will you be doing at 50? Spending more time with my wife at the big, boisterous pub

What would your last meal be? I really don't like to think about death as I'm too busy living right now.

Autumn 2010

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