Love of great outdoors and fishing inspire chef’s work

The Restaurant: Essence is one of two restaurants in Roki, a luxury “ultra-exclusive, all-suite hotel”, the first hotel by an Australian family who prefer to remain anonymous, which opened in Queenstown in September last year. The degustation menu ranges from “a taste” ($295) to the full “journey” ($450). It achieved two Michelin stars. manja wachsmuthEssence at Roki in Queenstown. Photo: George Apostolidis. The Chef Essence’s Culinary director Paul Froggatt, 47, is from England and came to New Zealand, via working in France, Singapore and Hong Kong, 13 years ago as he and his family wanted to spend more time in the great outdoors. “What better place to do this than New Zealand?” Tell us about your career? suppliedEssence culinary director Paul Froggatt, of Roki Queenstown, achieved two Michelin stars. Photo:Manja Wachsmuth My first taste of hospitality was from a family friend who own and ran a bed and breakfast and I spent the weekend helping out and cooking dinners. After this I was very lucky I got a job in a 1 Michelin star luxury country hotel, from there I moved on to a 2 Michelin star with a chef called Micheal Caines. Working with him really shaped my early years as a young chef. He taught me to respect the ingredients and a very strong sense of cooking. From there I was off to France for two years to work in a 3 Michelin star restaurant and learn about French food and the heritage of fine gastronomy. After this I made a life-changing move. I flipped a coin and moved to Singapore, where my thought was to stay for one year. This turned into five and a-half years as I met my wife and we had our son. After that a opening came up to move to Hong Kong as chef de cuisine to run the now 3-star Michelin restaurant Amber. How did you come to be involved with Roki and Essence? Stephen McAteer (Roki’s GM) hadheard about me and my passion to create some amazing food and my strong passion for the guest experience through my cooking. We had a meeting in Queenstown and he showed me the plans plus a tour of Queenstown. I was amazed by the whole area and vision of Roki, so what better reason to move down south? What is your food ethos? manja wachsmuthPaul Froggat's Fiordland langoustine tart – one of the hero dishes on "The Journey" tasting menu. It showcases South Island seafood with refined European technique.Photo: Manja Wachsmuth I like to say that I have matured over time. I have always had a strong passion for the best ingredients, and always to cook with integrity. My role is to respect the ingredient, honour the producer and create an experience that feels authentic. New Zealand offers some of the world’s finest produce. It’s my responsibility to showcase it with creativity. I draw on my classical training and influences from my career across Europe and Asia. My aim to create dishes that are elegant, balanced and rooted in a sense of place. For me, true luxury is found in simplicity, seasonality and genuine hospitality. What did you set out to achieve with Essence? To be honest, my aim was to create a restaurant that gave our guests a sense of place in time with food and hospitality, to showcase the best and amazing ingredients that we have here at our fingertips. It was important for me to bring a team together that would be “all in all the time”, a young team that would like to learn like to work together to create something amazing, to take part in my vision and dream to be a leading restaurant in New Zealand. How has its environment allowed you to be more innovative? For me I love it here, the environment, the great outdoors just on our doorstep, the mountains almost in the back garden. I spend weekends away with my family hiking and fly-fishing and this rejuvenates our souls. I love it when the phones don’t ring and we hardly see anyone apart from a trout. The best ingredient is the New Zealand langoustine and seafood we have. I just love them and would eat and cook them all the time if I could. What is your favourite dish on the menu? For now I have two. The first is the dishes called the “Autumn Walk” as this dish has a strong sense of family as it was created with my children. The other has to be the langoustine dish. I love the flavours and taste that work so well, and the guests enjoy it. What do you hope visitors to the restaurant experience? I would love them to get a sense of time and place with us. It’s like them coming to dinner in my house and I can showcase them some great dishes and ingredients with the warm hospitality like they are our friends. What does the Michelin star mean? Thirteen years ago, I left behind the Michelin kitchens of Europe and Asia to move to New Zealand. I believed I was leaving the “Michelin chase” behind for good. This was my dream as a young boy many years ago to be awarded two stars, so for me is so huge — I really can’t put it in to words how thrilled, overwhelmed I am to win. The stars are for the team and my family as they are the ones that do it day in and day out. The team comes together to cook my vision and I couldn’t have that vision if I didn’t have the support from my wonderful family. How much pressure does it put you under to achieve it again next year? Yes, for sure I would like to achieve it again next year. I find there is always pressure in everything no matter what. Like I say to the team “let’s cook amazing food today”, as we are only as good as our last service and then tomorrow we do it all over again, so we just need to keep trying. We can do anything together with the right mindset. - See upcoming Fresh editions for conversations with Michelin-starred chefs James Stapley from Kika, Chris Scott from Sherwood and Dan Matto from Rata.