Words Denise Irvine, Images Ashlee DeCaires & Brydie Thompson
Chef Mat McLean is describing his homemade bresaola and the next minute he’s in the kitchen at his restaurant, Palate, assembling a little snack to demonstrate this cured and air-dried delicacy at its best.
He returns with a plate of four or five smoked baby mushrooms, each one topped with shards of pork crackling and his kohlrabi kimchi, sitting alongside the thinly sliced deep red bresaola. These are deeply savoury mouthfuls, beautifully textured and delicious, the lean and tender venison being the hero. I didn’t actually mean to, but I ate the lot.
Bresaola has its origins in Northern Italy, and Mat makes it from scratch at Palate: the cut is from the top (inside) round of the venison leg and it’s cured for two weeks in a dry rub of sea salt, sugar, pepper, juniper berries, bay leaves and kawakawa. Then, Mat says, it’s a waiting game. It takes about six weeks to dry-age. He has it on Palate’s menu as an appetiser, paired with parmesan and gnocchi fritto.
While he talks at his chef’s table, adjacent to the kitchen, there’s a batch of mushrooms smoking on the South American-style asado grill, the big barbecue that’s been the star of the restaurant since Palate moved to SkyCity on Hamilton’s Victoria Street close to a year ago.
This is the third incarnation of Palate in the city, after Mat opened a 45-seater in the south-end in 2005 and then relocated to bigger premises in Alma Street in 2012. Mat and his business partner (and Palate sommelier) Larissa Muller are both pleased with their shift to the CBD. It’s a nice place to work, they watch the world walk by, and it’s been an opportunity to change things up with a more flexible menu and different dining spaces.
On the latter, four different areas have been created: the street-front courtyard, two indoor rooms, and another nook in the SkyCity atrium, directly under the unique (and magnificent) glazed roof dome, a design feature of the building that was once Hamilton’s Chief Post Office. The atrium seating includes Palate’s chef’s table, which is in direct sight of the kitchen, the engine room designed by Mat from the ground up.
Mat and Larissa’s work was rewarded in September with a coveted hat at the country’s benchmark 2024 Cuisine Good Food Awards. Larissa – who curates Palate’s excellent wine and beverages lists – also won Cuisine’s special category award for Villa Maria Sommelier and Wine Experience of the Year. The recent wins add to the many titles that Palate’s collected over nearly 20 years.
Mat says the wood-and-charcoal-fired grill has been the game-changer at Palate III. “It’s the showpiece. It’s compact and powerful. I like the fire. After cooking on coals I’d never go back to gas. It’s so much fun and there’s so much more flavour. It makes gas seem sterile now.”
The food off the grill is simple – minimum fuss, maximum flavour and character – and the menu gives customers licence to design the way they want to eat. Maybe doing oysters, bubbly and some small plates, or cocktails and shared grazing plates, or the full a la carte and wine list.
The fire is lit in the morning, with wood at the base and charcoal on top. Mat likes the mix of fuel. The charcoal creates stronger flavours but wood is better for smoking. At present, he’s using coffee charcoal from coffee bushes that have been pulled out for replanting and the timber subsequently recycled as charcoal. “It produces rich and aromatic flavours that are beautiful for venison and beef, and everything really.”
During service, the fire is blazing as it deals to the orders flowing into the kitchen. In down times, the heat is lower, maybe used for smoking mushrooms and other vegetables.
Another essential piece of kit, although not as conspicuous as the barbecue, is the Italian pasta extruder. This underpins Palate’s excellent selection of homemade pasta, such as local duck tagliatelle, potato gnocchi, and casarecce (a Sicilian short pasta) plated with octopus, kingfish, chorizo and fennel.
It’s a given that Mat sources his raw ingredients from producers with sound sustainable practices, and he’s built relationships with a number of them. His fish suppliers include Haku Kingfish at Ruakākā in Northland and Seafood Bazaar in Hamilton, and his oysters are from Coromandel; he buys Greenstone Creek premium beef, vegetables and fruits through Waikato quality produce supplier FED Foods; and cheeses from Meyer, Over-the-Moon and Mercer, and so on.
“It’s nice to keep it in the community if you can. I used to buy European stuff and I no longer do that. We have some great artisanal producers here. It makes it easy to put together a menu.”
Palate’s menu changes with the seasons and because of this it is always flexible, a work in progress. In spring, Mat got the first pick of asparagus from Bill and Irene Cummings’ Greenfern crop at Bruntwood. “I couldn’t wait. I miss it so much and there is only about a 10-week window.”
So how is he cooking it? He nods at the barbecue (of course). “On the grill. It tastes great.”
His made-from-scratch ethos is seen from go to whoa on the menu: the whoa being in the form of his own ice creams and sorbets. As he talks, he plates up a taster of liquorice ice cream and an insanely fruity tamarillo sorbet, both with perfectly balanced flavours.
I didn’t actually mean to, but I ate the lot.
