Top Danish Chef To Head Kitchen At Ponsonby's Mekong Baby

Top Danish Chef To Head Kitchen At Ponsonby's Mekong Baby

Englishman and long time Danish resident chef Jeff Scott Foster is set to take over executive chef responsibilities at iconic Ponsonby restaurant & bar, Mekong Baby.

Mekong Baby’s owner, Dominique Parat said he was rapt to have secured the talents of Jeff Scott Foster, a Michelin star-trained chef with a huge following in Denmark.

Mekong Baby may now be the only restaurant in Auckland to have not one, but two, Michelin trained chefs under the same roof.

“I searched the world for Jeff Scott Foster. I wanted the right person, with the right technical skills, who could understand my vision in creating Mekong Baby and help me to take it to a whole new level. We have put together a great formula here that people love, but in this business you cannot afford to rest on your laurels, said Dominique Parat.

“It is a relentless quest to lift standards, raise expectations and deliver even higher quality. Ponsonby can boast many of the best restaurants in town and competition is fierce, so our aim is to be more than a restarant. We want to be a venue, a destination; an experience.

“Jeff’s food philosophy is based on the values of sustainability, using the freshest ingredients, European techniques and local foraging, which are values we have always held dear at Mekong Baby,” said Dominique Parat.

“He is a chef of exceptional talent and creativity and we are proud to have someone of his standing come to work with us at Mekong Baby. It has been three years since we opened and we will use the opportunity of Jeff Scott Foster’s arrival to review our offerings and bring some exciting new culinary delights to lovers of fine food.

Having said that, we will not be radically changing anything on the menu – our customers can be assured that Asian-fusion will still be the inspiration behind our dishes.

In 2015 Jeff Scott Foster became the first Englishman ever to win the National Competition “Smørrebrød”, a bi-annual competition for top chefs in Denmark, where the Danish National Speciality “Smørrebrød” was the theme (Smørrebrød is a type of open sandwich that is extremely popular in Denmark).

Mr Parat said Mr Foster would be working with him to ‘tweak’ some things and will look to ‘evolve’ our menu to ensure we remain at the forefront of great Auckland restaurants.

Customers could look forward to the appearance of some of Mr Foster’s signature dishes as well as him providing a new take on some Mekong Baby favourites.

Mekong Baby is all about clean, fresh flavours, spicy, sweet and sour, beautiful presented food, with ambience and excellent service.

Jeff Scott Foster is no stranger to NZ shores, having visited here last year to run a course at the ‘Sanford Cooking School, through the Auckland Fishmarket. He also backpacked around NZ and Australia in 1998.

Over the course of his career he has owned and worked in some of Denmark’s top restaurants.

Earlier in his career Jeff worked at two Michelin starred restaurants with some of the world’s most famous chefs, including Marco Pierre White (Harvey’s, London: 3 Michelin stars), Michel Roux Jr & Gordon Ramsey (Le Gavroche, London: 3 Michelin stars) and Michel Michaud (Marie Louise, Odense, Denmark).

One of the comments from his reference check was: “We will miss him in Denmark, but I think he will bring a lot of experience to his new role.”

Mekong Baby is open 6 days Tuesday to Sunday from midday to late. Dominique Parat has been part of the culinary scene on Ponsonby Road for over 20 years. He arrived in New Zealand some 35 years ago and has owned some of Auckland’s finest eateries. Mekong Baby was established on the site of the hugely popular restaurant, GPK.

ENDS

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