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New Zealander Tim Pickering only started cooking at age 23, but once he started there was no stopping. He undertook professional training at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in 1999 and soon found that even when he wasn’t in class he was spending all his spare time in the kitchen.
Tim’s first cooking job was at a restaurant in Auckland around the busy time of the America’s Cup Challenge in 2000. There was a Japanese influence to the menu there, which would inspire an interest in Asian flavours and a lightness of touch still evident in Tim’s style.
IN 2001 Tim moved to Japan and was employed in the grill chef’s position (yakitori) in a local restaurant, allowing him to gain fantastic experience in the use and preparation of a variety of fish and seafood, bringing a quite different approach to food than he had experienced in New Zealand.
Tim returned home to New Zealand in 2002 and landed a “summer job” at Kauri Cliffs during their busy “season”. Chef Dale Gartland had just started work at Kauri Cliffs too.
When the summer ended Tim returned to Japan on a working holiday, but having gained a foot in the door, he was soon offered a full time role at Kauri Cliffs in September 2003. Advancement came in 2004 when Tim took on the position of Sous Chef at Kauri Cliffs under then Head Chaf Dale Gartland.
In 2006 Tim was ready for a challenge, and thus moved to Canada where he worked as a chef at Opus, a family run fine dining restaurant, from May 2006 until Sept. 2007. Tim’s eyes and palate where enhanced by the experience, as Opus cuisine was very classical French and no expense was spared on the ingredients (fresh truffle, foie gras, caviar etc) and he learned a great deal in what he found was a busy small kitchen with a great atmosphere.
In October 2007 a call from New Zealand brought with it a fabulous opportunity Tim couldn’t refuse. The Robertson family were opening a second lodge, The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, and Dale Gartland needed a sous Chef to work alongside him in this new and exciting kitchen.
Tim took on the challenge with renewed vigour, and continued in that role until April 2010 when Dale Gartland moved to Queenstown when the Robertsons opened a South Island lodge, Matakauri Lodge. Dale took the Executive Chef position for all three lodges based at Matakauri, and Tim became Head Chef at The Farm at Cape Kidnappers.
In his time as Head Chef at The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, the Relais & Chateaux lodge was named in the Conde Nast Traveller HOT LIST 2010 as Best for Food.
The vegetable garden at The Farm at Cape Kidnappers is a passion of Tim’s and he is able to use the “homegrown” produce in the menus he designs at the lodge.
In 2011 Tim represented The Farm at Cape Kidnappers at the Taste of New Zealand event in Auckland (TONZA) and was awarded a Premier’s Award for his work in championing locally sourced ingredients and promoting a regional culinary culture in Hawke’s Bay.
He has also been involved in the Winter Food & Wine Weekends across he three lodges which has seen celebrity chefs such as Neil Perry, Rick Stein, Thomas Keller & Heston Blumenthal cook as “guest chefs” at The Farm at Cape Kidnappers.
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