Thomas Barta – Queenstown Private chef
Favourite ingredients to work with?
Seafood. I find New Zealand seafood among the best in the world. It is a fresh and a delicate product to work with and there is a special connection between chefs and fishermen. When a fresh box of fish arrives it always excites me.
Favourite Christmas meal?
In Hungary where I’m originally from, my dad, who is a chef, owned a traditional fish restaurant for over 30 years now and my favourite Christmas meal is our signature fish soup. Every year we sell around 5000 portions on Christmas Day. People are queuing from early morning to put the fish soup on the Christmas dinner table. It is pretty special.
Favourite cookbook?
At the moment it is Jason Atherton’s Pollen Street cookbook. Modern British cooking is close to my heart. I love his work.
Favourite kitchen tool?
I love my temperature probe. It is always with me.
At Botswana Butchery we grill a lot of a steaks every day and the probe tells me what’s going on inside the meat and when it is reaching the desired cooking temperature. But also helps with a lot of other things.
Favourite knife?
I like handcrafted Japanese knives, the amount of time and effort goes into it is extraordinary. Every set of knives has their own story. For some reason I also love cleavers. They are big and powerful.
Favourite pan?
I like copper pans they are beautiful but hard to maintain. I also love cast iron pans, they are awesome and last forever.
Tip for cooking for the hordes at Christmas?
Choose the freshest, best product available, keep it simple and season it well.