The death of the small plate was greatly exaggerated.
When the pandemic hit and we all stayed home, pundits predicted we’d stop sharing food. Nobody, they said, would go to a restaurant and risk close contact over the communal croquetas.
Frank Camorra laughs. “There was an article that basically said, ‘This is going to be the end of MoVida because of its sharing plates’. But we’ve had our busiest period for a really long time. I think people were ready to get back and enjoy themselves.”
And now they can experience that joy in downtown Auckland. Six years after the famed Australian tapas restaurant served up a month-long pop-up at Britomart's Ostro, it's finally back for a permanent residency.
Camorra opened his first MoVida in 2003, in the famously graffitied Hosier Lane. He says while the original interpreted Spanish cuisine through a Melbourne lens, “in Auckland, it will hopefully be through an Auckland filter”.
The new venture is a partnership with hospitality group Savor, and Camorra was onsite last week as the Seafarers Building venue, with its huge harbour view windows, underwent an Izzard Design refurbishment.
“All the restaurants have that open kitchen, which creates a bit of theatre, and a big bar which is not just for drinking but also eating, as they do in Spain,” says Camorra. “The energy of the people sitting at the bar and high tables hopefully translates through to the dining room which has low seating with lots of banquettes. For us, it’s not only about the food it’s the feel of a Spanish restaurant. It’s really important to have that bit of vibrancy and fun.”
How much fun? Ask Camorra how to be the perfect tapas restaurant customer and he says it depends what country you’re in.
“I’d say in Spain, leave your manners at home! If you go to Spain, tapas bars are rowdy and people are passing food around. It’s a bit more civilised than that here, but it’s still got to be fun.”
According to Camorra, the key is to pace yourself. Personally, he likes to begin with some jamon, and maybe some anchovies and smoked tomato sorbet, before deciding what’s next.
“The big mistake people make is going ‘Oh, I love everything on the menu’ and then they overorder. Order in stages. It’s a progression, and that brings in a bit of interaction with the staff and a conversation about the food and with your guests as well, because you’re talking about what you’re going to eat.”
Born in Cordoba, Spain, and raised in Australia, Camorra remembers when restaurants were entree-main-dessert three courses and every diner for themselves.
“Now, you go to any restaurant and they start with the same spiel: ‘Have you been here before, our menu is designed to share’. That’s the norm now. And that’s actually how the majority of the world eats. Every different culture in the world, generally, shares food. I think it’s a more natural way to eat.”
It’s also, he says, a more enjoyable way to cook.
“It means we can do things that we wouldn’t normally put on a menu. For instance, we’ve got ox tripe. Most people wouldn’t order that, but they might try it here, because they’re having it with a range of other dishes.”
Still not convinced? “It’s braised tripe with pig trotters, chorizo, chorizo jamon and it’s all cooked really slowly in paprika and peppers and a little bit of spice. Very classic. It’s my mum’s recipe. Some of the dishes are things I’ve eaten most of my life and I love and I want to put them on the menu because I think people need to try it.”
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.Diners will find signature MoVida dishes on the Auckland menu think sous vide farmed paua with an emulsion made from the juice that’s released from the gut (“it’s really intense, packed full of umami”) with some local variations.
Albacore tuna has been swapped for Ora King Salmon, the paella will feature scampi and diners should expect kina to star somewhere because Camorra says the Tora Collective sea urchins he sampled were the best he’s ever had.
“One of the interesting things we’ll be doing, that we don’t do in Melbourne, is using a wood-fired grill. We’ll be doing the paellas over wood fire which excites me, because it makes a big difference to the flavour and it’s so much more authentic.”
(Yes, he confirms, it does take more skill. The kitchen team, which includes staff from the Australian operation, will be led by head chef Josh Shields who has been at Ostro for the past four years.)
The one ingredient that will tell diners they’re at MoVida?
“Paprika. All the variants smoked, hot, sweet. I tell the chefs, you’ve got to use Spanish paprika. You can’t cook French food without really good butter, you can’t cook Italian food without good parmesan, you can’t cook Japanese without a good dashi you need all these key cornerstones. Paprika is a cornerstone ingredient, a backbone flavour. And the other one, probably, is sherry. We use dry sherry a lot in the cooking.”
Camorra acknowledges that, since the 2016 pop-up, Auckland’s Mediterranean-influenced restaurant scene has had a renaissance.
But: “We can definitely add something. It’s another option for people who want to have delicious food, but hopefully an experience as well. Where you go away saying, ‘That was fun’.”
