At The Chef’s Table in the Ruapehu District, Johanna Thornton has an unforgettable 10-course dinner above the clouds.
I can’t think of another fine-dining restaurant where you arrive for dinner covered in mud from a two-hour drive up a mountain in an all-terrain vehicle with a farm dog in the
The journey to chef Jack Cashmore’s The Chef’s Table, a 10-seat fine-dining restaurant set high above the remote Blue Duck Station in the Ruapehu District, is part of the experience.
It starts with a six-hour drive from Auckland (or Wellington) that takes you inland along State Highway 4 to Ōwhango between Taumaranui and the National Park. This small town is the last opportunity to pick up supplies before a 1.5-hour drive west to Blue Duck Station along the winding Ōio Rd towards Whanganui National Park, 18km of which is gravel. On the day I drive, constant rain causes large rocks to tumble down the cliff face on to the road ahead, made even more perilous by a steep drop-off to the swollen Retaruke River below.
I’d later learn these boulders are sandstone and “at worst, would leave a dent on the roof” but I’m not the only one to wonder what I’ve signed up for heading into this harsh terrain. It’s a place so remote that early settlers gave up on it, with the abandoned Bridge to Nowhere over the Mangapurua Gorge a reminder of the World War I soldiers who left after finding the unrelenting land too hard to farm.
A working farm with eco credentials
Gratefully, Blue Duck Station’s staff are used to welcoming partially terrified townies and had me bundled next to the fire at Blue Duck Cafe with a hot tea and an invitation to dinner later that night where I’d eat corned beef, buttered cabbage, mustard mash, corn and peas cooked by chef Sandy, served at the Blue Duck Cafe’s communal table, elbow to elbow with people fresh from a horse trek, or prepping for a day’s hunting. Spending a night at Blue Duck Station before ascending the hill to The Chef’s Table is recommended; it’s a chance to get a grounding in the team’s work and conservation efforts and to experience the stunning landscape — the station borders Whanganui Regional Park and the magnificent Whanganui River.
Blue Duck Station is the vision of owner Dan Steele, who has combined a working farm with a unique tourism offering. People come to kayak the river, hunt, mountain bike, bird watch, horse trek, jet boat or hike, with the option to stay in one of the property’s six lodges, which range from dorm-style beds to private rooms with en suites. The Chef’s Table and its three luxury cabins were added in 2021, and some guests opt to get there on horseback or mountain bike, or take a jet boat ride on Whanganui River beforehand, making it a true wish-list experience.
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Advertise with NZME.Dan’s vision for Blue Duck Station is “to get people out here to see the place,” he explains in Blue Duck Station by Nicola McCloy. “I just wanted to showcase the Whanganui River, the national park, our biodiversity and the native forest.” He named the station after the whio, New Zealand’s endangered blue duck with a goal for tourism to pay for the conservation of the area, which includes preservation of the whio, pest control, native bush regeneration, improving the river’s water quality and preserving the many historical sites in the area.
Whanganui River has a rich Māori history, and in 2017 it became the first river in the world to be granted personhood in recognition of its importance to local iwi. Bordered by virgin rainforest with ancient rātā and rimu soaring into the sky, the river is emerald green and clear on a good day. On my visit, the rain left it a swirling, muddy milkshake and it’s an exhilarating experience jetting down it on a speed boat, where I spot two whio, bobbing up and down in a river bend, identifiable by their unique white beaks.
Dinner on top of the world
At the station’s highest point, what the staff call “the top of the world”, chef Jack Cashmore is at the door to welcome us to The Chef’s Table. His chef’s whites are immaculate and freshly pressed; we are wind-swept and covered in mud from our ATV ride, which took us through farmland and native bush, where we’re educated on the station’s history and conservation efforts. Alongside Jack is sous chef Ben Mackenzie and sommelier and waiter Clover Sykes, his team for the night. They greet us by name and usher us inside for a pre-dinner drink, where three tables are set, draped in russet fabric and white tablecloths, the woodfire flickering and the sun setting in the sky.
We shuffle in in our socks, bemused and dazzled, by the view, the staff, and the realisation that such a place exists on top of the mountain in the middle of nowhere. On a clear day, it’s possible to see Mount Ruapehu, Ngāuruhoe and Taranaki from the dining room. Green valleys, today partially obscured by low cloud, stretch for miles.
The restaurant’s design is intentionally simple, with an open-plan dining room and kitchen and big windows to capture the view.
“When we were conceptualising the restaurant we wanted it to feel like you were essentially inside someone’s home,” explains Jack, who helped build the restaurant himself.
“We wanted it to feel warm and cosy and comfortable. A friendly space where you can interact with others and that includes the kitchen. I thought back to what the first restaurant might have looked like and I imagined that to be someone’s house in the countryside in the south of France where they cooked a meal with something they sourced locally for friends and their guests.”
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A chef’s journey
Jack has travelled a long way to get here too, spending nine months of the year at the station and recuperating over winter when the restaurant beds down. Born in the UK, his CV includes two years working under Michelin-starred chef Sat Bains at Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham and at In De Wulf near Ypres in Belgium (one of the top 100 restaurants in the world at the time). In 2015 he co-opened modern British restaurant Anglo in London’s Farringdon.
How did he end up cooking mostly in solitary at the top of world? At 19 he spent six months volunteering at Blue Duck on a backpacking trip around New Zealand. Having grown up around horses in Staffordshire, he felt at home assisting with the Station’s horse treks. That was 2010. In 2014 he was back again, helping to build one of the station’s lodges, Frontier Lodge, and learning skills that would sow the seed of building his own restaurant. In 2018, Jack shared a business plan for a bold new restaurant with another visionary, Blue Duck’s Dan Steele. The rest, as they say, is history.
Jack says the pull of Blue Duck is strong. “It calls you back for a multitude of reasons: the natural beauty; how magical and enchanting it is, especially to a foreigner. The rainforest, the vastness ... it makes quite an impact but there’s also a degree of freedom on the station. You can go and be alone, or go out hunting, horse riding or on adventures. It’s always been an incredibly social place where you meet a lot of people.
“I consider it travelling on the spot. As remote as it is, you never feel isolated as there are so many people travelling to the station whom you meet and socialise with. It’s a busy, exciting and energetic place and there’s always something new happening.”
Fine dining with a difference
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. The Chef’s Table is Jack’s stage, and it’s something he doesn’t take for granted.
“We’re very aware and appreciative that this stage, this location, this restaurant, is so unique and the nature around us so beautiful and the scenery so incredible that we have to do it justice in the experience we’re delivering. It deserves our very best every day and for us to keep pushing to deliver a menu that is justified in such a phenomenal setting and location. That’s what keeps us motivated.”
It’s a performance that lasts up to four hours, across 10 courses, and surprisingly, it flies by; the food and wine service such a well-oiled piece of theatre that you’re never bored, nor waiting long for the next bite. It starts with a welcome drink from the bar, then there’s time to get changed out of wet weather clothes for dinner, which starts at 6pm. You can wear whatever you like, but this food inspires an effort, and everyone wears their backcountry station best.
The open kitchen allows diners to watch the chefs at work, a vital part of the experience, and you’re welcome to walk through the kitchen and ask questions. I stood at the pass a few times, admiring Jack and Ben diligently plating some of the most beautiful fine-dining plates I’ve seen in New Zealand.
If you can, the wine matching is well worth it, at $160pp, canvassing an interesting mix of New Zealand and international wines, many of them sourced from Bare Wines in Ponsonby, chosen by Clover and Jack to pair with the food. I loved Le Roi Soleil 2019, Domaine des Grandes Esperances, a skin contact sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley with the fresh and vibrant first mouthful — the “Garden Wrap”.
True to its description, a nasturtium leaf encases fresh ingredients in their natural state: pink camellia petals, radish rounds and a thin jelly disc of lemon verbena that sparkles under the light, with green tomato and dots of vinegar gel, which you wrap up and eat with your hands. It’s aromatic, floral, punchy and so pretty.
Next up, a warm baked horseradish custard topped with bright orange salmon roe, served with a dashi and parsley oil broth poured over the custard from a little ceramic jug.
The eel doughnut is an example of an anomaly at The Chef’s Table. While it’s surrounded by wild game and produce, there are restrictions around what Jack can cook. With a goal to source as many ingredients off the station as possible, recreationally hunted meat is disallowed by the Ministry for Primary Industries. It’s why you’ll find small amounts of meat on the menu, and almost no seafood.
“We have to grow quite a lot of our produce ourselves and use what we can forage or find on the station,” says Jack. “The pros are that everything is very fresh but the range of ingredients is finite. Being limited in our availability steers the direction of the menu. You may have a handful of ingredients and you have to look outside the box; you have to do something special with it.” With restraint comes innovation.
Eel might be synonymous with the area’s waterways, but this perfect square of smoked eel, sitting atop a doughnut in a mānuka-filled ramekin, is sourced from a Waikato smokery. It’s brushed with a mānuka honey glaze — the honey produced in abundance at Blue Duck Station, and available to buy at the cafe. The interior is eel-infused bechamel made with maize starch instead of flour, providing a lighter, cleaner, more delicate flavour. It’s seasoned with a dusting of dehydrated thyme, rosemary, lavender and apple. It’s a course best tackled in one mouthful, and if not, Clover is on hand with a hot towel.
The simply titled “leeks and whey” is a standout, a skillfully executed example of Jack’s philosophy of cooking with “minimal manipulation, allowing the ingredients to speak for themselves but using techniques to bring out maximum flavour”. The leek is grilled whole, scorching the outside and steaming the heart and centre with the leek’s own juices. A tender slice from the interior is dressed with a fermented leek glaze and nestled in a pool of caramilk-coloured whey. Tart, tangy and smokey, it needed a smooth, sweet wine and Entente, a limited edition collaboration between Trelise Cooper and Marisco Vineyards, a blend of chardonnay, gewurztraminer, pinot gris, riesling and viognier, was perfect.
We sail through more courses, like a “flower” of butternut squash with caviar and whipped buttermilk; housemade sourdough with funky cultured butter; onions cooked in their own liquor with roasted bone marrow; foraged wood ear mushroom atop a slice of wagyu beef with fennel jus; red deer with pickled pear, chocolate, beetroot and goat’s cheese. Near the end, a refreshing pine granita with rhubarb and meringue.
It’s all superlative, elevated by assured service that’s just the right amount of interactive, with enough pauses to allow shared exclamations over dishes with your neighbours.
After dinner, there’s nothing to do but retire to one of three luxury cabins named after the surrounding mountains: Ruapehu, Ngāuruhoe and Taranaki. These are constructed from the same timber as the main restaurant and set down from the dining area for privacy. A swingtop bottle of fresh milk is provided for coffee in the morning, with instructions to leave it outside the front door overnight to keep cool.
Inside there’s a kingsize bed and an en suite bathroom with a rain shower. In the morning, watch the valleys slowly fill with light and the clouds make a sleepy retreat, before heading to the dining room for breakfast cooked by Jack — housemade muesli, yoghurt, toast and preserves, followed by crumpets, eggs and bacon. The ATV is there to take you back down the hill, where the magic of this place crystalises.
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but one I hope to repeat soon.
The Chef’s Table at Blue Duck Station is open for bookings from Friday, September 13. For more information, a sample menu, pricing options and FAQs visit Thechefstable.co.nz or email reservations@thechefstable.co.nz.
