A successful recipe on both sides of the Tasman

WORDS MARGRET MEAGHER

Ben “Bender” O’Donoghue and Mark Gardner cook up a storm
in Surfing the Menu New Zealand
All photos courtesy of Mago Films

Gardner’s tropical prawnsWhen celebrity chef Ben “Bender” O’Donoghue chatted to his producers about a fourth season of Surfing the Menu – the popular TV show combining cooking, travel, surfing and loads of laughs – New Zealand was on their minds. The first three series of the show were set in Australia and co-presented by O’Donoghue and Curtis Stone, two Aussie chefs who’ve made names for themselves on the international culinary circuit. New Zealand, with its spectacular scenery and wide range of fresh produce and ingredients, was a logical next step – but there was a hitch. Stone’s commitments in the US meant he was unavailable for Surfing the Menu New Zealand.

Poised for any adventure -
bananas at the readySo the challenge was on to find a New Zealand chef something like Stone, with a madcap sense of humour, laid-back style, strong local gastronomic knowledge and a passion for surfing. Fortunately, when Marian Bartsch, producer of the NZ series, got O’Donoghue together with Kiwi chef Mark Gardner, a mad-keen surfer and international celebrity chef in his own right, they instantly hit it off. O’Donoghue now reckons that the surfing in New Zealand is better than in Australia, and claims Gardner “can surf Curtis cold”. What’s more, the duo know how to have fun – and take the mickey out of each other – while whipping up some tasty food.

Scallop dish“Cooking for me is 50 percent confidence, 40 percent passion and 10 percent technique and skill,” says O’Donoghue. “I’m a robust cook who gets into it… right up to my armpits and sometimes further.” In this latest series, for O’Donoghue and Gardner, that translates into diving into the chilly waters of the Mount Cook Salmon Farm to catch fish for lunch; gathering fresh scallops on Kerikeri Beach (Windy Beach), a deserted 13km beach which connects to 950 acres of wetlands boasting 52 species of birdlife; diving for large green-lip mussels with Dion “Kingie” Paul on the Kaikoura coast; and learning the art of trout stalking on the Greenstone River in the Southern Lakes district.

It also means swimming across an eel-infested swamp when a game of clay shooting sees O’Donoghue lose to Gardner. But the Aussie gleefully wins the day, wrestling his Kiwi pal into the dank water, clothes and all. This is a TV show with a very fluid script!

Mount Cook Salmon
Farm The show draws on O’Donoghue’s philosophy that “food should be simple and distinctive, technically and culturally correct. To say we eat with our eyes is rubbish: the senses of taste, smell and touch are more important to me. Presentation should be secondary, but not discounted, and natural forms adhered to as much as possible. Use the best available seasonal produce, selecting from producers or suppliers with equal levels of integrity and passion as you have towards what you cook and eat. Be brave and eat anything, because experience is everything!”

Boys will be boysSurfing the Menu New Zealand is not just a cooking show, though – it’s an entertaining travelogue, “surfari” and food fest which unearths some intriguing local characters (like bagpipe-playing farmhand Wee Jock Howie), introduces some of New Zealand’s most outstanding food and wine producers, and reveals some of the best surfing beaches in the world. The food preparation, cooking and tasting is casual, impromptu, conversational – taking place against a breathtaking backdrop of mountain ranges, lakes and rivers, rugged coastline, black volcanic sand and rolling surf – and the food’s washed down with some of the world’s best wines from Marlborough, Otago and Hawke’s Bay.

Apart from the cooking and surfing segments, the two hosts go on a real Boy’s Own adventure over the series: somersaulting across the Marlborough countryside in a Pitts Special acrobatic aircraft, skysurfing in gliders across the snow-covered Southern Alps, flying over steaming volcanoes and geysers in a 1954 Sea Otter floatplane, and heli-hiking with wilderness expert Jeremaia Fisk above Big Bay in the Southern Lakes – where they drop in on backwoodsman Dale Hunter, who has just killed a deer. “I’ve just shot the lawnmower,” Dale comments wryly. Venison burgers follow.

For Ben O’Donoghue it’s the perfect culmination of a life spent behind the burners. Though he was just five years old when his family moved from England to Port Hedland, in the north-west of Western Australia, he was soon rustling up the sort of ad hoc feasts featured on the show: “We’d build fires on the beach, catch fish and cook them on corrugated iron sheets ripped off roofs in cyclones, and bake potatoes in the coals.”

Taking a break from the
cooking The summer after he finished school, he got a part-time job on Rottnest Island as a kitchenhand – a gig he describes as “the perfect job scenario – surf–work–pub.

I quickly figured out that if I could work in a restaurant and surf for the rest of the day, this would be as close to heaven as life could get… especially if you added in girls.”

O’Donoghue abandoned ideas of a teaching career and opted for a chef’s apprenticeship. A few weeks later he was working in a busy fish restaurant 80 hours a week. “The honeymoon was over,” he laughs, but he thrived on the buzz, and cooking stints followed in Perth (at Jessica’s seafood restaurant) and Sydney (at Goodfella’s and the acclaimed Tribeca). Overseas travel in 1996 led to a position in the world-renowned River Café in London. Around the same time, he met Jamie Oliver, then forging his career as a celebrity cook and television personality. “I was on his show The Naked Chef three times and helped out with his cookbook tours to Australia and New Zealand.” It was Oliver who gave him the nickname “Bender”.

The boys love playing with
their food O’Donoghue’s own foray into television started with a food show in Morocco for American TV, followed by an invitation to co-present a BBC TV series called The Best and an accompanying cookbook. Around the same time, he became head chef of London restaurant, bar and nightclub Monte’s, before taking over the kitchen “of one of the finest dining-rooms in Great Britain” – the Atlantic Bar and Grill.

These days he’s still based in the UK, but lives the slightly less glamorous life of a family man. When I called him in Perth to chat, he asked if he could call me back: he was just about to change his son’s nappy. Herb is 16 months old and was making his presence felt. His four-year-old daughter Ruby was busy licking the mixing bowl, and wife De-Arne had just put her feet up, with baby number 3 due in September. The family were in the middle of packing for a flight back to their home base, London, the following day – and mentally preparing for 16°C temperatures after Perth’s 42°C heat.

Gardner’s Tian of Salmon Mark Gardner has a slightly different, though still star-studded, CV. After stints in some of New Zealand’s top restaurants - including the award-winning Astro Lab, Gardner moved across the Tasman to work in Noosa on Australia’s Sunshine Coast, then returned home to establish a high-end catering company, Anilla. In 2005, Gardner travelled the Mediterranean, the Bahamas and the Caribbean working as a chef on ocean-going super yachts. After two seasons on the sea, he took up a position as the personal chef of an American family, and divides his time between their homes in the Hamptons, New York and in Gisborne in New Zealand. He admits, “I’ve led a charmed life as a chef, which has allowed me to travel the world and cook for the rich and famous as well as indulge in my ongoing passion for surfing in some of the most beautiful surf breaks in the world.”

Swapping photos and talesBefore I leave O’Donoghue to finish his packing, I ask him how the New Zealand series differs from the Australian one. “Kiwis are like Australians: they have a similar sense of humour and enjoy ‘cross the ditch’ rivalry,” he says. “In terms of food, the cool temperate climate of New Zealand means the produce is more European, while Australia has more Asian ingredients and tropical fruits.”

Filming series four Whichever side of the Tasman, one thing’s for sure, Surfing the Menu has shown an uncanny knack for finding the unexpected, cooking up a storm, and having fun in the process. Roll on series five.

Surfing the Menu New Zealand can be seen from now until early June on the Lifestyle Channel in Australia and from now until 21 August on the Discovery Travel & Living channel in South-East Asia.

O’Donoghue’s paella dish The series is also available on a two-disc DVD set (AU$34.95), which includes a 28-page colour recipe booklet.

The Australian series of Surfing the Menu and Surfing the Menu Again are available on DVD and as a coffee-table book from ABC Shops.

JETSTAR magazine is offering 12 readers the chance to win a DVD copy of Surfing the Menu New Zealand. For your chance to win, name the country where Surfing the Menu series four was filmed. Email your answer, full name, address and phone number to competitions@jetstar.com or write your details on the back of an envelope addressed to 97B Amoy Street, Singapore 069917.

Terms & Conditions: Contest ends 30 June 2007. Employees of Jetstar Airways and Ink Publishing are not eligible to enter. For Australian residents only. Winners will be notified by telephone or mail.