Fine dining with precision & consistency

Photo Credit: Anna Killgour-Wilson www.botanicphotos.co.nz

The glamourous new club house for the Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club combines a winning combination for the Jack Nicklaus designed course with architect Andrew Patterson's state of the art 19th hole.

CHEF OF THE MONTH: Executive Chef, Darby Brooks

He’s clocked 40 years in the kitchen, including those of the world’s most renowned Michelin star restaurants, but for American-born Darby Brooks, it all started at the age of 13 in his USA hometown, New Hampshire.

There he worked for a local familyowned restaurant in what was to become the launch for a star-studded international career leading all around the globe and finally to New Zealand in 2013.

Recently appointed the Executive Chef at the prestigious Royal Auckland and Grange Colf Club, Darby brings a wealth of five star Michelin level experience.

Now 54, family legend has it that his Italian grandparents once owned a restaurant in New Yorkin the 1930s however Darby reckons cooking was simply in him from a young age.

After studying at the University of Southern New Hampshire, Darby commenced his career at some of the best local hotels. In the mid 1980s he moved to New York where he landed a

job for renowned French American Michelin star chef, David Bouley.

“He set me in motion to work in fine dining. He was an awarded 4-star chef and the best restaurateur,” says Darby. “His well-known restaurant, Bouley was at that time one of America’s best restaurants. We had almost a one-year waiting list to get in for dinner on a Saturday night and he would have fish sent in to the restaurant fresh daily via Federal Express , from Maine, which must have cost a fortune and nobody did that back then!”

David was at the forefront, leading the way with organic gardening and organic produce because it tasted so much better. It was all about the flavour, says Darby. “David got a 4-star vote and was pretty much the best in New York City and the states at the time. It was a super-hot restaurant.”

Under his guidance Darby learned precision, consistency in seasoning and repetition. He saw first hand what it took to be a fine dining Michelin star chef.

“I was in my mid 20s and he was a big influence on me – his style, cooking and how he plated up. He used lots of different purees to thicken sauces.”

However, after almost five years a love-struck Darby took a job in an upmarket bistro in Munich, Germany to be nearer to his British fiancé Jo, moving on to London to work for more big names at places like Philip Howard’s ‘The Square,’ and Capital Hotel, both Michelin starred, then The People’s Palace where he eventually ran the kitchen. He moved to Geneva in Switzerland in 2000 after Jo was offered a good job there. Darby ran a small café before making the switch to culinary instructor, once again for the top in the game.

In 2003 he took over as Chef de Cuisine at the EHL School of Hospitality in Lausanne, running the prestigious Le Bureau des Sens Restaurant. After 10 years he left, proud that the restaurant had just been awarded a ‘Bib Gourmand' Michelin award, the predecessor to the Michelin star. Only 16 restaurants in Switzerland were given this award. Four chefs worked each day with eight new students and there was a huge emphasis on excellence.

In 2013, by now the father of two young children, his wife Jo’s family based in New Zealand beckoned and Darby took up a job as Executive Sous Chef in Auckland at the Langham Hotel, as right hand man to the renowned Volker Maracek. This is where Darby became an expert at banqueting, once turning out as many as 930 plates for a sit-down function.

“We did around nine to $10 million worth of banqueting there each year and that’s where I picked up most of my knowledge about running and orchestrating large functions,” says Darby. “On that occasion I remember running with three different stations going at the same time and pre-plating starters ad desserts up the ramp and into the dry store, up the stairs, in the loading bay, everywhere we could find space. It was interesting," he says. His current role as Executive Chef for the exquisite new upmarket club-house at the Royal Auckland & Grange Golf Club was “the right fit,” he says. “I knew what mistakes not to make, dealing with memberships and the idiosyncrasies of an upmarket golf club.”

It’s been a challenging start with the new restaurant and clubhouse just opening prior to COVID-19 lockdown in March this year. After quickly designing a suitable takeaway menu for members during the first level 3, Darby was finally able to swing into gear at Level 2. He was just making good headway with the new venture when Auckland was placed back into Level 3 late August.

However, Darby is loving his new role, working on such a beautiful and stunningly designed property: - a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, and Andrew Patterson is the architect behind the state of the art clubhouse. “It’s just amazing,” he says

Darby enjoys the intimacy of getting to know his members personally – their likes, their dislikes and ‘morphing what they don’t like into what they do like. It’s like working in an hotel with the same guests all the time.”

So far he’s perfected a well presented, smart-casual style on the menu. Dishes like wild mushroom risotto, smoked and grilled duck salad with crispy parsnips, gourmet burgers, bao buns and fish with borlotti bean ragout, mussels and clams definitely have the members coming back for more. n

Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club bar.

Photo Credit: Anna Killgour-Wilson www.botanicphotos.co.nz