Food and cooking have always been a huge part of Chef Jude Messenger’s life. He spent most of his childhood living in Foxton Beach, growing up eating fresh fish and vegetables from his family’s enormous garden and spending summers at the beach and winter holidays enjoying the slopes of Mt Ruapehu - where he would officially begin his cooking career.
His food passions followed him out of high school to National Park Village, where he moved to snowboard by day and wash dishes by night. This move began an amazing journey which has taken Messenger all over New Zealand and to the other side of the world and back.
A cooking scholarship was the springboard to the chef’s overseas work experience, and he has spent time in demanding kitchens worldwide - at Taupō’s Huka Lodge, as Head Chef at Taupō’s award-winning Bach restaurant, at the exclusive members-only club Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland, US, and at Peter Gordon’s Sugar Club in London.
Messenger met his wife, Tiffany, in the US, and they now live in Taupō, New Zealand, with their six children.
In 2012, he bought and rebranded a local Taupō restaurant, opening The Bistro.
The Bistro is a family-owned restaurant that is accessible to the community, providing Taupō locals and visitors alike with a European-style dining experience at a price the average Kiwi can afford. Guests may spot the chef’s oldest children in the kitchen washing dishes, serving tables in the dining room, or making cocktails at the bar.
The menus at The Bistro are created out of an appreciation for the ever-changing seasons. As new ingredients become available, dishes take new shapes and evolve into simple clean flavours and honest tasty food from fresh local produce. Messenger pairs integrity in the kitchen with relaxed, non-pretentious service to provide guests with memories that last a lifetime.
The food Messenger loves to cook at the restaurant is the same as the food he loves to cook at home - based around fresh seasonal vegetables. At home, the chef has been loving truffle salt and always keeps Grana Padano, pesto, and grain mustard in stock. Coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, and smoked paprika are pantry staples that make a spice mix able to be thrown into just about everything.
At The Bistro, Messenger’s techniques and kitchen disciplines are very much modelled on the French Kitchen with the addition of subtle influences from Asia and the South Pacific. The chef is currently inspired by the modern food movement bringing back old-school techniques such as fermentation, cooking over charcoal, and making sourdough.
Unique techniques have been built around Lactic Fermentation at The Bistro, applied to their sourdough bread, fermented vegetables, and handmade vinegars. Cold smoke is also used to flavour ingredients throughout the menu.
As the owner, Executive Chef, and Restaurant Manager, Messenger really enjoys the ability hospitality allows him to be creative - whether in the kitchen or in the dining room.
“The buzz of a happy and smooth dinner service is a very enjoyable experience to be a part of.”
One major challenge Messenger sees for the industry is educating the public on realistic expectations and teaching an appreciation for what it costs those in the industry to provide the product that is expected.
“We will never achieve pay equity with other trades if people are not prepared to pay more for what we provide.”
More and more restaurants are facing pushback from the public for credit card fees and public holiday surcharges, even though these costs have gone under the radar for decades in many other industries.
However, the restaurateur’s most challenging task in the past year has been staffing the restaurant. Finding passionate, hard-working team members that really want a hospitality career has been difficult. Messenger closed The Bistro for one extra day per week during a time he spent building a strong, reliable team, training side by side to prepare for being open six days a week. Knowing the value of his team, the staff wage budget was significantly increased and Messenger is especially conscious of his staff’s needs both inside and outside of the restaurant. He teaches junior chefs straight off the bat that hospitality is an industry of passion.
“It is extremely hard work with unsociable hours, but it is also extremely rewarding. My advice to them is, ‘taste everything and write it all down’”.
Future goals for The Bistro are to simply keep improving every day, while continuing to support local boutique producers. Messenger would also love to be able to take an annual holiday - with so much on offer raising his children in the Taupō region and central plateau area.
The Bistro is located on Tamamutu Street, Taupō. Visit thebistro.nz for more information.
