Paris Butter elegantly blends a classic, cultivated ambience with a modern dining experience. Chef Nick Honeyman and his team create innovative and interpretive French-inspired cuisine, adapted to New Zealand ingredients that are locally sourced.
Nick Honeyman is South African born and started training as a Chef at an early age in Sydney. He fell into cooking after spending a year backpacking the world straight out of school and started to work in kitchens to earn money. He quickly fell in love with the energy and structure of a busy kitchen and decided to move from Cape Town to Sydney to begin his studies. From there he cooked in Paris, Japan and then ended up in New Zealand more than 10 years ago. Honeman now owns restaurants in New Zealand and France and splits his time between the two.
“Our food style has always been built on a foundation of classic French techniques,” he told us. Over the years the influence of Japanese cooking has lightened Paris Butters cuisine and they are constantly evolving with new passions and perspectives. “We let the regions that we are in determine our ingredients and then tell our story of food through this unique lens.” The basic essence of Honeyman's creations is that they have to be delicious.
Honeyman and his team are constantly innovating. They set up weekly projects amongst the team that ensure they are always evolving and using everyone's unique creative power. Each week the whole team has one minute to present a project about something that excites them and that they can relate to the business and profession.
“Normally this means the chefs will all make a dish and the front of house would present a cocktail, wine or perhaps a new element we can use in service.”
The team's evolution has been quantified since starting these processes and having to stop your busy week and listen to ideas from each staff member has been a profound lesson for Honeyman. “It's so easy when you are under stress to shoot people down and dismiss ideas just because you initially can’t see them working.”
Paris Butter additionally offers two exquisite private dining experiences. The first one is bringing their full restaurant experience to the comfort of your own home. They will arrive with everything needed and then leave like they were never there. The second is the same experience but in the private room. With both experiences and the regular restaurant service diners are served by Chefs and each dish with creative ideas are explained.
There have been many challenges for the hospitality industry over the past year. Especially with the constant uncertainty and the inability to be able to plan more than a month in advance. Everyone has had their lives on hold and dreams put aside while we navigate the ups and the downs. Honeman told us how they pivoted by transforming their fine dining restaurant into a takeaway product.
“It was a very humbling experience- you take a product that you have tried to perfect over 5 years with very few mistakes and start all over with a brand new product and make mistakes daily as your go through the teething issues. It did bring us together as a team in a way that we will never forget.”
