Gault at George, Parnell

By EWAN McDONALD for viva

Gault at George. There, they've gone and done it. They've put the chef's name in front of the restaurant's (a real, grown-up restaurant, not Smokey Joe's Cafe or Brownie's Burgers). It sounds so very London or New York, so very "Marco Pierre White at the Criterion". And that isn't a wisecrack. For Gault at George, which re-opened last week, is a very serious restaurant. Its splendidly proportioned - almost Georgian - white dining room and bar arcs around the glass-walled kitchen like the gallery of an opera house around the stage. A suitable setting for a maestro and his troupe to perform every night.

Burly Simon Gault is centre stage. In today's cliches he's a "celebrity chef" because the public recognises his name from previous engagements at Antoine's, Euro, Gault's on Quay, as Larry Ellison's personal chef, in the magazines.
Alongside him is the younger Shane Yardley, who worked at Gault's before his OE in Alain Ducasse's remarkable experiment, Spoon+, in London. Front of house is Robert Johnston, another from the Euro file, and some of the city's best waiters, like the amiable and knowledgeable Steven Overend.

Behind the scenes is Lou Jones, likewise of Euro heritage, who set up George Mk I and the new, happily cowhide-free, incarnation.

Grand opera, indeed, but what about the food?

Gault, at George, takes dining in this city and stands it on its head. You can pick up most menus - even at the upper end of our A-list - and find variations on a theme. Something with snapper, something with confit of duck leg, something with sirloin, tarted up with polenta or a gratin, bunch of coriander, flash jus, that'll be $250, thank you very much and goodnight.

Our man reaches into the back of grandma's larder for old-fashioned ham hock or rabbit and kidney pie. Then he begins to play, and you sense that Yardley might have offered some inspiration from his Spoon+ experience. Ducasse presents items on a menu and encourages diners to make up their own meal by combining the ingredients. Gault doesn't go that far (though you will be able to mix'n'match desserts) but he does stretch the diner's imagination.

He devises a new style of menu. Atop, oysters are not called "oysters" but "sea truffles". There are raw dishes, salads, first dishes, second dishes and vegetarian: you choose what comes first, the rotisserie chicken or the marinated radicchio and egg salad.

What you get is not necessarily what you see. The dish reads, "Asparagus bread and butter pudding topped with three-cheese sauce and sage chips", and you're thinking, "Green spears, maybe a couple of slices of crusty French bread, a creamy sauce". It arrives as a little avocado-coloured panna cotta-like offering, topped with wafer-thin baked leaves. That traditional-sounding pie is a gorgeous tower of cheesy polenta case, chunks of meat spilling from the thick sauce.

Desserts come in pairs. You might think that an eggplant and manuka honey cake, topped with zabaglione, or salted caramel icecream resting on sweet potato topped with chocolate sauce sounds like something a 5-year-old dreamed up. These are mind-expanding experiences. Legal, too.

Utterly remarkable is the predominantly European cheeseboard, but chef does have a sideline in supplying premium cheeses to the rich and famous.

You might be wondering why we've only awarded it * * * * 1/2. Unfortunately, a magazine had brought a minor celebrity to be photographed at the next table, and the photographer snapped and flashed throughout our dinner. Please, not while we're eating.

Open: 7 days noon - late

Owner: Lou Jones

Executive chef / Menu creator: Simon Gault

Co-executive chef: Shane Yardley

Restaurant manager: Robert Johnston

Food: They call it "good, healthy and honest food that is simple but elegant". We call it "mind-blowing".

On the Menu: Hot Maple (smoked kahawai, tempura cipoline onions, rocket lettuce and brandy prawn sauce) $14.50; Rabbit and kidney pie in a provolone polenta crust dressed with three-cheese sauce and sage chips $28.50; Ham hock, cabbage leaf encasing ham and potato puree, roasted in a wood oven, served with a sage-white port jus $26.50

Wine: Fizzies from Lindauer to Louis Roederer Cristal; a page of chardonnays and so on

Vegetarian: Naturally, there's a special selection

Smoking: You cannot be serious

Noise: Soul by Otis; Frankie and Dino

Bottom line: Simon Gault gets his name above the door and his hands on the helm of the relaunched Parnell flagship. With Shane Yardley (ex-Alain Ducasse's Spoon+) alongside him in the open kitchen, they sail on an incredible voyage into taste and flavour that is the best thing to anchor in the Auckland dining harbour this year.

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