Simply Schwass

(Hospitality Today)

The New Zealand Culinary Team captain is not one of those chefs who rushes to change his tunic when the press comes a-calling. He'd rather show what he's all about, which is simple, flavoursome food that's good to share – what he calls "memory food". So, flour, bread dough and giggling coworkers it is.

Sezn – it's the phonetic spelling of "season" – stands for seasonal ingredients, 100 percent grown and sourced locally, and for salt and pepper.

Proudly located at the unfashionable end of town, where The Cocoa Club used to be, Sezn is Mr Schwass' first restaurant. He's excited to be making an investment back into the industry, and offering diners an experience, not just a place to eat.

The dishes are deliberately simple, though not necessarily simplistic, with a maximum of three main ingredients to showcase true flavours and produce at its best. A commitment to fresh, seasonal and preferably organic produce means the menu changes several times a week.

The staff start prepping towards a menu outline at 11am each day, making adjustments according to produce availability and quality. A new menu is printed every day at 4pm.

"Things we can get constantly will stay, for example soft-shelled crabs, but the vegetables will change. They're very temperamental, and while on the calendar you've got something in season for three months, they're not good at the beginning and end of that time. So we may only get really good peaches for three weeks, for instance. We're lucky that the people who do the growing for us know what we want."

Mr Schwass says Kiwi diners are readily embracing this once foreign concept. The Internet, food television and the United States' shift from bulk buying to a more localised, farmers' market philosophy have impacted markedly on New Zealanders.

Wealthy Kiwis are tending to spend their money on dining out, and people of all walks of life will invest in a wine cellar.

"There's a huge shift in the food market in New Zealand. People are generally interested in food and wine, and look at it as a personal investment. It's a very exciting time to be involved in the food industry."

Most chefs dream about owning their own restaurant, but few are brave enough, "or stupid enough", to make the leap, Mr Schwass says.

"I'd say it's about a 50/50 split. You get career chefs, who are happy going from one job to the next, working their way through hotels into the food and beverage management, and then you get genuine cooks like myself and other owner-operators who are not necessarily that financially driven – there are other things that motivate them."

Mr Schwass says he used to fall into the former category – "I was always focused on making my way into a stable career" – until a serious brush with cancer in 2000 changed his life. He hopes to make Sezn the signature restaurant of what will eventually become a brand.

At just eight weeks old, Sezn is turning over what Mr Schwass budgeted for at six months, so he's clearly doing something right. Rather than spend a lot on advertising, he's used his own high industry profile and resultant word of mouth to boost interest in the hot new eating spot.

"In our first month, it was almost all industry people seeing what we're doing. Then other people, like journalists, started to visit. We got a review in The Press, and from that we have started to get a new market of the dining public. Every dinner we do is marketing."