This executive chef’s new interactive dining experience proves a city’s gastronomic hot spots can be found in the walls of its hotel dining rooms as well as its restaurants and cafes.

By Jesma Magill

As a young boy at home in Germany, executive chef Volker Marecek loved to cook and bake. He was innately inspired too because his parents weren’t especially passionate about food. “Cooking was the only thing I considered doing. When I tried other things, like building, I had two left hands but that wasn’t so in the kitchen.”
He initially considered becoming a pastry chef then a baker, but at 16, signed up for a three year chef’s apprenticeship. That was a wise move because today, Marecek’s CV reads like a list of the world’s finest hotel dining establishments.
Marecek currently holds the top culinary spot at The Langham in Auckland, but prior to this he was also the executive chef at the Swissotel in Estonia and at the Berkeley Court Hotel in Dublin, voted one of the leading hotels in the world, and he was the executive sous chef of the National Museum of Australia.
Marecek was previously invited to join the team at the Langham Hilton London where he was executive sous chef for nearly five years, and at the prestigious Schlosshotel vier Jahreszeiten in Berlin (where every object and design concept was created by the German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld) he enjoyed the appointment of sous chef.
Since he’s been at The Langham in Auckland, he’s helped create the new interactive restaurant Eight. Named after the eight kitchens that comprise the restaurant, diners have an opportunity to create their own degustation experience played out in a market-type setting while interacting with the chefs.
Eight’s kitchens have been named after iconic journeys and destinations reflecting the type of cuisine available at each. There’s the Silk Road for wok and dim sum specialties, the Spice Route for curries and tandoori dishes, Tokaido for sushi and sashimi, the New York Style grill at Route 66, seafood along the Great Ocean Road, the Garden Route for salads, along the Champs-Elysses there are pastries, crepes and New Zealand cheeses, and for sweet indulgences, a journey along the Dessert Road.
The team believes they make the best sushi and butter chicken in town and for those partial to either – that’s something worth checking out. Plus naan bread aficionados will be delighted with 15 different styles to choose from – with chocolate naan the latest addition to the selection.
Both Eight’s creators, managing director Jeffrey van Vorsselen and Marecek prefer you don’t call their new dining concept a buffet though. “It’s much more interactive than that,” van Vorsselen says. And according to Marecek, the timing was perfect for the concept’s release in New Zealand. It seems we’ve come a long way from the buffets of yesteryear with the “all you can eat” enticements and tables near-buckling under platters piled with, usually, sub-standard fare.
Marecek describes this former Kiwi classic as “passive” dining, and worlds away from the Langham’s latest offering to the restaurant scene. Arriving in New Zealand in 2009, his first impression of New Zealanders’ dining habits was their fear of trying new things. “But not so now,” he says. “People are much more adventurous.” Inspired by a feast of cooking programmes and celebrity chefs at every turn, a passion for cooking and critiquing the results have become popular family sport.
Eight has enjoyed some celebrity status as well, with an episode of MasterChef filmed at the hotel last year. Marecek appeared on screen as a hard task master before the red and blue teams who were challenged to create hot and cold canapés for 120 VIPs. “It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done,” he says, and that’s from an internationally acclaimed chef who has cooked for the world’s rich and famous and banquet halls full of thousands of people.
Used to running his own show, Marecek had little control over the MasterChef contestants. He was, however, fully aware of the 120 ravenous guests and his team of chefs (the backup plan), were poised to fill any gaps in service.
Eight has been open for four months now and, like many new concepts, took some adjusting for the chefs and the diners. That’s because, consistent with Marecek’s passion for innovation, Eight is something of a paradigm shift.
“In a la carte restaurants, wait staff are the buffer between diners and chefs but at Eight, patrons and chefs communicate directly. Initially our chefs were a little shy and the public needed to become comfortable with their new role as well. Now, the chefs are more challenged and accountable and diners realise the staff can help reveal secrets to discovering a more exciting cuisine.”
Rather than selecting an entrée, main and dessert – and piling plates with large servings of different foods – Marecek suggests eating tapas-style and savouring smaller tastings of exciting flavor blends. “Focus on the flavours and when you’ve made a selection, have a talk with the bar manager about which type of wine would work best.” With 40 different wines by the glass, there are plenty of options.
When Marecek sees people hovering around one of the kitchens, tentative about a particular dish, he suggests they try just a little bit. “And if you like it, come back,” he’ll continue. “Nearly every time, they do.” Occasionally on his night off, he goes undercover in his own restaurant just to make sure that everyone’s taking full advantage of the opportunities before them. He’s pleased to see people enjoying a more leisurely approach to dining and lingering over their meal. “They’re experimenting, taking smaller portions and then coming back to try something new – and that’s what we envisioned.”
Having a free hand to create new and innovative dining experiences gives Marecek the challenge he thrives on. “I love to create something different every day and at Eight, that’s exactly what we do – respond to the tastes of our diners and offer an evolving concept. It’s so nice not to be stuck in a box.”