It's hard to believe it's been a year since our restaurant's grand opening! So much has happened in these last 12 months and we have learned so much about operating a business, customer service, and most importantly, ourselves. Saying it's been an easy ride thus far would a lie. It hasn't been. It's been hard, exhausting, overwhelming, and sometimes, downright depressing. But it's been worth every moment because for all of the challenges we've faced, it's also been exciting, fun, eye-opening and at the end of the day, completely amazing.
Celebrating our one year restaurant anniversary! (Sept. 10, 2015)
The biggest challenge we've faced in the past year is our overwhelming desire to please everyone, which these past couple months, we finally realized that's not possible. You can never please everyone or cater to everyone, and as we've realized this, I feel like we've brought the restaurant back up to the level that we always intended for it, and we plan to keep it there. We've always been about providing quality food and service and quality comes at a price. It's been hard to become okay with that idea! As young business owners, even if 90% of the customers love and appreciate the restaurant's food and concept, every time the 10% come in that complain that our freerange imported New Zealand meat is too expensive and should be $20 or less, we've made the mistake of trying to rearrange the menu and pricing to cater to these individuals. Of course, being sticklers for quality, we kept the quality and still tried to meet these demands. Needless to say, that has not worked in our benefit and we certainly have paid the price for those mistakes...very literally. The fact is, we will never sacrifice the quality of our food or service and at the end of the day, we just need to keep getting visits from our amazing customers who understand that. After a year of being open, we've finally learned that this group of customers does in fact exist and we just need to focus our attention on them! We're very excited to start Year Two focused more than ever on our concept and bring more amazing creations and ideas to Aroha!
At the end of this first year, the biggest lesson we've learned is to never be afraid to follow your vision. Go with what's in your heart and eventually, people will follow. It just takes time to grow and trying to rush growth is just a recipe for disaster.
While we've been through some very challenging times, we've also had some incredible experiences that we never would've dreamed of! A couple of weeks before our grand opening last year, we were contacted by the New Zealand Consulate to host a private event for the Consulate General, Leon Grice. The event went off without a hitch and it was a fabulous way to adjust to our brand new kitchen and staff.
Gwith and I with the New Zealand Consulate General, Leon Grice.
That day was exciting for us, both professionally and personally, as Gwith and I received the surprise of a lifetime! His family flew in from New Zealand to surprise us and celebrate our restaurant's launch!
Then, shortly before opening last year, we were contacted by The Breeder's Cup Taste of the World to represent New Zealand a month after our grand opening! This opportunity was an incredible experience as we presented our venison carpaccio to celebrity chef, Bobby Flay (who absolutely loved it!), and 1,200 other guests within a three hour time window.
Gwith and I with Bobby Flay at the 2014 Breeder's Cup Taste of the World
Flash forward and we've had some great talents visit our restaurant since our opening! Within the first few months, we had visits from now regulars, Hercules actor Kevin Sorbo and Kiwi native Flight of the Concords' comedian Rhys Darby.
Gwith and I with Kevin Sorbo (Hercules)
Rhys Darby and his wife, Rosie, tweet about his experience at Aroha
During the winter of last year, we also got a visit from the New Zealand news station, Seven Sharp! The exposure we were given apparently made Gwith a celebrity back in New Zealand and thanks to this video, we've even had Kiwis fly in from New Zealand with our restaurant on their list of places to visit!
This past week, however, has blown our minds. Within our final week of our first year, we had the opportunity to cook for not one, not two, but THREE Grammy award winners! One week ago, we had the privilege of serving System of a Down's lead singer, Serj Tankien during our Friday lunch. It was wonderful to chat with him and we were ecstatic when he asked us for a photo so he could Instagram his experience! The post blew up with over 12,000 likes within the day!
Us with Serj Tankien and his Instagram post
Still over the moon about this experience, on Monday night, Gwith received and incredible phone call and opportunity from New Zealand TV personality, Brooke Howard-Smith for his charity, Cure Kids. Just two days away before the launch of their video, "Team Ball Player Thing" (a charity video and song raising money for Batten's disease featuring New Zealand musicians), he was searching for a chef to cater the LA launch party at Grammy Award winning producer Joel Little's house. Gwith seized this opportunity and on Wednesday night, we made our way there to cater the event, supplying our Cloudy Bay clams, green lipped mussels, New Zealand lamb, and the biggest hit of the party, our venison sausages from our Sunday brunch menu! The event included a large majority of the artists featured in the video, including many of my husband's favorite Kiwi bands like Six60, Kids of 88, The Naked and Famous, and Daniel Bedingfield (who happens to be the singer of our song, "If You're Not the One"). Throughout the night, as the only pregnant lady there in my third trimester, I was kept company by non other than Grammy Award winning artist, Ella Yelich-O'Connor, otherwise known as Lorde! As she ate up our food (and repeatedly made her way back to the grill for more venison sausages!), she couldn't have been any sweeter. She was constantly making sure I not only had a place to sit throughout the evening but also that I was being kept company. I truly love the essence of Kiwi culture. Everyone is so down-to-earth and truthfully, if I hadn't seen so many photos of her online and in magazines these past couple of years, I never would've known she was a celebrity.
Us at the Kiwis Cure Batten Fundraiser (Top left: Me and Lorde, Top right: Gwith and I with Six60, Bottom left: The guests watch the launch of the video, Bottom right: Gwith and Lorde)
Please support this fantastic organization and cause by sharing the video and checking out the song "Team Ball Player Thing" on iTunes. Be sure to share with the hashtags #kiwiscurebatten and #teamballplayerthing! The video features a slew of New Zealand celebrities including Peter Jackson, Rhys Darby, Bret McKenzie, Boh Runga, Brooke Fraser, Dave Dobbyn, Gin Wigmore, Kimbra, Daniel Bedingfield, Matiu Walters, Sam McCarthy, Thom Powers, Alisa Xayalith, Lorde, nine of the All Black players, and countless others! It really is an amazing collaboration.
As we start our second year at Aroha, we can't wait to seeing what new opportunities arise! We hope this upcoming year brings joy to everyone as we continue to grow into our roles as restaurant owners and take Aroha to new heights!
Thank you everyone for all of your support this past year! It has been one wild ride and we look forward to continuing our journey with you!
On Friday night, Gwithyen and I had the honor of representing New Zealand Cuisine at the 2014 Breeders' Cup Taste of the World event hosted by Bobby Flay! It was an incredible experience that will stay with us for a lifetime.
The past two weeks leading up to the event, nerves were definitely flying high as Gwith prepared and had to focus his attentions fully on Taste of the World, rather than the usual day-to-day service at Aroha! His sleep became less and less as he got ready for the restaurant's biggest event thus far. During the days leading up to the event, Gwith had some of our team members in the Aroha kitchen help prepare, including Becky, our line cook (and also server), who sliced the majority of our venison carpaccio for the event!
On Friday afternoon, we arrived at the Huntington Library's prestigious East Lawn, where we, and five Le Cordon Bleu volunteers, unloaded all of the food from the car and brought it into the purple decorated tent. As we wandered in towards our booth, we looked from side to side reading the names of the other 14 world-renowned chefs representing their countries, including Iron Chef Eric Greenspan, Michelin star restaurant chef Brendan Collins, food writer & TV personality Martin Shanahan, and award-winning pastry chef Francois Payard. We felt so honored to be representing New Zealand Cuisine among this talented group of chefs.
Gwithyen platting his Venison Carpaccio
After setting up his station, Gwithyen wandered over to the Irish table and introduced himself to Executive Chef, Ed Cooney. Just moments into the conversation, they discovered they had a mutual friend in common. Gwith worked under a talented chef in New Zealand who also happened to be Ed's Sous Chef in Ireland! It's crazy how small this world is! Ed, who has showcased his food for multiple years at Taste of the World, gave Gwith and I some helpful information, including how to pace ourselves. He let us know that it would start out slow and steady and then we'd just be hit for two hours straight. And wow, he couldn't have been more accurate!
Gwithyen Thomas and Ed Cooney
As the doors opened at 5pm, people slowly started trickling in. As I stood there, I even began thinking, "Maybe we shouldn't have plated so many dishes right away! There doesn't seem to be enough people." Within a blink of an eye though, I ended up eating those words. Before we knew it, hundreds of people started approaching our table. Our team couldn't plate fast enough! We would set 40 plates on the table, Gwith would turn around to begin plating more, and within two minutes, I would've handed off all 40 plates. Not only were people loving Gwith's venison carpaccio, they were coming back for seconds and thirds! Throughout the evening we had people telling us our venison was the best dish at the event and guests were recommending our table throughout the crowd! Among all of these other established chefs, that was an amazing compliment. The chefs from the other tables began approaching us as well and snagging a plate or two. My favorite moments though were when a guest would come over, read "venison" and shy away. Every time this happened, Gwith told them that once they tried it, they'd never look back. And sure enough, they'd each try it, and their faces would fill with joy as they swallowed their first bite. Within moments, they would turn around, walk to their group of friends, and bring them back to the table!
Amongst the 1,200 guests, we eventually had host and celebrity chef, Bobby Flay, come over to the table. He thanked Gwith for being there and after a short conversation, walked off with Gwith's venison carpaccio. The following day, Gwith chatted with him again. Not only did Bobby remember Gwith's dish, he said it was "excellent" and he will definitely be visiting our restaurant in the future.
As the night progressed, things only became crazier! At times, we would run out of plated food and guests would begin lining up at the table, with forks in their hands, waiting for the next plate. It ended up getting to the point where Gwith was plating a single dish at a time, handing it to me, and I was handing it straight to a guest while he'd begin plating another one. I even tried speeding up the process by drizzling olive oil on the plates and garnishing the dishes myself...which speaking as a non-chef, I have NO idea how Gwith drizzles olive oil while covering up the nozzle with his finger. I tried it and all I got was olive oil on my hand...not the plate. Clearly this is one of the many reasons I'm not a chef! Part way through, I looked at my phone to get a glimpse of the time. I was thinking, "Surely we only have another hour or so left! We've served hundreds of people, time must be flying by!" Ha. We had only been serving the flood of people for about fifteen minutes and we had about 3 hours left to go! By around 8:45 pm, it finally began to calm down. The tent slowly cleared out and we began having a steady flow of individuals stop by to taste the food, or return for their second, third, or fourth serving!
As the event came to a close, we packed up, and headed out of the tent into the pouring rain, where we were driven back to our car by a golf cart. The next morning, we got dolled up to go to the Breeders' Cup World Championship and hang out in the VIP Trophy Lounge. We had lots of fun placing a few bets (that we always lost on, of course), and chatting with the other chefs. Around 2 pm, we headed to the Winners Circle where group photos were taken of all the chefs and the BC Turf Sprint winning horse and owner, Bobby's Kitten, were awarded their trophy from Bobby Flay. In the meantime, my parents and sister stayed at home watching the Breeders' Cup on NBC Sports. While they caught glimpses of Gwith and I on the TV during the Winners Circle, we were most excited to see Gwith's venison during the Taste of the World segment. I later discovered this segment was also on the regular NBC network too! Besides being on NBC and NBC Sports, Gwith (and his venison!) were also on HRTV.
Gwith and I on the Trophy Lounge's Purple Carpet at the Breeders' Cup World Championships
Needless to say, these past few days were amazing and we hope to experience it again in the years to come! If you'd like to try Gwith's venison, make reservations online now at our restaurant in Westlake Village, California.
