Chapter 2: Pierre Fenoux

Let’s start off with a bit about you – I saw that you grew up in France, whereabouts and what was your upbringing like?

I grew up in the Alps in a small town called Chembéry. My father passed away when I was young, so I was brought up by my grandparents, mostly in the garden of our house! Jeannout, was my grandfather, so the name of my restaurant was a tribute to him(Jano).

What would you say your favourite childhood memory with food is?

I would say my first childhood memories of food would be my aunties wedding, where we went to this really amazing restaurant that was famous back in the time, the food was delicious. It’s definitely one of my earliest and fondest memories.

What kind of food did you eat in France during your childhood?

Like I said, my grandparents had this massive garden in the back, we would pick what was ripe and fresh, and would cook whatever we could out of that produce. All of our homemade meals weren’t very cliché French, they were fresh and light – but we couldn’t not eat cheese of course.

Looking back, what drove you towards your love of food?

It’s an accumulation of things. My grandmother was always cooking and being around her was a big influence. I was cooking with them, so my passion came naturally. My grandmother said she had never been prouder when I became a chef, because when I was young, I would have these pots and spoons that I would put Lego blocks in and stir up – I think I even tried them too!

From France to New Zealand, it’s a big leap! What made you want to come over to little NZ?

I left France quite a long time ago to go to Australia where I spent 3 years working. Then after a while I migrated over here and liked it. I moved straight to Wellington and worked in a restaurant,  Le Canard, over in Thordon, which was kind of the preincarnation of Jano. We’ve been on Willis Street since 2014 and loving it ever since!

Did you ever consider going down another career route during your life, or no?

Haha, not really! I’m doomed or cursed to be a chef. I mean what I’m doing now and where I’m working, it’s not something I could do forever. But I think even when I’m older I will still create food, and not just any kind of food, more fine dining. It’s what I like so I want to continue doing it.

What has your culinary journey been like? Where did you start and how did you get here?

I studied at a pretty good cookery school, one that wasn’t too far from my home town, and did four years over there and then started cooking in restaurants afterward. I even worked in some Michelin star restaurants back in my region. I was pretty young, so it was quite cool having that experience.

Why this location, size and place? Compared to where you were in Thorndon, why did you move to Willis Street?

I was an employee at my previous place, and my boss at the time told me that he was probably going to put the restaurant on the market, so, I started thinking what I was going to do, and his business partner asked if I would like to takeover. We saw this place came up and it had potential from being an existing restaurant. I wanted to make Jano a replication of my home. It’s cozy, warm and humble. There’s no point in being over the top. When you’re in a restaurant, it should reflect who you are and tell a story. It makes more sense and matches my food.

Where do you source most of your ingredients from? Is it local markets or other?

I don’t have much time to go and buy the produce myself unfortunately, but just trusting my suppliers and knowing what I want works well. The fish is all line caught; the meat is all free-range. I also have a forager for wild ingredients. The global movement of organic has meant newer and smaller local suppliers within a few kilometers from wellington, they’ll call me and tell me what they have and if I want to try some, and a lot of the time I’ll experiment.

What inspired your meals and your menu? What’s the main driver?

I would say season. We’re not going to do peas or tomatoes in July, so yes, just really seasonal produce. We are more vegetarian that meat, so the process of thinking about the vegetarian dish and then which protein is going to match this dish. It’s about the veggies really. Less intervention on the vegetables, keeping the taste, but making it really interesting as well through using smoking, curing or fermenting.

Out of the current dishes at Jano, what’s your favourite one to cook?

Ahhhhhhh, we have the buckwheat tart which is the second course, and I think this one would be my favourite I think. Just because its different, we tried to make a lot of textures too, it’s really clean on the plate. The mousse has changed maybe 10 times since we first made it, so it’s constantly changing.

How often do you change up your menu?

Whenever I want. Depending on the dish, I sometimes get bored or sometimes I’ll stick with a dish. The buckwheat tart I’ve been doing for 6 months now, but I still love making it. It also depends on customers feedback, depends on availability (whether things are in season). I would never change up a whole menu, that’s a lot of work. At the most a couple of dishes at a time, and really spread out the changes to make sure the dishes are right. Sometimes I’ll even change the dish on the spot if I feel like it – being the chef I have that awesome power!

What’s been your all-time favourite dish you’ve made at Jano (I know it’s hard to remember!)?

*Long Pause* – I don’t know! Before we closed, we used to do this dessert with Lemon, olive oil, rosemary and this one was on the menu for pretty much that whole time we were open, and we never took it off because people loved it. When we reopened, I cooked the same version of it because it was so popular, and I loved creating different variations of it! The first version was like an Eton mess, and the last time I made It, it was more refined and cleanly plated.

And finally, If you could only eat one cheese for the rest of your life – be careful now – what would It be?

Oh easy – Reblochon. It’s from my region, it’s quite strong actually, kind of nutty. The rind is washed but you can eat it. It’s just really good. You can eat it when it’s fresh, you can eat it when its more mature. The flavour just evolves. I would either serve it with nice crust bread or in a tartiflette – which is a creamy bacon, potato, onion bake, and topped with this cheese is just incredible.

Boquita – Wellington’s Plant-Based Mexican Maverick

I’ve been walking up and down the Kent Terrace laneway for months on end, only ever soaking up the sights of car dealership after car dealership – until one day, and petite little precinct popped up out of nowhere which instantly caught my attention. When I approached this new establishment, the smells instantly warmed up my body and made me crave whatever was cookin’ up inside there. Being the nosy parker, I am, I had a glance through the window to see what could possibly be creating such a serendipitous smell, and that’s when I found Boquita.

From that moment onwards, I would risk looking like an Olympic power walker marching down Kent Terrace just get another sneak peek into Boquita to see what marvelous Mexican meals they were concocting. This restaurant quickly became known as the pioneer of Mexican cuisine within Wellington central, with their parent restaurant, La Boca Loca, equally taking the outer suburbs of Miramar and beyond by storm. After near-criminally stalking their Insta feed, I decided that enough was enough – I needed to ditch the supermarket shop and instead blow my paycheck on a proper authentic feast. So, a few weekends ago, that’s what I did. And it was mind-blowing.

Me and the boyf. Arrived at Boquita with our tummies empty and my wallet ready to drop some fat cash on tacos. This place is pretty snug and always heaving with hungry peeps, so we had a little wait on our hands for seats and food – but believe me when I say the wait was totally worth it. So now that we’ve set the scene for the night, let’s talk taco.

To kick off our feast and tease our appetites, we ordered their daily special which was a Mexican take on thick and crunchy loaded fries, with 2 variations of creamy hummus and a dollop of refried beans taking the place of your average T-sauce. This was the perfect little starter to snack on whilst we were hungrily waiting for the main event – but it also teased our tummies as the combination of flavours in those little fried patatas were immense, and they disappeared in minutes, leaving us even thirstier for tacos. After what felt like hours (we literally didn’t eat all day just to appreciate the meal more and eat double our weight in tacos) – the plates hit our tables, revealing 3 of the most beautiful tacos I’ve ever seen. After ravishing the plate with our eyes, we tucked on in.

I started off with their spicy scrambled tofu taco, whose fiery heat warmed my body in the right places and got my taste-buds craving more. The next I devoured was their chipotle tempeh taco, whose combination of flavours danced the salsa on my tongue and took the meaning of taste to a new level. I was filling up at this point, but I had one more to go and I wasn’t about to go and commit a food felony – so I ignored the slight overeating tummy cramps and hit that last taco, which was a beautiful combo of rich refried beans and lentils that was perfectly complimented by the fresh slaw and tangy tomatoes. If you asked what my fav taco was, I couldn’t tell you. Each one brought a different and foreign flavour to my palette and took me on a new flavour journey that I never wanted to end.

This place exceeded all expectations I had for it, and I can’t thank the owners and chefs enough for bringing us something so authentic, communal, and special to the Wellingtons Mexican food scene. Sitting and dining in this place felt like you were eating at somebody’s house, the long sharing tables and open kitchen creates a vibrant social atmosphere where strangers became firm friends over the course of meal. If Boquita is the start of Wellington’s new food scene, Imma need to get a bigger scale because this place absolute smashed it! I can’t award anything lower than a 10/10 for this place, but I know they definitely deserve higher. Everything was perfect, and it goes to show that even the humblest of places that don’t stay with the grain or follow those nasty food fads, really do make waves in the food scene and provide us with innovative dishes that quickly become all-time favorites.

If you’re reading this and haven’t yet been to Boquita – what are you waiting for?? Whether you have cash in the bank or deep in the reds, the extra splashing out to get a taste of the food here is worth every penny.