Page 64 - Hereford Magazine 2021

Restaurant name:
Prime Waterfront
Restaurant & Bar.
Location:
2 Rees Street, Queenstown.

Name and title:
Mikey Cook, head chef.

Describe your business and cooking style: What do you like about Hereford Prime?
We are a rustic style steak house with a great selection of New Most importantly it’s local, it’s 100% grass-fed New Zealand
Zealand Hereford Prime beef that we take time to source beef. It lets me showcase to our customers a great product at an
from local farmers. We also source the rest of our meat and affordable price. Hereford Prime is always tender and delicious;
fresh produce from locally owned and operated businesses in it’s hung and dry aged just for the right amount of time.
Central Otago and Southland. We take pride in being local and
using local in all areas we can. Do you brand/identify Hereford Prime on your menu?
Yes, absolutely! It’s front and centre on our menu under our
Why do you choose to offer Hereford Prime on your menu? grill selection. It gets people talking if they don’t know what
It’s a great point of connection for Kiwi diners; most of us have it is, and it’s great to have the background and experience to
heard or know of Hereford beef, and especially in the time we’ve inform people on what it is and why it’s so good.
had over the past 12 months, it’s important to source what we
have in our own backyard. It’s 100% grass-fed free-range beef What do your customers say about Hereford Prime?
from Southland – showcasing paddock to plate. We get great feedback from our customers, quite often people
mention it’s the best steak they’ve ever had. I think that’s a
Who do you source your Hereford Prime from? mix of things, from the way it’s farmed and butchered to the
The Flynn family at Bowmont Meats in Invercargill. respect we give it when we cook it on our chargrill, to the
resting and lick of garlic butter before serving it.
What Hereford Prime cuts are available on your menu
and how do you serve them? Can you share any stories or feedback from your
We have a good range to keep everyone happy: a 200g beef Hereford Prime diners?
fillet, 200g sirloin fillet, 250g/400g rib eye fillet, 500g rib eye on It’s a consistency thing, we have a good selection of local
the bone and a 300g rump steak. We cook all our steaks on the customers and every time they come and have a steak, they
chargrill and finish them with a lick of garlic butter as they are know that it’s going to be as good as the last one they had,
resting. Diners can choose a style of starch from chunky steak and that is a very important part of why we use Hereford
fries to whipped potato mash or rosemary-salted parmesan and Prime beef.
truffle roast potatoes, and a choice of one of our house sauces:
red wine jus, pepper, mushroom, or blue cheese. What is your favourite Hereford Prime cut and why?
It has to be a 400g rib eye, cooked medium rare and left to rest
Why did you choose those cuts specifically? for as long as possible. The marble of fat in a rib eye is what
Not everyone likes fatty cuts; they prefer something a little makes it so good, as well as its big, bold, rich flavour of beef
leaner and light and I feel the great selection we have covers with the right amount of salt and pepper and nothing else. It
all bases for all kinds of beef lovers. You have a delicate fillet doesn’t get any better than that.
and then the big, bold richness of a rib eye and then the rump,
which I jokingly call the farmers’ cut, because it’s honest, What is your favourite sub-primal (secondary) cut and why?
hardworking. I find only the real beef-eater enjoys a rump, but It’s got to be a big piece of juicy rump. It’s looked down upon
when cooked to perfection it’s a delicious cut. by so many people who think rump is just tough and chewy
and a poor man’s cut when it just isn’t. To me it’s the warrior/
Tell us about your most popular Hereford Prime dish? trooper cut of beef – it does all the hard work, and when
We serve a 500g OP rib eye on the bone, served medium cooked right and allowed to rest, rump packs so much flavour
rare and carved by our chefs, it is to be enjoyed as a sharing and for me it’s a winner.
style served with rosemary-salted parmesan and truffle roast
potatoes, oven roasted carrots with a sesame and burnt How do you personally enjoy your Hereford Prime cooked?
honey dressing, and our Prime Restaurant house salad with For most cuts such as rib eye or rump no more than medium-
your choice of two of our amazing house sauces. rare, with a fillet more on the rare side, just simple-as with
triple-cooked steak fries, and some good quality Café de Paris
butter or seeded mustard makes a good plate of food for me.

62 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2021