Palate: 20 years of restaurant service under one owner

Saturday, 15 February 2025

Denise Irvine is a Hamilton freelance journalist and food writer, and a regular Waikato Times contributor.

OPINION: On the eve of Palate Restaurant’s 20th anniversary dinner last week, owner-chef Mat Mclean was mopping his kitchen floor at the last minute as the earliest guests were arriving for drinks and canapés.

It seemed an entirely unrehearsed demonstration that chefs can do anything because here was the boss mucking in with last-minute cleaning on his big night. “We’re hands on here,” he said, as he was sprung with a wet mop and bucket.

Job done, he ditched the bucket for the pans and the delivery of a memorable five-course degustation menu for 95 guests, reprising some of his greatest hits from two decades in Hamilton’s CBD. There was green eggs and ham (ham hock and pea velouté served in a pristine egg shell); seared tuna and spiced calamari; duck with honey, cherry, kumara and shiitake; eye fillet with beef cheek ravioli and blue cheese pudding; and ginger crème brulée to finish. Each dish neatly refreshed or reinvented for 2025, and with impeccable wine matches.

Palate’s anniversary seems a bright spot to note today, and to ask Mclean how he’s done this. It is a significant milestone in a period of restaurant closures and challenges nationwide, the knock-on effect of a bumpy economy, soaring costs in a hotly competitive sector, and changes in consumer spending.

Restaurant Association CEO Marisa Bidois says it is an outstanding achievement, testament to Mclean’s leadership, business talent, culinary skills and innovation. “I hope he is proud of that. It is something to celebrate, especially coming in some of the toughest times on record for the hospitality industry.”

While there are a handful of other Hamilton restaurants and cafes that have been in business for as long, or longer, than Palate, I can’t think of any others with continuous ownership of that duration. My apologies if I have missed someone.

Mclean’s ownership story started on February 5 2005, when he invited family and friends to the opening of his freshly fitted 45-seater in Victoria St’s south-end. This was his shot at having his own place in his hometown after doing his chef’s training at the then Waikato Polytechnic, and later cooking in well respected kitchens in New Zealand, London and Melbourne.

Palate was packed for its first night and Mclean was working with a new crew in the kitchen, and out front. The extraction fan wasn’t up to the task, the kitchen heated up to 45℃, and service got a bit wobbly. But he held it together and it was a fine event.

The next evening, he says, reality hit when five people came for dinner. “It was absolutely dead. You go from the highs to the lows; that’s how restaurant ownership is.”

Mclean says that although the uncertainty during the Covid pandemic in 2020, and beyond, was stressful, his biggest challenge as a restaurateur was getting a foothold in the city, building a customer base and having more than five bottoms on seats per night.

At his 20th celebration, he was proud to welcome people who’d been at his opening event, who’d supported him and enjoyed his cooking from day dot.

From its humble start, Palate has collected multiple culinary awards and McLean is highly regarded for his contemporary flavours, his seasonal food, technical skills, a top wine cellar, and a continuing ability to surprise his customers.

The last bit, being prepared to refresh and change, he says has been key to his longevity in the industry. He hasn’t got stuck doing the same thing forever.

In 2012, he shifted Palate from its south-end site (now part of the Waikato Regional Theatre building), to Alma St, and then last year to its current position at the front of the SkyCity Casino complex. Nowadays he’s cooking on a South American-style asado grill, a big barbecue, and it’s been a game-changer since the move. He says Palate is always innovative but it’s not fine dining, you can come in for a snack and a drink, anything you want.

The changes, though, sit on the solid foundations of loyal, personal relationships he’s built with his peers, his suppliers, staff and customers, as well as hosting charity events to give back to the community. Mclean says these are essential elements to his business, and to the continuing pleasure he gets from the industry.

On staff, he says sommelier Larissa Muller (now a business shareholder) and sous chef Joe Arthur both have a long history at Palate, and Mclean remains in touch with many others who have passed through his doors. He’s similarly fostered strong links with his suppliers.

“You rely on them. You look after them and they look after you. It works two ways.”

He’s also part of an informal group of chefs nationwide who provide a sounding-board for each other, in good times and bad. “It takes a long time to build these networks, you have to put the work in. You need good business sense as well; you have to pay the bills and the wages.”

He likens a restaurant to a colander with maybe 20 holes and as the owner-operator he says you’re always trying to block the holes, keep the ship on course and react quickly.

I guess that may include mopping the floor on your big night.

He’s looking ahead to his 25th anniversary dinner, and there’s never been a day when he’s walked from his car-park to his kitchen with a kind of sinking feeling that he was on his way to the dentist. “I still enjoy my job and will pull the pin when I don’t.”

In a Waikato Times interview I did with Mclean in 2005, shortly after he started in the south-end, he said that when you go out for a meal you can taste whether the chefs out the back are passionate about what they’re cooking. It’s fair to say that he meets his own criteria.