Chef brings the 'wow factor' to the Newport Room

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27: If it’s smoky in the restaurant don’t panic — the Newport Room’s new sous chef Kellie Rolfe has just discharged her most prized weapon — the smoke gun.

The device infuses dishes with smoke as it sits in front of you on the restaurant table.

Ms Rolfe is quite a fan of culinary surprises. A dish might have a dollop flavourful foam while the meat may have been vacuum packed with herbs and bathed for hours meandering to rare to medium rare perfection. It is what she describes as the “wow factor” she brings to the Fairmont Southampton Resort’s respected five-diamond restaurant.

Ms Rolfe has been at the helm since the start of this season and while her career is still blossoming, she has some impressive credentials under her hat. She started out in Brisbane, Australia on a four-year apprenticeship at Conrad International. Her career has included a spell as chef de partie at The Savoy in London and as a chef de partie at Banff Springs in Canada where she says she flourished under chef Daniel Buss. She has travelled through Europe to learn about traditional European cuisine and came to Bermuda last season as senior chef de partie. This season she was promoted to sous chef and instantly made her mark.

We sat down with her to find out more.

What qualities do you bring to the Newport Room?

It was pretty ambitious — I changed nine dishes out of about 25, I had a brand new team and opened with brand new items. I want to bring the ‘wow’ element to the plate both visually and it’s got to be full of flavour. I am really happy with the new tasting menu — its one of those series of courses that each course will blow you away.

Describe some of the new dishes you have introduced.

The first course is Fire and Ice Tuna Nicoise. This restaurant is modern French — I am taking something traditional, modernizing it and giving it the wow factor.

It’s a very elegant plate and very summery. It has seared tuna and all the traditional ingredients and it comes out with a glass cloche (bell jar) with smoke inside. The waiter waves the smoke and lifts the lid and the smoke swirls around the salad — it’s a bright and vibrant summer salad. The smoke is cherry wood or sometimes apple wood.

From the main courses again, taking something traditional and putting the flare on it, I have Steak Frites. These fries are hand cut from the best local potatoes and fried in duck fat so they are super crisp and you get the duck flavour coming through.

That is served with Bearnaise sauce and then instead of using a normal piece of steak I have used the best part of rib-eye, it’s called ribcap (the top part of the rib steak that is marbled) and I take that off and cook it sous vide style (cooking in a bag).

I put it in a bag and vacuum the bag and I put rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper and olive oil and then cook it in a water bath for three to three and a half hours until its cooked rare to medium rare and it tenderized so the flavour gets sucked into the meat — this is not just steak frites.

What are your favourite dishes on the menu?

One thing that it is so beautiful here is the corn — you can eat it raw. The corn soup was my favourite — it was just pure corn.

I made a stock from the cobs, took the kernels off and sautéed them with onions and garlic then I added the stock from the cobs back into the corn and cooked and blended it then at the end added a dollop of cream. Beautiful. This was one of the dishes I was serving with smoke — the scallop soufflé had smoke with fire roasted corn kernels. Unfortunately it’s out of corn season now.

For the main I brought in a halibut Provencial dish — it’s such a full flavoured light dish.

When I prepare the fish I cut two thinner pieces so it can be flash seared. It’s a tomato based sauce with huge flavour, sage, fennel, tomatoes, garlic, onion and olive oil all slow cooked together then we finish that off with some fresh sautéed spinach and some fresh cherry tomatoes.

What local produce features heavily?

I am always looking for things in season. We use local beets they are beautiful, the corn and the potatoes and the Bermuda rockfish is amazing.

What is your management style?

I definitely need to be hands on I think it’s really important to work beside the chefs — we are very bonded.

It’s about showing them exactly what I want and if they have any ideas I encourage them to bring them forward.

Who has influenced you the most?

The biggest turning point for me was moving to Canada — it was my first five-diamond restaurant and I was working with chef Daniel Buss.

He is still with Fairmont in Miami. When I worked with him he really opened my mind to food.

Chef Michael Scott here at the Newport Room has given me so much information and knowledge and food style.

What tool could you not live without?

There are many but right now it is definitely my smoke gun.

It definitely sounds dangerous and looks a little bit dangerous. It’s so good, it’s a little machine that can infuse the food, you can put in whatever flavours, you can use dried herbs with some woodchips you can smoke anything with it.