Lola Rouge’s Executive Chef, Jason Ng’s time in the kitchen started early. He grew up in a family-owned Chinese restaurant in rural Taranaki and from a young age recalls helping to clear tables, fold rice paper rolls and make wontons.
“Classic Chinese dishes remain nostalgic for me, and I like to incorporate a hint of that in my menu design, but the main thing I took away from my family’s restaurant was my work ethic. My parents worked very hard, and they taught me how to do simple things well.”
Scale & Precision
Ng worked in Wellington in front of house and behind the bar – a time that cemented an abiding love of the local hospitality scene – before he committed to a chef’s apprenticeship in a luxury hotel. He says he’s lucky to have started his career that way.
“Luxury hotel kitchens are a place where scale and precision really come together, it was an incredible training ground.”
Ng worked in China, Shanghai and Australia before heading back to Wellington and taking up a sous-chef position at Lola Rouge in 2003. In late 2004 Jason was promoted to Executive Chef and in November he launched his first menu for the iconic Wellington restaurant. Jason’s approach is inspired by his many travels across Asia and by premium New Zealand ingredients.
New Pan-Asian Menu
Executive Chef Jason Ng’s new Lola Rouge menu builds on the chic, myriad of pan-Asian cuisine the restaurant is renowned for with a whole new range of dishes. The new menu is a la carte style, but a refreshed range of small plates are still, very much, on the table and an ideal way for groups to sample a wide range of dishes in the vibrant atmosphere of the restaurant.
Feature dishes on the new menu include Steamed Market Fish, which is nostalgically inspired by the Executive Chef’s childhood. Ng’s elevated dish is steeped in a bone broth with a ginger infusion that is delicately balanced with several different types of soy sauce, including one from Taiwan that he has imported especially for this dish. The fish is finished with cloudy bay clams, ginger, green onion relish and white radish.
Kimchi Croquettes
A twice-cooked pork belly is another highlight, featuring a labour of love master stock infused with warming spices and dried mandarin. This dish is finished with smoked tofu puree, grilled kimchi and toasted peanuts.
Plant-based options also shine on the new menu from Kimchi Croquettes with creamy aged cheddar to ‘Mapu Tofu’ reinvented. This dish is a riff on Japanese egg custard with doubanjiang (chilli bean paste) and braised shiitake mushrooms. Korean rice cakes and straw potato add unique elements of texture to finish.
For dessert, the menu is intentionally playful, as Ng says, “there’s a place for refinement and intricacy, and then there are relaxed, fun dishes that you want to tuck straight into”. These include ‘Bicho Bicho’ a twisted Fillipo doughnut-inspired dish topped with a bespoke, locally made Zeladi coconut gelato. A Dark Chocolate Mousse with mandarin, crystallised chocolate and hazelnut is also on offer, alongside a Thai Tea Burnt Cheesecake with almond crunch and yuzu cream.
New Signature Cocktails
No trip to Lola Rouge would be complete without a signature cocktail from its famed bar where a whole new cocktail menu offers an eclectic and irreverent selection. The whimsically inspired ’Down the Rabbit Hole’, for example, features The Empress Gin, Butterfly Pea Tea Syrup and a disappearing rabbit.
The new menu is a taste of exciting things to come with Ng already in development on a cocktail led, Yum Cha inspired high tea, launching in the new year.
Photo supplied: Naumi Hotel, Wellington.
Lola Rouge is open for Dinner Tuesday to Saturday.
10 Dunlop Terrace, Te Aro, Wellington
