A new World

Interesting Career

North Canterbury chef Phil Keen has stepped out of the kitchen into a whole new vocational role as Rangiora New World’s Specialty Meats Manager.

The job change has involved a huge learning curve for Phil, whose previous position was as head chef with Seagars at Oxford.

“Fortunately, I’m really blessed to have a great second in charge, Kerry Tull, because I’ve had to learn all about the butchery side of it – it’s like taking on a whole new trade!”

Even the words butchers and chefs use to describe particular cuts of meat differ. “For example, they say ‘butt end, fillet and tail’ where chefs would say ‘chateaubriand, mignon and fillet’.”

The various challenges are welcomed by Phil, who is excited by the supermarket’s commitment to creating an in-house specialty meats area that functions like a traditional butcher’s shop. “We start with the carcass and process everything here. So, for example, the sausages are handmade here. We do all of it here. We also supply Freedom Farms Bacon from pigs that have been farmed with plenty of open space. It’s about presenting top quality specialty meats for the consumer.

“The advantages are two-fold: people can talk directly to the butcher and if they need any advice on cooking, then there’s a chef on hand too. It’s all here and the service is available to them seven days a week, twelve hours a day.”

Phil’s expertise ensures that many of the specialty meats are presented in a ‘ready to cook’ form with seasoning, folded, rolled and flavoured. He’s able to show the team of butchers how a chef finishes a product by hard trimming and removing any unnecessary fat and sinew.

Born in Geraldine, Phil first trained as a chef in Oamaru and served a five year apprenticeship through Otago Polytechnic and the historic Brydone Hotel. His parents were both good cooks and Phil says he grew up inventing his own recipes, cooking over the family’s coal range.

There followed some time in Australia, where he picked up new skills from the international milieu of chefs he encountered in that country’s hotels. “Europe was in the kitchen.”

Then it was back to New Zealand to work in the hotel and restaurant trade. He tutored at Christchurch Polytechnic for four and a half years, before taking on more managerial roles with employers including Southern Cross Hospital and Spotless.

With catering firm Moveable Feasts, he gained valuable experience in large-scale catering at events like the 2002 NZ Open when Tiger Woods was here and also in that year’s World Firefighter Games in Christchurch. “Another big event was the Fina World Masters Swimming Championships in 2002, which had about 2500 swimmers. No members of the public were there because there were just so many swimmers!”

He then worked as head chef at Seagars for four and a half years, before taking on the specialty meats serve-over at New World.