Faradays Queen St: Meet Zachariah Meads, head chef at the Emetts’ newest restaurant Lottie’s

He grew up in a farming family of 12; now he’s leading one of Auckland’s hottest new restaurants.He started learning to make scones with his aunty and Nana from the Edmonds Cookery Book at 9 or 10. Now chef Zach Meads is leading one of . Lottie’s, Josh and Helen Emett’s third CBD restaurant, is inside luxury department store Faradays. As the sixth of 12 siblings from a farming family in Whakarongo, Palmerston North, Meads describes cooking dinner growing up as “pretty much catering” a small function.“Being a big family, we cooked a lot, and learnt to cook. It teaches you how to be organised when you’ve got that many people in the kitchen.“There’s not just one person’s opinion on how much pepper or cayenne or salt to put in something – it’s the whole family.”Home, in and among those voices and opinions, was where Meads found his passion for cooking. It was probably where he first developed skills useful for working with a team in a commercial kitchen, too.“I used to make sourdough with my brother Jono twice a week ... probably the best bread was from the original French Cafe recipe book.”Meads, 30, cites the women in his life as his biggest influences on his journey to becoming a chef. “Mum was always like, ‘You can’t leave home until you’ve learnt to make bread’. There were always a couple of dishes she wanted us to make: beef, roast potatoes or mash.“Without Nana, I’d probably be a builder or something ... we’d go to hers and have pikelets or scones and Sunday roast after church on a Sunday afternoon, and then dessert always.”These days, he tries to stay out of the kitchen when he visits home. “Everyone always jokes about it. It’s like, ‘No pressure, there’s a chef in the kitchen’, and I’m going, ‘I just burnt that broccolini, so good luck’,” he says with a smile.The sixth of 12 siblings, Meads learned to cook at an early age – and has turned that love of cooking into a career. Photo / Dean PurcellAfter being home-schooled, a U-Skills programme at Palmerston North polytechnic UCOL turned his love of cooking into a career. “It really helped me go, ‘This is what I should be doing’.”He joined Feilding’s award-winning fine-dining restaurant Amayjen, “while I was studying and training for competitions and living off five hours’ sleep”, where he learnt to multitask and “a lot of good basics” of working in a kitchen.Then came the move to Peter Gordon’s The Sugar Club up the Sky Tower in Auckland. He credits the job to connections made at those cooking competitions, many of which he entered – and won – alongside UCOL chef training lecturer Mark Smith. The pair won gold in the Chatham Islands on a Plate Category at the 2018 New Zealand Hospitality Championships in Auckland; a wild food cooking competition held in the Chathams won them a trip to Italy.But moving from a small-town kitchen to one 53 floors above New Zealand’s biggest city was something of a culture shock. To avoid traffic, Meads would leave his flat in Papatoetoe at 6am to drive to his 8am shift at The Sugar Club. A single shift could end at 6pm. If it was a double or weekend shift, he could still be serving desserts at 1am. It was a commute – and a lifestyle – he did for a year and a half. But the experience was invaluable.“I did pasta a lot, shucking oysters daily. A lot of those jobs you wouldn’t get in smaller restaurants back in Palmerston North.“I got moved to the pastry section because I was interested in getting a bit of cross-training, and that helped further my confidence.”That training served him well at the Park Hyatt, where he moved in 2020 to take a role in pastry, high teas and events. But after two and a half years there, he was looking for a change. A meeting with Josh Emett led to a role at Onslow, where he’s now been for four and a half years, most recently as senior sous chef and head of pastry.His time there is a testament to the Emetts as hands-on owners, he says.“They’re very supportive, they’re understanding – they’re just great at what they do and you can’t really put a value on that. “I’ve had quite a few successful dishes on the menu ... having that progression has been a massive highlight.” Zach Meads (left) worked for four and a half years at Josh Emett's Onslow before moving to the head chef role at Emett's newest restaurant Lottie's. Photo / Jono ParkerNow he’s been entrusted with the group’s newest venture, a challenge he’s both nervous and excited to be meeting. From the first meeting about Lottie’s, the Emetts had Meads in mind to helm it. “He’s really proven himself as such a hard worker and a leader,” Josh told Viva recently.That’s clear from Meads’ own hopes for the Lottie’s team. “I want everyone to come on board and feel like they can grow and learn in the team environment,” he says.“It’s a personal goal of mine to make sure that everyone is capable of doing more than just cooking a steak, and that helps that person, that chef, in their future. It’s giving back to the industry without putting people in boxes.”Meads says Lottie's will bring something new to Auckland's restaurant scene. Photo / Dean PurcellHe says Lottie’s is bringing something new to Auckland’s restaurant scene, as part of the experience for Faradays shoppers. The shift to daytime dining will be a “different challenge”. “It’s not a two or three-hour service like we do at lunch or dinner [at Onslow]. We’re going from 10am to 6pm every day, and then at night, going straight into a dinner event as well some days ... so it’s about organising a day ahead of what you would do normally in a restaurant.”Lottie’s unique location, inside an open-plan department store, has influenced the menu in unexpected ways.“It’s definitely made us think more about smells,” Meads says.“We’ve tested out making a crayfish consommé in the kitchen. So far you can’t smell it in the store. You don’t want your designer jackets smelling like crayfish. A lot of deep-fried, heavy food is probably not the way to go ... you don’t want your designer clothing smelling like a deep-fryer. But you still want to draw people in.”Instead, diners are offered “classic British food”, alongside Emett’s French and European influence.“Obviously using great products and produce.“We’ve got lots of guests saying how it feels nostalgic to dine with us and eat dishes they haven’t had in a really long time. And that’s really rewarding - that’s what we’re here for, helping people to feel comforted and experience their happy memories all over again.”The restaurant will be open for late-night dining during December amid the Christmas shopping season, he says, teasing a few other surprises. The Emett Group's newest restaurant Lottie's has opened inside luxury department store Faradays on Queen St. Photo / Jono ParkerAnd elaborate afternoon high teas will be on the menu in the future. When we spoke, he was yet to land on the perfect scone recipe. But Nana came to the rescue.“I’ve got Nana’s scone recipe, so that’s solved some issues. She finally managed to figure out how to work her smartphone and sent me an email and a text.”Meads wants that mix of high-end and comforting recipes to impress: he has his sights set on Michelin. Both Onslow and Gilt scored recommendations when the inaugural New Zealand guide launched in June, and his goal is for Lottie’s to join them.”We’ll do our best and see where we go.“Every chef’s private dream is to have a Michelin star or work somewhere with one, and to have that in New Zealand is pretty massive for our industry.”Like countless other young Kiwi professionals, he’d had big plans to travel and work overseas before the pandemic. Now, while a restaurant of his own is still the dream, he’s focused on making Lottie’s a success in its own right.“Obviously, my journey was meant to be in Auckland,” he reflects.“I’m just happy to be doing what I love and have the opportunity to do it.”More On Auckland’s Dining Scene