Celebrity Life
Chef Nate Green on REX Wine & Grill, Modern Steakhouses and His Restaurant Values
After holding the reins at Henry for two years, British nose-to-tail chef Nate Green has allied himself with the group behind Octavium for a âcontemporary Europeanâ restaurant.
Seven years after landing in Hong Kong, Nate Green has at long last opened a restaurant in Central. The British veteran, whose CV includes such stalwarts as 22 Ships, Ham & Sherry and Rhoda, has plied his brand of focused, produce-led cooking across the cityâs vast urban gestalt, but his latest (and arguably most personal) venture sees him digging in at a cavernous space beneath Des Voeux Road, marking a much-delayed, highly anticipated return to the world of local restaurant groups.
Having steered Henry â Rosewood Hong Kongâs preeminent eatery for meaty, smokehouse-inspired fare â through a two-year gauntlet marked by political turmoil and the Coronavirus outbreak, Green confides that in 2021 he felt ready to realise his vision for a modern, grillroom-inspired restaurant.
âFor a long time, working in a âgrillâ or âsteakhouseâ wasnât desirable for chefs who aspired to be top-level,â says Green. âThe prevailing viewpoint was that there simply wasnât enough âkudosâ in something like that.â
With Rex Wine & Grill, however, Green appears determined to counter this narrative: championing, without an ounce of cognitive dissonance, generous platefuls of USDA prime alongside more chef-y creations that draw on his considerable talent for indirect cooking techniques. A month into opening, we grab a seat at the bar with Green and hear how he hopes that Rex will usher in a resurgence of the Grand Grill.
Having played a pivotal role in opening Henry and popularising the smokehouse concept, why did you feel now was the right moment to embark on a new project?
After working with hotel groups for three years, I came to realise I just didnât belong in that sort of corporate environment. I hold strong opinions about a range of different subjects and always speak my mind. That, coupled with the fact that Iâd achieved everything I set out to do with Henry, convinced me it was time for a change.
Thatâs not to say I didnât enjoy learning about and bringing to fruition the âAmerican smokehouseâ concept, but Rex presents me with the opportunity to put what I feel is the best representation of my cuisine in front of diners. Without wanting to sound wanky, that means modern European food, prepared with a strong nose-to-tail mantra, from the best produce that we can realistically source whole.
Rex is billed as combining Italian flair with American opulence. How will that translate for your diners?
Weâve evolved that concept since I came aboard. The foundation of the cuisine is definitely modern European, but when we use the phrase âAmerican opulenceâ weâre talking about generosity: real cooking, not piddly little portions. Then, the âItalian flairâ is a reference to the level of hospitality being redolent of the great grillrooms of continental Europe. We arenât necessarily talking about the food thatâs going on the plate â there wonât be eight pasta courses on the menu. In fact, early on, one of the first points Octavo management and I agreed on was that we didnât need another regional Italian concept.
What weâre envisioning is a return to the era of the Grand Grill, in the vein of parliamentary canteens at The Savoy or The Dorchester in London. We want the beauty and attention to detail of traditional European service to come through: whether thatâs in the shape of our silver, stemware, or the substantial number of dishes prepared tableside.
Your new venue shares a name and certain stylistic touchpoints with Mauro Vincentiâs pioneering LA restaurant Rex il Ristorante. What inspired you to resurrect such a piece of Americaâs dining history in Hong Kong?
In a way, Rex is a tribute to chef Umberto Bombana. Back in 1983, Rex in LA was the first restaurant Bombana helmed and his experiences there eventually led him to Hong Kong, where we met. That was an important connection to celebrate when we were discussing what the restaurant should be called.
We also wanted to explore the American restaurant scene as it existed in the 1970s and 1980s, pinpointing what the height of sophistication was during those eras. Many people forget that the idea of an âAmericanâ culinary identity, forged by chefs like Jeremiah Tower and Alice Waters, didnât develop until much later â French and Italian cuisine were the two dominant influences for a long time. If anything, my cooking at Rex shares a certain affinity with modern British cuisine: beyond the ânationalityâ of our ingredients, weâre interested in the conditions they were produced in and the personalities behind them.
As youâre one of the foremost proponents of nose-to-tail dining in the city, how can we expect your passion for that to take flight at Rex?
Our aim is to keep the menu quite small, populating it with satisfying, classic dishes youâd expect to see at a grillroom-inspired restaurant. On top of that, we offer a house-made sausage; maybe a ragout of lamb shoulder â all of which will be done as specials â and when theyâre gone, theyâre gone. The way that the menu is set up allows us to utilise almost the entirety of an animal. Even in those situations when we donât source a whole cow, weâre still championing offal cookery: liver, kidneys and sweetbreads, nothing goes to waste.
Was the decision to compose a shorter signature menu in part to encourage diners to explore the list of specials? To consume a wider variety of dishes?
Iâve always thought the best way to build a menu is to have steady Ă la carte options, supplemented by a few seasonal dishes. Our aim with Rex is to build a clientèle that includes a core of regulars who come all the time. You canât sustain a restaurant like this around a business model of âone and doneâ â though, sadly, thatâs an extremely popular attitude among many Hong Kong operators.
I also feel the idea of a steak is fairly self-contained. If you go to dinner for crispy-skinned chicken, youâre not going to order it at a Peking duck restaurant â youâre going to go somewhere thatâs best-known for its chicken. Obviously, thereâll always be one or two diners who arenât like that, but over time our aim is for them to feel so familiar with us that weâre like their canteen. By that, I mean they can be assured theyâll find something delicious on the menu, even if what that is changes weekly.
Thereâs less wastage, the ingredients we use maintain their optimal freshness, and my team stays engaged because theyâre constantly seeing and learning new dishes.
What role will sustainability play in the creation of your new menu and the physical spaces at the restaurant?
Iâm always looking at the impact of whatever we buy and use in the restaurant. I donât think itâs controversial to say that we work in a damaging industry: thereâs food waste, plastics and the destructive effect that comes with producing food on an industrial scale. What we need â and itâs something Iâm proud weâre doing here at Rex â is a greater willingness to utilise whole animals. Another commitment weâve made is re-writing our lunch menu every day, which means we can prepare a lot of the larger items that need to be broken down in a succession of different ways.
In a restaurant scene already teeming with premium reserve lists, what aspects of Rexâs beverage programme will be most exciting for seasoned drinkers?
Weâve approached it sensibly. The calibre of the wine list is comparable to what youâll find at our sister restaurant, Octavium. For cocktails, weâve kept it along the lines of âreally good classicsâ, albeit with a subtle twist. Weâre also specialising more on after-dinner tipples â categories that I personally really enjoy, like whisky and digestifs.
Our killer feature, however, is the wine-locker system: we have 100 available for diners to rent, which is something you donât often see outside of private membersâ clubs. Nothing encourages repeat visits like having a couple of your own bottles on-hand â itâs an opportunity to give our guests exactly what they enjoy.
Considering how diners are becoming increasingly restrictive in their dietary choices, are there elements of the menu that will appeal to those with less carnivorous appetites?
Weâre in the business of hospitality. If Iâm cooking for a table of 10, thereâs a good chance two of those diners will only eat fish, be vegetarian ⌠Iâve got no issue with that. But instead of composing a fully vegan menu, Iâd much prefer to come to your table, ask what you enjoy, and prepare something around the seasonal veggies we have available. Itâs such a cop-out to say, âYouâre a vegetarian? Right, your choice is either salad or gnocchi.â Often, vegetables are where you can afford the most creativity: you can blend them, bake them, pickle them. When you think about a âcomposedâ dish at a Michelin-star restaurant, the plate itself is around 60 percent vegetables. I love that.
Is it necessary for certain elements in the classic steakhouse concept to be âmodernisedâ, so as to better reflect Hongkongersâ dining preferences?
If not, why do you think the traditional idea of a restaurant specialising in wine and steaks has remained so celebrated? Put simply, I think steakhouses are easy for most diners to understand. Whether itâs a business meal or a big celebratory occasion, you donât necessarily know if everybody at the table is going to enjoy a composed tasting menu. But guess what? Nine out of 10 people are going to love steak. And the beauty of steak is you can make it as simple or complicated as you like. Where I felt Henry was most successful was on the side dishes: we offered 14 of them, and they all went beyond the settled notion of simple accompaniments. You could order a handful of those and not even consider steak.
At Rex, even though weâre working with many of the techniques of a traditional steakhouse, we also add an element of our own creativity: whether itâs a smoked eel and roasted beetroot, a blue cheese bearnaise, or toothfish with artichokes and preserved lemon. I mean, thereâs no universal rule that says you have to serve a prawn cocktail in a martini glass, so why not play around with it? A steakhouse is no different â itâs all about paying homage to the classics, with a fresh perspective.
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