It won’t be news to anyone that a meal cooked with care can evoke feelings of comfort and safety – feelings of home – but it is something Marcus Verberne takes extremely seriously in his role as Food Services Manager at Tolcarne, St Hilda’s Collegiate Boarding Hostel in Ōtepoti Dunedin.

Advertisements

The accomplished chef and author has a new challenge: creating comforting meals for more than 160 boarders that keep nutrition, activity-packed schedules and busy brains top of mind.

His career path has been varied, and it has taken him across the other side of the world before bringing him back home again.

After completing high school in Dunedin, Marcus’ career began at Wellington restaurant Beacon by a pure chance encounter. With no real pull towards any single career path, he bumped into an old school friend whose employer was looking for a kitchen hand. “I thought I’d give it a go as I wasn’t overly passionate about any industry in particular, but that conversation changed the course of my life,” says Marcus. That kitchen experience was akin to an epiphany. He fell in love with it thanks to incredible head chef Dean Clure, and became obsessed with the industry, even reading cookbooks in the library on his days off.

Like many Kiwi talents, Marcus cut his teeth at a handful of New Zealand and Australian establishments including the Martinborough Hotel, Marchetti’s Latin and Cecconi’s in Melbourne before moving to London at the age of 23.

After a number of roles in high-end establishments such as Le Caprice, The Ivy, J Sheekey, Brown’s Hotel and Roast, he was approached to lead the kitchen at a brand new wine club that was opening, 67 Pall Mall. Marcus describes it as unlike anything he’d experienced before. “The wine was the centrepiece and the food was designed to complement and elevate the experience. The collaboration between chef and sommelier was exceptional, as you would expect at a place where a glass of wine can fetch a price of $900 and members can store their private collection.”

While at 67 Pall Mall, Marcus wrote two cookbooks with Ronan Sayburn, Master Sommelier. The first, Wine and Food: The Perfect Match, paired 100 dishes with 100 iconic wines around the world, while the second, aptly named Bordeaux, focussed on the spoils from the renowned wine region and wider southwest of France.

However enticing mixing with the London elite may seem, the pull of Aotearoa was strong, and so Marcus returned to New Zealand with his wife Maria and their recently adopted son Antony. Marcus was one of seven siblings and it is important to the pair that Antony grows up with a large family network around him, so they chose Dunedin as a place to put down roots and he took up the role at Tolcarne in April 2023.

Pall Mall to a Dunedin boarding hostel might seem like enough to give anyone whiplash, but Marcus realised his ideal role was one that didn’t have the traditionally antisocial hours common in hospitality – something that even offered school holidays, perhaps.

While Marcus has had his fair share of cooking for large numbers, the audiences couldn’t be more different – despite what anyone might say, teenagers are significantly less fussy than London high fliers – and even though there is no wine in sight, it’s a different type of rewarding. “It’s a real privilege to provide nutritious, tasty food for our students. I’m very aware that I’ve been invited into a special space and the critical role that food has in a boarding hostel. It’s arguably what can make or break an experience. It’s an interesting challenge to find a balance of food that fuels the brain with meals that make people feel at home.”

There is a genuine appreciation from the boarders for the quality and expertise Marcus pours into his food, and no wonder: Marcus brings a distinct gourmet quality to the kitchen, making bread, stocks and sauce bases from scratch and getting creative with flavour combinations to add depth to traditional school-kitchen dishes.

As any boarder could tell you, food can have a huge impact on wellbeing. And if you can’t make it home to Mum and Dad for a hug, a meal from a world-class chef is a great alternative. KATE GRANT