For Casey McDonald, food and the art of cooking have been a blazing ambition ever since he was calling out orders in his local fish-and-chip shop at the age of twelve. Since then his love for the kitchen hasn’t stopped.

From starting in Wellington, Casey’s ambitious work has taken him globally. “As soon as I was qualified I got on a plane to America,” he says. While today Craggy Range may know him as head chef, so too have kitchens in San Francisco, Melbourne and London. No matter where Casey has landed, he has always been driven by dedication and hard work. “I’m chasing good, quite difficult restaurants or environments, always wanting to see how I would go. It was good to learn,” he says. In Melbourne, Casey led the kitchen at Andrew McConnell’s renowned restaurants, including Supernormal, Cumulus Inc and Cutler & Co, working his way up through the restaurant group.

Hawke’s Bay was always a special place that called to him, and now he is working alongside his partner Majda Falan, the operations manager at Craggy Range. Majda began as the restaurant manager but, as the business expanded and a second restaurant opened, it became clear that a broader operational role was needed. Suddenly, the team required more than just a head chef and a restaurant manager to keep everything running smoothly. Together they work in perfect synchronisation, completing each other’s ideas. Casey notes, “If I have an idea, she’ll be the one executing it. She keeps us moving forward, a lot more than I do. If an idea starts off as just a menu, she’ll turn it into an event. I’ll come up with a bit of this and a bit of that, and she’ll say, ‘Give me a day and I’ll present it to the team’.” While speaking to Casey, it’s clear that while he’s proud of the accomplishments he’s achieved so far, he’s a committed team player. It’s not a solo mission he’s on; he takes extensive pride in fulfilling team goals and constantly creating positive change for the Hawke’s Bay hospitality community. It’s important to him to keep developing careers and roles that can place talent in each area of the industry including the garden teams, development teams and front of house. “I look at our team and I don’t want this to stop. I need to keep creating restaurants or opportunities so that everyone can keep growing. I like making sure everyone gets looked after. To keep it going, you’ve gotta keep growing.”

And growing is exactly what Casey cherishes: garden-to-table, fresh produce is what truly makes his dishes shine on the plate. The garden at Craggy Range has grown so large that a dedicated team now tends to it, a big step from the early days when the chefs used whatever they picked or found themselves. Now, there’s a seedling plan in place and the garden is flourishing with freshly planted produce, but the philosophy remains the same: whatever comes through the back door inspires the menu. Working with what’s available and at its best, some ingredients might feature on the menu for just a day or two, others for a month or more. “Whatever is there, you put it on the plate and it’s been picked just hours before. We don’t talk about that in the restaurant as much as we should, but it’s pretty amazing.” MIA BENNETT