My first memory of any sort of cooking was with my mother, making an apple pie, when I was 4. I started collecting recipes from women’s magazines when I was 4 and made my first cookbook. It was probably the pictures that grabbed my attention as we weren’t an adventurous cooking family. Initially I just wanted to cook, but then I began to dream of becoming a chef - I liked the images of chefs who wore tall white chefs hats. I had applied to do a chefs apprenticeship with Air New Zealand (our national airline) and they interviewed me 3 times but eventually didn’t offer me a position. I then thought I’d like to become a winemaker so went back to school for a year before heading to university aged 17 in 1981. However, I really didn’t enjoy university at all and realized the course I was doing, a BA in Horticultural Science (with 40 hours of lectures and turorials per week) was actually not what I should do to become a winemaker. I headed over to Australia aged 18 with the intention of finding work in a talc mine (I’d heard they were less rough) as a cook, in order to fund my way through Roseworthy Wine College. However, I found a job in Melbourne as a waiter, and again fell in love with the idea of becoming a chef. I completed a 4 year apprenticeship at William Angliss College, winning the ‘Top Theory Student’ prize in my final year. After completing my apprenticeship I backpacked around Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal and India for a year which was wonderful, and has been the biggest influence on my cuisine. During my travels I ate mostly on the street and smaller cafes. I really wasn’t interested (and couldn’t afford) high end restaurant meals. I kept my eyes open, spoke to people, asked how they made things, why they cooked them, where they sourced ingredients from. I have an open mind, and keep my eyes open, and I am fascinated by ingredients – no matter where they come from. After my year of travels I headed to London briefly, then back to New Zealand to set up the kitchen at the Sugar Club Restaurant in Wellington. I have never been an owner of the Sugar Club. I combined the training I’d had with the flavours of Asia and created my idiosyncratic style of cooking which seems to be called fusion. I look at ingredients as characteristics, rather than regional rules that have to be followed. If I’m thinking of using a lemon flavour in a dish, then I’ll consider using lemongrass, lemon verbena, lemon zest, etc. If I want to add sourness I’d considered pomegranate molasses, dried limes, verjus, sumac, etc. I put ingredients into categories and then play with them. I’m an incredibly hard working chef. I haven’t had a real holiday in over two years. I run a kitchen that nurtures chefs, rather than pulling them apart and demoralizing them. I am very focused and have a good business brain which is important. Our food is very popular as it’s very innovative. We don’t try to rework classics which so many places do, we created new ideas and combinations. We have 28 different food suppliers at the restaurant – from a guy who just sells us scallops his company dive for in Scotland, through a farmer in Wales who we buy our beef from. As a shopper buying food for home I head to Borough Market on a Friday or Saturday morning. To the Marylebone Farmers Market on a Sunday morning. I live in west Hamstead, and about a 10 minute walk away there’s a great shop called Food World on Kilburn High Road that sells ingredients from the Middle East and India – it’s great. One day I came up with the ideas of doing a cookbook – although my 4th book on salads came about after talking to the publishers and seeing what they felt I should do and what I was happy to do. Many recipes have been on the menu at work and I’ll get my chefs to test certain dishes based on my recipes. I live in London. I have a restaurant in New Zealand as well so I go there 4 times a year, but London is my physical home. New Zealand is my spiritual home – it’s the most beautiful place in the world. I love to cook at home but often get home so late that I preferred to grab a bite at work. I love casual dining where you don’t have to linger for hours. I really like Alan Yau’s restaurants in London : Yauatcha and Busaba Eathai are great. The best burgers in town are at GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) to whom I advise, and if I want a high end meal I’d eat at the Square or the Ledbury My advises on cooking and entertaining in order that you and your friends have a relaxed enjoyable time, it can sometimes help if you buy in one course that you’re not good at. I’ve been to dinner parties where the hosts are not good dessert chefs so they buy a lovely tart from a great bakery and serve it with some fruits and cream. That’s one less item to prepare and it means they can feel more relaxed.