Roxburgh Bistro

Almost every cook has a point in their career where they work in that ‘magical’ place. Mine was the Roxburgh Bistro. It was my first experience of working in an environment where it felt like a family — the front-of-house and kitchen as one. I’ve still got great friends from that place and time, one of them being chef Mark Limacher, who has become one of the most important figures in my career. He’s what you call a true mentor and friend.

The path to Roxburgh Bistro was not smooth, though. I had left Restaurant X and was managing a lodge in the country. It was supposed to be a luxury lodge, but it had fallen on hard times following its 1980s heyday as a high-class brothel. My wife, Natalia, and I worked our fingers to the bone running the place but our efforts were futile. It had no heart and I was too young to properly run a kitchen of my own. We were twenty-two years old and a little bit too optimistic that we could turn around this lost cause. We’d put up with a lot there — Natalia worked a full-time job in Wellington city and would come home to the lodge where I’d been working by myself all day, and we would check in guests, cater for a wedding and run the bar. The next morning, we’d get up and cook breakfast for the guests and start the whole process again.