Being in such a prestigious establishment, taught me so very much about the importance of the quality and freshness of food; we were working for the most part with the best of everything. We often held specialised weeks; French, Icelandic are two I remember fondly: when chefs from the respective countries were flown in to supervise the preparation and cooking of the menu specialities. For the French menu I recall fresh truffles (white and black Perigord) being flown in, along with mushrooms of all shapes and sizes; ceps, morelles and chanterelles and the piece de resistance; foie gras or fresh goose liver, that after worming my way in with one of the French chefs, I was taught and allowed to peel and prepare, not to mention lightly sauté and eventually taste for the first time!

Travelling and the world famous

From here I moved on to explore more of Europe; France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal and also couple of trips to Tenerife! To explore their foods, their wines, vineyards and everything culinary. I also had a hankering to travel further, to not only study food and culinary techniques but to go beyond the realms of Europe and study life and the people also. The Caribbean was beckoning . . . So with a four year apprenticeship under my belt, it was time to travel the world: Bermuda, Jamaica and the USA being my first stops. It was here that I learnt the art of ice carving and margarine sculptures.

The next twenty years were to see me travel and work in many exclusive establishments, be involved in TV and movie set work and work with many great, well respected chefs. Chefs from whom I was always eager to pick their brains, not that many of them would be known outside the industry; as the days of the 'celebrity' chef was yet to come.

I have been lucky enough to be chef for or cooked for many of the 'A' list of celebrities from the world of show-business, movies, music etc, from Sammy Davis Jnr and Frank Sinatra to Bon Jovi and Janet Jackson, from all but one of the James Bond actors to Lawrence Olivier and Peter Jackson.

I have also been the chef for and cooked for virtually every member of the British Royal family. I was chef in charge for Princess Diane's visit to New Zealand in 1983, which was one of both the personal and professional highlights of my life so far; she was such a great lady. This event even eclipsing the full Royal State visit of NZ in 1990. Which I might add my mother got all the recognition for; she was (un)fortunate to be stood next to the woman that threw a wet shirt at the Queen. So after all the months of constructing menus and recipes, preparing the kitchen staff, cooking flat out for 36 hours to feed 3000 people in one day….I did all the work and my mother through a quirk of fate ends up with her face all over the international press . . . ahhhh such is the life of the lowly chef!

Where I am now

Many, many miles travelled, many countries explored, many foods from many cultures sampled before finally settling here in New Zealand; my adopted country and I am still only forty! I still travel extensively, vacationing for six weeks each year out of the country plus trips abroad to conduct food festivals, cooking demonstrations or promoting New Zealand produce.

My main stay these days though and my passion is teaching. I am a tutor at a Polytechnic here in New Zealand, the country that the indigenous people call 'Aotearoa' (the land of the long white cloud). Every year I now have 11 trainee chefs come to me for training in the culinary arts. They are with me for a full year, where I can not only hopefully impart to them some of the techniques and recipes that were taught to me, but encourage them to find their own way, their own style in food and cooking. To not just respect the traditions of the kitchen, its long rich long history but also to find new pathways, to introduce themselves to new foods and flavour combinations. To understand and appreciate the flavours of simple, basic foods before they start to marry them to something else, to hold that summer ripened peach, to caress it, to suck in those wonderfully sweet aromas, to appreciate all its aspects before savouring its sweetness, its sun produced natural sugars and taste sensations!!

But this lifestyle of teaching, also affords me the ability to still travel, to indulge in my passion of food, of cooking and the culinary arts. It has also now given me the time to take on new ventures like this cooking column for example, I also regularly write for other international newspapers and magazines, such as a feature on Welsh cuisine in the July 2001 issue of National Geographic. I also consult for culinary websites and manage my own extensive culinary website: http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/6454/ So if you are looking for answers to culinary questions, want to know learn more about culinary techniques…..then visit me online.