A Chefs Life..

Pictured ~ Tuna Belly Bacon, Fermented Cherry Tomatoes, Aged Soy and Pea Blossom.

It all started back in 2004. I was in grade 10 and only 15 years old — a delinquent who didn't enjoy school and was rebelling hard. The only class I ever excelled in was cooking, or as it was known back then, hospitality. So my mum decided to try the next best thing and get me a job. She had friends in the hospitality industry who owned restaurants and bars, and she managed to wrangle me a position as a dishy and prep chef at a small restaurant.

The very first task I was given — and I remember this way too clearly — was to chop massive bunches of curly parsley. I chopped and chopped until I thought it was enough, and it wasn't even close. It honestly took me hours. I still remember looking out the back door of the kitchen watching the chefs sit on their backsides laughing at me. Not the greatest start.

The same owner had a resort and suggested I go and try working there to see how I liked it. I can still remember how sore my legs were after standing up for 12 hours straight — the longest I'd ever spent on my feet at 15 years old. It didn't seem like it was going to work out, and it wasn't quite as fun as I had pictured.

A few months went by and another opportunity came up at a place called Sails Beach Restaurant. I started taking shifts there while still at school, and it eventually got to a point where the head chef, Paul, basically said — you either finish school or take an apprenticeship here at Sails. I'm pretty sure I jumped at the chance. Anything to get me out of class!

Back then I started on around $4.20 an hour as a first-year apprentice. The shifts were long, the prep jobs weren't great, and the abuse certainly didn't help. But Sails taught me a lot and made me into the chef I am today. The food was incredible fine dining and the chefs there were seriously talented.

Pictured ~ Koji poached lobster and its bisque.

The chef industry was wild back then — swearing, yelling, physical and mental abuse. Today that wouldn't fly, and we were nothing like the celebrity chefs you see now. We were kept literally underground, below the restaurant, never to be seen by customers.

I lasted almost a year at Sails before a series of events had me calling my mum to come and get me. First, I was picked up by the scruff of the neck and dragged out the back by a chef who'd had a big night and a short fuse. The final straw was being held down and branded on the arm with one of the big kitchen spoons I'd left on the gas. That was it for me. I needed a break and genuinely wasn't sure if this was the path I wanted.

I took a few months off before my mum encouraged me to get back into the industry and finish my apprenticeship. My neighbour Daniel mentioned they were looking for chefs at the restaurant where he worked as a barman — a place called Café Le Monde.

Le Monde, as we called it, wasn't anywhere near the standard of Sails. But the chefs were genuinely good people who never treated me badly. I felt like part of a family there and made friends for life. This place taught me to move fast and rely on myself. It was a busy, high-paced restaurant that could easily do several hundred covers a night. The amount of produce being ordered and the scale of the prep being done was insane — it still blows my mind. It's one of the few restaurants that has stood the test of time on the infamous Hastings Street, known for places coming and going.

After almost four years in the industry, I felt accomplished. I felt like everything I'd been through had been for something — I just wasn't sure what that something was, until this happened...

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Read Part 2 to find out how my chef career took me around the world.

Click HERE for how my chef career literally took me around the world!