Favourite restaurant for dinner with friends?
It's been rough for our restaurant family these past few years. They give us our food cultural identity. They need our love and there are so many to love. One absolutely incredible dining experience is the award-winning Cibo in Parnell. Jeremy the owner is delightfully passionate about the entire dine-in experience. He's an incredible boss and as such Cibo is a win for fine-dining food lovers. This restaurant makes you feel like you're the most important person in the world or in a cinematic movie. Cibo has a class second to none ... also their decadent pavlova has fallen from heaven - into my mouth ... even if it was on your table first.
Favourite place to take a visitor to?
Forty minutes out of the Auckland CBD you'd think you're in Croatia. This is like walking into the pages of a romance novel. Chatting to my friend Virginie Le Brun of No1 Family Estate fame reminded me of Bracu. The sweeping olive trees lazily open into walkways to pavilions and then to Beretta at Bracu where you enjoy clay target air pistol and rifle shooting, knife throwing and archery. Back at base they have a truly magnificent wine library for a private dining experience, but for me it's about their seasonal indulgent food story told by the most talented head chef Bowin, sous-chef de cuisine James and chef Abi. Experiencing is believing.
Housemade Bread. Bracu olive oil, warm marinated olives. Beetroot roll with goats cheese icecream. Cured Trevally. Duck with pickled daikon. Duo of pork, Jerusalem artichoke. Lamb rump, merguez sausage. Dark chocolate delice that I paired with No1 Family Estate Assemblé 'Méthode Marlborough' ... I never want to leave. With a full tummy, fuller heart and fullest shopping bag carrying boutique olive oils and olive bio complex skin care, I tell Prudence I'll be back with my family. Virginie suddenly calls and says when she's back in Auckland we can do some clay shooting - looks like I don't need my passport to be so soon in the Mediterranean again!
Favourite spot to finish a night out?
You finish a night out in true form on a Friday night because we know the rhythm of life. Obviously I choose the hidden gem - Crown Range Lounge in Parnell. I had my 21st and just celebrated my 50th birthday there. It becomes a Jazz & Cocktail bar on Friday with live music when the shadow of night lazily envelopes Parnell. Truthfully the stars are not in the sky but performing - Nathan Haines, Caitlin Smith, The Nairobi Trio as well as Peter Urlich, Phoebe Falconer & and Murray Sweetpants as we enjoy the sophistication of China Girl or signature cocktails. I've seen former Prime Minister Sir John Key, entrepreneurs Sir Michael Hill, Sara and Rob Fyfe and musician Moses Mackay 'look at me - look at them - look at ME taking a selfie'.
Favourite place to get coffee from?
We are a cafe culture city full of mean coffee snobs. I love it. So getting a good coffee isn't so hard as we can grab them from my kitchen Delonghi LA Specialista or on the run in a service station. But for this interview I choose The Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tamaki Paenga Hira. My latest experience, I had an important business meeting with Amit Sharma in the cafe restaurant under the dramatically terrifying tyrannosaurus skeleton. My espresso was perfection as we closed a deal with lots of cake. The best part is you can venture into the museum, and inquisitively appreciate the history of Aotearoa New Zealand and the world by enjoying the displays such as The Greeks. You might even spy my great grandfather's name John Jeffree on the Cenotaph.
Favourite fish and chips shop?
I was in the iconic Eagle Bar on Karangahape Rd - my brother Eric's local quencher, moaning to him over gin and tonics that I hadn't had old school fish 'n' chippies in years and he said "you want it now? let's go ..." and I followed him as we ran over the street into what should be a beachfront chippies shop called Salt & Batter. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Totally old school - I was so excited - our eyes were bigger than our tummies as we ordered everything, but I was so so so happy! From beer-battered fish and chips to potato fritters, scallops and huge ice cream scoops in a cone ... I love Salt & Batter.
Favourite trail for a hike?
Hiking is serious business and you have to do it right. I met "GOT TO GET OUT" Robert Bruce who has the most incredible life story that developed this community and runs personalised Hiking Trails all over Aotearoa New Zealand from Cape Brett in the far Northern North Island to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. In Auckland it's Bethels Beach - the Te Henga walkway appreciating our formidable coastal beauty.
I'm from the morally corrupt world of TV and, mark my words, Robert Bruce will be a genuine TV star because of his authentic attitude, business savvy and drive to make people like you and me put down our phones and appreciate the sunrise again as we step forward confidently into the unknown.
Favourite venue for a gig?
Easily the Civic Theatre. I love live stage shows and cinematic premieres. The Civic looks like some Hollywood palace from ancient Hindustani India. The Civic also has a long spooky history. They say its haunted by the ghost of Frida Stark and I believe it. I thought I caught a glimpse of Frida's floating ethereal spirit form once, but sadly it was just Anika Moa clumsily tripping up on the red carpet. In 1977 my Dad took myself and my brother Eric to see Star Wars. It was my first ever movie and as I looked up to the ceiling glittering with stars I was entranced. Today I look up and I smile like I did as a 5-year-old boy when the world was full of mystery.
Favourite place to find a bargain?
Junk & Disorderly. I go there if I need to buy a personalised gift for someone. A huge warehouse full of history. As you enter you buy a yummy doughnut and coffee and venture deep into what I can only describe as the most intriguing magical, mysterious, ever-changing shop. You never know what you might discover by looking behind a shelf or lifting up a book or gently pushing past another customer or family member or my friend Angelique Fris Taylor - before they see what you see. If you snooze you lose. I was with another friend who collects vintage everything, we went in and I saw a drawer full of the most fascinating vintage maps in pristine condition and called her over, next minute she was on the ground under a mountain of maps in ecstasy. I was embarrassed for both of us. Junk and Disorderly is bargain heaven.
