Life lessons: Anna Hansen

Chef Anna Hansen. Photo / Supplied.

I have wanted to be a chef since I had a weekend job when I was 16 at the Hardy St Deli in Nelson, working for an incredible Kiwi chef, Jill Stevenson. I spent most of my time arranging bunches of watercress around cream cheese logs, mispronouncing exotic words like "mocha" (it was 1986), doing dishes and peeling potatoes but I loved it.

If food were a religion, my cuisine would have to be atheist, because unfortunately there's no religion I know of that worships the glory of the pig.

What people don't realise about me is that all I ever wanted in life was a white picket fence and several children hanging off my apron strings while I cooked them elaborate meals with ingredients from my vege patch.

The worst thing about my job is getting up at 6.30am and chasing up credit notes from suppliers. Not much to complain about, really.

Being part of the London restaurant scene is exhilarating and I'm proud to have opened a successful restaurant here.

I miss home the most when I get photos of my far-too-cute-for-words niece and nephew, Francesca and Max. I feel very hard done by that I am not there to witness their daily antics.

If I was stranded on a desert island and could choose only five ingredients to go with the seafood and tropical fruit, they would be chorizo, pomegranate molasses, miso, tamarind and chillies.

When I was little I once ate a piece of chewing gum off the pavement. It was gritty, but it still tasted like grape Hubba Bubba.

Anna Hansen owns the Modern Pantry in St John's Square, London. She is named in a new book, Coco, (released November 5) as one of the world's 100 best emerging chefs.