Life lessons: Martin Bosley, restaurateur

Martin Bosley. Photo / Supplied

I belly laugh all the time. I have a big belly so it's hard not to involve it. (I have had people sitting next to me change seats in movie theatres because of my laugh). I last belly laughed 30 minutes ago when the pianist who played at my wedding 23 years ago arrived for his own wedding dinner - he is 86 (he still has all his own teeth, he told me quite proudly) and got married today to a 71-year-old who has had four previous husbands ... all of whom are now deceased. He suggested it was his exit strategy.

A typical day for me is rising at 5.45am to get my daughter to the train by 7am so that she gets to school on time. Then it's straight to the restaurant, where I spend the rest of my day, finishing work anywhere between 6pm and midnight.

When I tell people what I do for a living they invariably ask me if I am anything like Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen.

I used to be an angry chef guy. These days, I try not to get angry, as I don't like the emotion itself or the energy it consumes. Let's just say I am good at conveying a certain level of pressure...

Chefs never really eat a meal as we are constantly tasting throughout the day - we never seem to actually develop an appetite as we are continually grazing. I may go from tasting the salty flintiness of a Bluff oyster one minute to the earthy richness of a sheep's cheese the next.

The best thing I have ever had cooked for me was not cooked - it was sashimi in Tokyo.

I wish people would understand that chefs and restaurateurs are generous of spirit and are not here to rip you off. If people only realised how small our margins truly are, they would then realise what incredible value for money we represent.

I opened my first restaurant, Giverny, with my wife Julia, at the age of 21.

The best piece of advice I ever received was a quote I came across by Salvador Dali: "Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." The trick though, as I learned in anger management, is to not become bitter and twisted whilst in the pursuit of it.

I will never order soup if it's on the menu. Soups should be soothing and comforting. Too few cooks understand the art of making great soup and frequently my expectations of something ambrosial are never met.

My first memory is of pulling radishes out of the garden as a 5-year-old and being surprised by their brisk pepperiness when I bit into them.

I still get nostalgic about them every time I see them, and eat them with some butter and Maldon sea salt. Radishes appear frequently on my restaurant menus.

People would be surprised to know that my daughter's pet rat often sits on my shoulder when I write my columns.

I'd really hate it if someone caught me buying my socks at New World. For 10 years I have been buying the same black socks. It means that I always have a matching pair.

I wish the fashion police would ban three-quarter-length pants on men over 40.
I thought "what the hell am I doing" when I went to inspect a nest containing a crocodile egg when I lived in Far North Queensland - I got chased by the mother crocodile down Four Mile Beach.

* Martin Bosley owns Martin Bosley's Restaurant in Wellington. On April 18 he will take part in Dining for a Difference, a culinary extravaganza involving top chefs from New Zealand and Australia to raise funds for the Leukaemia & Blood Foundation.