A former student returns with lessons for Grant Allen.
The tables had turned and the teacher was now the pupil. Alex Mackay was in my kitchen showing me his latest tricks.
Twenty five years ago Alex was in our kitchen at Pierre's restaurant in Wellington, completing the final year in his apprenticeship. As bosses, he thought Pierre was down right scary and I was tough. Loping around the kitchen like a loose giraffe, Alex was mischievous, high energy and often in trouble at polytech for challenging his tutors. He was totally likeable and he was deadly serious about food.
He catapulted himself into the world and as fate would have it ended up in the English kitchens of famous French chef Raymond Blanc. No mean feat for a boy who had left Wellington two years earlier not speaking a word of French.
Success followed success and now, way down the track, I am being issued warnings about swearing (in my own kitchen) and told to stop mucking around.
