Elisabeth Easther talks to the executive chef of Hectors Restaurant at Auckland's Heritage Hotel.
Back in Ōtāhuhu in the 1980s, I was a European kid in a mainly Polynesian area. Many of my neighbours were from Thailand, Laos and Cambodia and all my friends from school were Māori, Tongan or Samoan, so I was exposed to lots of cultures and I was always eating lots of different food. I remember how my neighbours' grandparents would marinate beef, then put it on skewers and stick it outside in the sun.
They'd just leave it there for three or four days and, when it was super-dry, they'd eat it with sticky rice.
Nothing fazes me when it comes to eating, although with my job today, I think much more in terms of a vegan philosophy even though I'm still an omnivore. I want to know where my food comes from and I want to know what's in it.
I went on a school trip to Noumea when I was about 14. De La Salle College wasn't a posh school, but somehow those of us learning French ended up going to New Caledonia. We were staying right next to where Whāngārei Girls' High School was staying — that was a lot of laughs. But even worse, it turned out the drinking age in Noumea was 12, or something like that. When we realised we could buy alcohol, there was a little bit of drunkenness but there was lots of cool stuff too and we experienced the culture. They're so chilled. Their culture is all about take it slow, eat, drink, enjoy, but don't get wasted. I'm sure we learnt some French too.