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Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow

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Speaker 1: this and our Wide Ranger podcast now on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Good afternoon. We're talking about becoming a chef. Is that

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Speaker 2: still a wise career choice? Met you at a family

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Speaker 2: member who said to your two boys, he forbade them

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Speaker 2: from ever getting into cheffing because it is an incredibly

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Speaker 2: tough profession and put him through the wringer.

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Speaker 3: Can I just say, Tyler before you continue on, it's Michelin,

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Speaker 3: not Michellin.

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Speaker 2: Michalin Michelin. It is French.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you thank you very much. You were saying Michelin.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Michelin, it's for bade and it's Michelin right on

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Speaker 2: the line right now. Is a fantastic person to chet

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Speaker 2: to Warwick Brown, he has been a chef, restaurant being

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Speaker 2: in the restaurant trade all his life, has worked for

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Speaker 2: Michelin restaurants in the bars as well. Warwick, very good

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Speaker 2: afternoon to you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, hi guys, is that the correct pronunciation that he's

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Speaker 3: getting there? Is it Michelin Michelin? So Warwick is cheffing

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Speaker 3: a career that you would recommend to a young person?

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Speaker 3: In twenty twenty five one.

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Speaker 4: Hundred percent, one hundred percent. It's like today's world becoming

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Speaker 4: a trade person, having a skill, whether it be a

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Speaker 4: draft person, electrician, plumber. Chef pulls into that category. Cheffing

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Speaker 4: is a fabulous business. It's a fabulous career to the end.

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Speaker 4: But just I'd like to know why people would not

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Speaker 4: recommend it. But you know, if you're an architect or

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Speaker 4: a designer or real estate agent, you're at the top

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Speaker 4: of your game. You're earning good money, good lifestyle, travel

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Speaker 4: the world. No different from becoming a chef. There are

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Speaker 4: loads of chefs out there worldwide, including New Zealand, who

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Speaker 4: work in kitchens. They work hard, they're passionate, but unfortunately

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Speaker 4: they don't move up the ladder. And what happens becoming

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Speaker 4: a chef, it's all about image. Can be very egotistical.

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Speaker 4: You need a profile. Once you have that profile, that

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Speaker 4: turns into dollars and that then turns into opportunities. And

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Speaker 4: there are lots of chefs in New Zealand that that's

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Speaker 4: happened to. I was one of the lucky ones. I

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Speaker 4: left school when I was fifteen. I did a food

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Speaker 4: and Beverage hotel management degree, became a chef, took off

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Speaker 4: to France and spent my early days working in very

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Speaker 4: high profile restaurants Wow, which basically gave me my ground spot.

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Speaker 3: So when you say you have been very successful and

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Speaker 3: you know you have to have your profile, and you

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Speaker 3: also describe yourself as lucky, this is probably a difficult

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Speaker 3: question to answer. But there's twenty five thousand chefs in

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Speaker 3: New Zealand currently. What percentage of them can expect to

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Speaker 3: do very well?

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Speaker 4: Five percent?

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Speaker 2: Right?

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Speaker 3: So then would you say so when you say it's

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Speaker 3: a great profession, is it a great profession if you

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Speaker 3: start off and you have all how quickly can you

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Speaker 3: notice that? Because someone might spend thirty years in go

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Speaker 3: nowhere shifting, But how quickly could you tell if you

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Speaker 3: were one of the people that was going to be

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Speaker 3: like you and was going to be a superstar.

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Speaker 4: I've had many young chefs work for me in all

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Speaker 4: the restaurants that I've had in Auckland over the years,

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Speaker 4: and they've gone on to become great chefs. They're working

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Speaker 4: in Australia, they're working in London, they're working in New York,

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Speaker 4: they're working, they're doing extremely well. It's very difficult in

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Speaker 4: New Zealand. New Zealand at the moment, it's got some

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Speaker 4: great restaurants. It has and this is debatable for me.

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Speaker 4: It has reasonable food, reasonable has great restaurants. It struggles

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Speaker 4: to get staff that are dedicated and passionate because go

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Speaker 4: back fifteen twenty years ago, owner operators were at fault.

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Speaker 4: They didn't have great facilities, They built terrible kitchens, they

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Speaker 4: never invested funds, they had bad equipment for chefs, and

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Speaker 4: this will reflects on the job and the capabilities that

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Speaker 4: you can run a good menu at. Fast forward to

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty five. It's improved, but if you look at

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Speaker 4: what's available around the world, New Zealand is very dead

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Speaker 4: in that market. We just do not spend the money

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Speaker 4: in those kinds of environments to attract good workers.

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Speaker 2: Right looking at and I want to come back to

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Speaker 2: that Warwick. But this image that we have of particularly

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Speaker 2: at the high level, and you've been at the highest

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Speaker 2: you can get in the world, but you think about

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Speaker 2: the pressure cooker environment and it's dramatized and the beer

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Speaker 2: and Gordon Ramsey and Marco Pyear, is that truly what

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Speaker 2: it's like at that level? And is that why some

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Speaker 2: chiefs just don't make the distance.

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Speaker 4: Twenty five years ago, I would say it was twenty

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Speaker 4: twenty five, I would say it's not. For the last

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Speaker 4: ten years I spent I spent five months of the

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Speaker 4: year traveling the world looking at food ideas. I'm about

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Speaker 4: to leave in two weeks time for five months in Europe,

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Speaker 4: and I visit kitchens, markets, hospitals, airline catering kitchens. You

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Speaker 4: do not see that environment anymore right now.

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Speaker 3: There's a certain amount of creativity in becoming an high

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Speaker 3: level shift like yourself, what work, But a lot of

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Speaker 3: people wouldn't ever. You know, a lot of people would

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Speaker 3: spend their career as a shift just making other people's recipes. Right,

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Speaker 3: How hard is it to move up from being someone

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Speaker 3: that's making the food to someone that's creating the menu

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Speaker 3: and arguably creating food art.

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Speaker 4: Well, you know, you have to be very passionate about food.

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Speaker 4: You have to be prepared for long hours. I remember,

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Speaker 4: going back quite a few years now, especially when I

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Speaker 4: had Chinchin, which was a big, high profile restaurant in Auckland,

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Speaker 4: one hundred hours a week would be nothing to me.

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Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, bag out and that's not for everyone wick.

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Speaker 4: No, No, it's not. Then, But then you know, there

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Speaker 4: are thousands of young kids who are plumbers, who are

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Speaker 4: great plumbers, and then there's five to scent of those

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Speaker 4: plumbers who are innovative, passionate, come up with new ideas

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Speaker 4: and have their own business and employ people no different

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Speaker 4: from a chef. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Now, I just want to come back to what you

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Speaker 2: said about our food scene, Warwick and the investment that's

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Speaker 2: needed and the quality of our offering. Is that partly

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Speaker 2: to do with our culture here in New Zealand, that

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Speaker 2: we don't tend to go out as much as we should,

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Speaker 2: that there's not that backing traditionally from the from the punter.

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Speaker 4: So which next week when I'm flying to I'm flying

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Speaker 4: to est Opona, which is in southern Spain. So I

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Speaker 4: spend quite a bit of time in Marbeya, Spain, and

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Speaker 4: then I go up to San Sebastian. The streets will

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Speaker 4: be dead up until ten o'clock at night. From ten

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Speaker 4: till two in the morning, every restaurant is ramped, jam packed, bars,

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Speaker 4: tapest bars, everybody having a fabulous time. Because in Europe

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Speaker 4: people have small accommodations, they live on the street. Come

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Speaker 4: back to New Zealand, we have big villas, in Mount Eden,

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Speaker 4: we all go into our villa, closed the door, the

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Speaker 4: streets are dead.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, no you continue, sorry, sorry, Warrick.

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Speaker 4: So it's that type of environment, you know that. And

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Speaker 4: also we've got five million people that live in New Zealand,

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Speaker 4: probably only four and then you've got Auckland City which

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Speaker 4: has just had a blowout of restaurant developments. There are

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Speaker 4: some that are that are opening up in the last

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Speaker 4: three or four months with high profile operators obviously being

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Speaker 4: recognized over the weekend and the rewards, and they do

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Speaker 4: really well. But if you dig drill down into those owners,

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Speaker 4: they're high profile owners that have worked one hundred hours

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Speaker 4: a week over the years.

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Speaker 3: So we've got this text here coming through just finally,

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Speaker 3: thank you so much for you call, really appreciate it.

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Speaker 3: But the top five percent, this person's said, how much

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Speaker 3: money would the top five percent make? What could you

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Speaker 3: expect if you do well to make as a chef?

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Speaker 4: Okay, So so if you forget about being an owner operator, right,

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Speaker 4: So say, for instance, you are a high profile chef,

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Speaker 4: So let's let's let's look at Superyots New Zealand. Chef

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Speaker 4: from the main Superot office in at even the southern France.

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Speaker 4: They are a wanted commodity. They want New Zealand chefs.

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Speaker 4: They love them. So I put a chef on a

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Speaker 4: job five months ago, big, big boat, one hundred and

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Speaker 4: twenty five meters crew of forty. His salary twelve thousand

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Speaker 4: euros net tax free per week.

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Speaker 2: That is big money.

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Speaker 4: Okay. So that's on a super yocht where there's no

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Speaker 4: such word as no. If you say no, they'll put

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Speaker 4: you off the boat and find someone else.

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Speaker 3: Just in the kitchen, Yeah, just in the kitchen.

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Speaker 4: So for that, the owners prepared to pay you that

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Speaker 4: kind of money.

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Speaker 2: What's another one hundred thousand euro a year? You wouldn't

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Speaker 2: say no, would you?

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Speaker 4: Correct? So another good friend of mine, he's Canadian but

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Speaker 4: has lived in New Zealand. He's the vice president of

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Speaker 4: Emirates Flight Kitchen. He's on two hundred and twenty thousand

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Speaker 4: US year.

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Speaker 3: All right, So it's if you're in the top five percent,

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Speaker 3: then you can do very well. Thank you so much

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Speaker 3: for your call.

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Speaker 2: Fascinating chat. Thank you very much. That was Warwick Brown,

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Speaker 2: renowned restaurant tour and chef.

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Speaker 1: For more from News Talks b listen live on air

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