"Damon McGinniss gave me the passion and the desire to take it to the next level."
Mr Martin landed a job as junior sous chef at the world-famous Treetops Luxury Lodge and said the highlight was "cooking for a lot of famous actors like Jack Black, Adrien Brodie and Sigourney Weaver". He also was involved with New Zealand chef Charles Royal trialling indigenous Maori food trials.
He had also worked at Peppers and at the Regent Boutique Hotel, where he was head chef.
He realised if he wanted to work at a higher level he needed to move and so he shifted to Melbourne. In his first week he was given an opportunity to work at Attica, rated by Melbourne's The Age as Australia's best restaurant with a top-three hat rating. He was also offered a trial at The Press Club and spent 15-hour days working and eventually was offered a position.
Mr Martin said the big difference in Melbourne was the quality of food, the different variety of produce and that the standards are so high. "It's amazing, it's like chef heaven."
While in Rotorua, he loved using local and indigenous flavours like kawakawa and horopito "because most travellers had never heard of it and it was something different". Now in Australia he's using Australian indigenous produce, such as sea lettuce, salt bush, clover, quandong and wattle seed. "It's amazing and currently a lot of restaurants around the world are utilising their native ingredients, which I think is great."
Mr Martin's goal is to learn as much as he can. "Eventually, I want to open my own restaurant and just share with the world my passion for great food and good service."
The one thing he wanted to mention was he treated food like technology that has to be updated from time to time.
"If you set your standards high - aim for the top - and have passion for food, anything is possible. Good things come to those who wait."
