Kitchen whizz

Rotorua chef Andy Russell's latest project is teaching others what he's learnt through 10 years in the industry. REBECCA DEVINE talks to the man behind a new wave of cooking lessons.

I'm an interested cook and am very interested in reading recipe books

but [Russell's lessons] are a form of entertainment. M ost blokes would feel just a wee bit out of place standing in a kitchen giving a group of gals tips on how to perfect their rice.

And they'd be just as uncomfortable debating the merits of using chicken thighs over chicken breast.

For some men the kitchen is still the woman's domain - but not for Rotorua chef Andy Russell.

He's been taking kitchens around the world by storm and his latest forte is giving cooking tips to others - some of whom have been cooking for longer than he's been alive.

This is just the small time for the 27-year-old.

Soon he'll be arriving in homes throughout the country as the chef promoting Harvey Norman's products.

He's also in the process of launching a website where people from throughout New Zealand can log on and watch his cooking lessons online - as well as get tips like how to pick the best fruit and veges.

Then the goal is to travel to Australia, perhaps Asia, to do cooking tours.

It's a big step for the Rotorua-bred boy who is described as shy. But his ambitions are even bigger.

Russell makes no secret of the fact that he wants to be the next big name in culinary circles. And not just in New Zealand.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is one of his favourites and he has a pile of Oliver's cookbooks in his own library.

But Russell says he's not going to stop until Oliver is looking at his books for a bit of culinary inspiration.

He loves food - all of it. Russell doesn't believe that any foods lack merit and reckons he'll eat anything. He admits he questions the merit of tripe but reckons it's just a matter of time until he masters a way to make it taste fabulous.

Cooking has been part of Russell's life for more than a decade.

He first got serious about cooking in high school and started entering a few competitions. He then went on to study to to be a chef at Waiariki Institute of Technology.

But that wasn't enough.

Russell decided he didn't just want to be learning the trade, he wanted to be doing it at the same time.

Russell applied for a job at Rotorua restaurant Poppy's Villa but was told there were no jobs going.

But a small point like that wasn't going to deter him.

Russell offered to work for free.

He started the next day and was there for two-and-a-half years. At 18 he won the Under 25 Chef of the Year award.

Don Macfarlane was the owner of Poppy's Villa Restaurant when Russell came looking for the job. While he had dozens of young chefs wanting experience, Russell stood out as a "very, very dedicated young fella".

Macfarlane remembers Russell's work ethic as being one of his stand-out features and isn't surprised he's gone on to do some great things.

"I suppose in the end there are two things that make a great chef. It's a bit like an artist ... some people can draw and some can't. You have to have a certain flair to start off with.

"The second is being prepared to learn and study and try new things and not confine themselves to one area."

Macfarlane laughs when he hears Russell say he doesn't want to stop his cooking crusade until he's got the celebrity chefs reading his recipes.

It just shows the dedication Macfarlane always knew Russell had - and he wouldn't be one bit surprised if Russell achieved it.

When Russell left Poppy's Villa he ended up, almost accidentally, in the lap of luxury.

He wanted to get into work on cruise ships when he saw an advertisement looking for chefs on a superyacht.

Russell didn't even know what a superyacht was - but this was destined to be another big break for the chef.

Russell went for an interview and says he came back with his tail between his legs.

He then got a call asking him to return to Auckland to cook for some of the owner's friends.

He describes loading up his old car full of chilly bins and reckons he felt more than a little out of his depth when he showed up at this "enormous" home cooking for a group of people including the late Sir Peter Blake and Peter Montgomery .

It wasn't until Blake yelled out to him "What are you - a real chef? Then why aren't you making some noise", that Russell ended up relaxing.

Before long he was in London boarding a superyacht and working for an English multimillionaire.

"That was my break. I'd never really been on a boat before."

He sailed around the Mediterranean before travelling to Auckland for the America's Cup when he started working on an even bigger boat for a German billionaire.

While Russell says it was fantastic with no expenses and great tax-free money, after four years on the high seas he made a lifestyle choice to come back home.

"I couldn't keep doing this and not having a life."

He decided he didn't want to work in a restaurant so started his own business. Tauranga's Pluto health bar opened two years ago and Rotorua's branch opened this year.

His latest business addition has been cooking classes at Rotorua's Indigo Cafe, which have proved so popular he's had to turn people away.

For Russell, it's not the food he loves most, it's the expression on people's faces when presenting them with a meal.

"You can see them wonder how you have done it."

And there's no better satisfaction than teaching others the tricks of the trade and seeing their faces when they come back and have cooked it themselves.

He doesn't mind the calls he's started getting from people halfway through a recipe double checking things either - they just come with the territory.

Cooking, and entertaining, has become hip and Russell is seeing a new generation of people who are willing to give it a go.

"You look back to our parents' age, most knew how to look after themselves but times have changed.

"Everyone is so busy, they spend more time at work and are so tired when they get home they have takeaways and processed meals."

It's not just the young ones that turn up at Russell's cooking classes who don't know one type of rice from another.

Russell's had chefs as well as keen foodies attend.

One of them is Joy Cathcart, who reckons going to the classes has just made her more interested.

"I've been to demonstrations before. I'm an interested cook and am very interested in reading recipe books but these are a form of entertainment."

Cathcart agrees cooking has become trendy.

"There's a lot more cooking shows on television and a lot more products in shops to be able to use."

She tried Thai food for the first time at Russell's lessons and has learned how to use different foods like black rice - foods she may have just walked past in the supermarket before, not confident enough to use.

Russell believes everyone can learn to cook - nobody is a lost cause, he says.

Mum Yvonne Russell knows that's true. She admits she almost fell over when her son came to her saying he wanted to be a chef, but now can't imagine it any other way.

Since then she's been there encouraging him as well as giving him the odd recipe.

Pushed, she admits it hasn't always been smooth-sailing for her son in the kitchen.

There was a case of some baking, a pumpkin pie if memory serves her right, being tossed into the garden at 2am after a bit of a disaster.

And he did call her for a bit of advice on porridge after it turned out a bit lumpy when he made it on one of the superyachts.

But all in all Mum isn't surprised with how far Russell's come and says one of his best traits is one that doesn't traditionally go hand in hand with chefs - the ability to keep his cool at all times.