Renowned Kiwi chef Josh Emett is mentoring rising culinary star Alyxandra Jones. Now she’s preparing for work in world-class kitchens in Japan.
When Josh Emett was around Alyxandra Jones’ age, kitchen culture was nothing like it is now.
After three years working in a retirement home kitchen, at age 20, the former MasterChef NZ judge didn’t think twice about dropping everything to move into a grimy flat in London.
He spoke to his parents roughly every three months. He slept about four hours each night. He worked 100 hours a week.
“At least,” the now-52-year-old says, “I did that by choice ... I couldn’t have cared less how many hours I was working.
“I was firmly focused on how much I could learn in as quick a time as possible.”
It was a gung-ho move and a gung-ho mindset that changed his life. He spent the next 20 years working in London, New York, Los Angeles and Melbourne. More than a decade of that was for Gordon Ramsay.
The Hamilton native, who now resides in Tāmaki Makaurau, is an ambassador for Air New Zealand’s Dream Seats initiative. The campaign aims to help Kiwis achieve their dreams through travel and personal mentorship.
This is where Jones comes in. She will be mentored by the multi-Michelin-star chef. The pair met at Emett’s fine-dining restaurant Onslow recently.
Jones is 21. She’s just finished her degree in culinary arts. She found meeting Emett both “scary” and “really incredible”. And she’s determined to achieve a delicious dream in Japan.
“I’ve always been really inspired by Japanese techniques in particular, how they treat the ingredients and the food,” Jones says, adding how the precision, artistry, discipline, and working with seasonal ingredients “draw her in”.
She says her ultimate goal is to return to Aotearoa and open her own restaurant, incorporating the techniques, skills and philosophies she hopes to learn in Japan.
Jones has enjoyed cooking for so long that she can’t trace exactly when the passion sparked. But she does remember why.
“My dad definitely inspired me. Especially when I was younger. He would be cooking the most in the family.”
Girlhood in rural Te Kowhai for Jones meant hunting, fishing, fruit trees, sheep, chickens and big gardens. It is there Jones says she shaped her understanding of food, cooking and “respecting the land and the ingredients”.
Is she ready to grind like Emett did?
“I’ve not done a 100-hour work week before ... I will admit the prospect is a little bit scary, but I think once you’re in it, you just get used to it,” she says earnestly.
Emett, by his own admission, is a very open, very direct and very honest mentor: “I don’t sugarcoat things”.
But he doesn’t think working that many hours would be necessary for Jones. “I very much doubt she would have to do that,” he says.
The father-of-two explains that a lot of people who work standard hours in his restaurants then spend their days off learning a new language or working in another kitchen just to grow their knowledge.
“I think that’s more what it’s about; what do you do outside of work, what are you reading, what are you studying, what are you doing to continue yourself on that path.
“And I think [Jones is] firmly in that place, where she’s of the mindset that she needs to be in the right kitchen, and then what else can she do to put herself in a good spot to get up to Japan and make herself successful?”
The calm, candlelit luxury of Onslow was the perfect setting for him to share his first piece of wisdom with his mentee: the importance of goal setting. What it looks like, how to break it down, and how to compartmentalise it into different tasks.
“She wants to open a Japanese restaurant back in New Zealand in 10 years’ time. It’s a big goal. You need to simplify it down into: ‘okay, what does the next six months look like?’ And then once we take that off, what is the next year beyond that look like, and what do you want to achieve and break it down into really small [achievable] parts.
“It’s pencil and paper stuff, really,” he says.
On what he thinks young chefs need most to survive and thrive, Emett’s answer is as straightforward as you would expect from a person who once worked 100 hours a week by choice.
“Patience,” he says.
“[Young chefs] are often in such a hurry to get somewhere really quick. And it doesn’t work like that. You have to put in the time, and you have to really work on your knowledge and your learning.
“That doesn’t happen overnight.”
He cites the old school rules in some Japanese kitchens as an example, where a chef would only make rice for the first six to eight years, and only then would they move on to the fish section.
“It’s not all like that up there, but [Jones] probably knows that she has to be patient.”
In general, kitchen culture has softened. This is where Emett says he can help. He says it’s about getting in a good kitchen where you’re supported by the right people.
And his one piece of advice for other aspiring chefs chasing their dreams?
“Early on, you want to find what it is you really want to do, and then get really detailed about that pathway.
“That certainly helps you fast-track and get to the end result, probably a little bit quicker, versus going out and [for example] working in a fine dining restaurant deciding that’s not your love - [if] your love is great burgers, that’s where you want to specialise.”
Varsha Anjali is a journalist based in the lifestyle team at the Herald. Based in Auckland, she covers travel, culture, and more.