Ring of Confidence

BEN MILLS, NZ LIFE & LEISURE'S NEW GUEST CHEF, CREDITS HIS CULINARY KUDOS TO THE WOMEN IN HIS FAMILY.

Words: Lyn Barnes  Photographs: Mark Smith

BEN MILLS IS ONLY 26 but already he’s the head chef at dine by Peter Gordon, one of the most prestigious restaurants in the country. He started there in a lesser role three years ago when it first opened in Auckland. Now he’s back and at the helm when Peter Gordon is not in town.

Since graduating from Auckland University of Technology in 1999, Ben has notched up an enviable resumé and his future couldn’t look brighter. For as long as he can remember, he’s enjoyed cooking. Thanks to his great-aunt – “a great baker” – his grandmother and mother, Ben had the right role models for what he describes as  “good, simple, home-based cooking”, where the trusty Edmonds Cookery Book provided much of the food for thought.

That grounding stood him in good stead for what was to come. After leaving Rosmini College on Auckland’s North Shore where he grew up, he headed to AUT where he was inspired by several of his lecturers. His first job was part-time at Sausalito in Northcote where he worked as a kitchen hand and occasionally cooked pizzas before he moved to BT Café on Birkenhead Avenue. It was here that Ben learned to appreciate what he terms “scratch work”, handmaking everything from pasta to chutneys and sauces. “Although it was simple café food, the owner would use fresh corn kernels [instead of canned]. I got a good appreciation of going the extra mile.”

Ben then worked with entrepreneurial couple Megan Watson and Anthony Joseph who had just opened New Deli in Albany near their New City Bistro. There, Ben worked alongside Warren Wood – “an awesome head chef” – and was involved in establishing the couple’s next venture, New Brew. After two and a half years, and wanting to acquire some fine-dining skills, Ben was about to send a job-seeking letter to legendary restaurateur Tony Astle, the owner of Antoine’s in Parnell. At the same time he heard that Tony, along with Jeremy Schmid and Simon Gault, two well-known Auckland chefs, was opening Palazzo Roma, a stylish restaurant at Drury, south of Auckland. It meant a 90km drive each day for the next 18 months but Ben says he became Jeremy’s “little helper”. “There were essentially just the two of us. It was full-on with around 60 to 70 diners most nights.”

When Jeremy headed overseas in 2003 to study charcuterie, Ben was keen to work at Auckland’s multi-award-winning French Café. Simon Gault put in a good word for him with owner and head chef Simon Wright and soon Ben was “putting in some of the most serious, dedicated moments of my life”. Experience-wise he says it was invaluable, even though he describes it as a year of exhaustion. Thankfully Kate, his girlfriend at the time and now his wife (they married in March), stuck by him as she saw his enthusiasm.

Towards the end of 2004 Jeremy started manufacturing his Little Boys sausages in Te Aroha so Ben went to help. Most days after 3pm the pair would head off mountain-bike riding. “It was magic, just hanging out.” He also did a stint with the Great Catering Company back in Auckland, working just days instead of days and evenings, so he could spend some quality time with Kate. A call from Simon Wright to help out during the summer of 2005 saw Ben back in The French Café kitchen. He then headed back to work with Jeremy once again.

Print

12next ›last »