Meet the Chef

Daniel Lee

Head Chef, Norris & Bell, TAURANGA

Korean American Daniel Lee, head chef at Tauranga’s Norris & Bell, grew up in San Diego, California before moving to New Zealand eight years ago. At first, he came to simply experience Aotearoa, but ended up staying and becoming a Kiwi.

Lee grew up in a hospitality background with his father a chef and mother a restaurant manager back in San Diego. Lee expressed that he fell in love with eating “day one of my life” and has spent the last 13 years in the industry.

“I started by helping my father in his kitchen, but never wanted to be a chef because I saw my Dad working long hours,” explained Lee.

“I started my first official job when I was a waiter at the Grand Hyatt in San Diego. A couple of weeks later the kitchen team were short staffed for a massive outdoor catering event, I got pulled into the kitchen to help on the hot-line and ended up loving the action and heat from the kitchen.”

Lee was also attracted to what food does to people, how it brings people together and he is motivated by the fact that there is always something new to learn as a chef.

“I’m constantly thinking of something new, or how to reinvent classic things my way, it’s a neverending job! And as crazy as it sounds, I do really love being in the action during service, to stress out, work under pressure with my team and then finish the day with a beer or a wine.”

Colin Norris and George Bell founded the aptly named Norris & Bell on The Strand around 1915 when only about 4,000 people called Tauranga home. Today, Norris & Bell represents exquisite care and attention, the steak and oyster restaurant draws on the rich history of its building and rich flavours to deliver a unique and nostalgiainspired dining experience.

Reinvented by restaurant developers Billy Emeny and Mohinder Sawroop, the restaurant has been influential in developing The Strand and Tauranga region.

Opening to the public in March 2021, Norris & Bell’s menu is designed with intriguing smells and tastes that draw out memories from a time past. Wood-fired prawns with the scent of a beach bonfire, charred pork with apple and apricot chutney reminiscent of Christmas day and fruit pie, and oysters with the foam, bubble, and salt of a day in the ocean waves.

Reflecting Norris & Bell’s ethos, Lee is always trying to work with what mother nature provides, changing the

menu every two-three months to work with seasonal ingredients.

“I work with different techniques, methods, and cuisines to get the best out of the ingredients I work with. I go based on Italian a lot of time. Simplicity and the seasonal flavours of Italian cuisine I have experienced myself gives me the inspirations all the time for how to use and work with seasonal ingredients.”

On top of the typical challenges that the COVID pandemic brought, including pivoting Norris & Bell’s offerings towards takeaway meals and at-home meal kits, Lee admitted that his biggest challenge was the mental health of his staff.

“It was so difficult to communicate and work over Zoom with my staff, even just to chat about how they were doing so would give a little menu creation task or lockdown dinner challenge so they could focus on something else.”

For Lee, it is his staff that make his job so rewarding, he loves developing their skills and getting them better than they were the day before.

“This just gives me so much satisfaction, seeing these young chefs growing together with me, inspired about food, loving what they are doing and getting satisfaction out of what they do in the kitchen.”

Eventually, Lee would like to open a restaurant similar to ‘Everybody Eats’ (a social endeavour that helps feed those with food insecurity once a week).

“I’ve volunteered with my kitchen team before and love what Everybody Eats does, but just thought ‘what if we can do this for everybody every day?’ Like I said, I love the way food brings people together and everyone deserves this.”

When he’s not in the kitchen, Lee’s favourite thing to do is go spearfishing, where he can be alone and think of nothing else but the water and finding dinner ingredients from the ocean. His advice to young chefs is to not give up, even when you’ve done something wrong.

“Learn from your mistakes and carry on. Make today better than yesterday, confidence follows.”

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