6 minute read
Chef of the Month
A Homeless Head Chef With Rock Star Connections - Trent Watson
Now the self-confessed ‘homeless head chef’ of a number of five-star prime downtown Queenstown properties, Trent Watson has carved a niche for himself in a career that he’s passionate about.
Officially, head chef at Queenstown’s No.5 Church Lane Restaurant in the upmarket, downtown Spire Hotel, Trent also helps oversee food at the sophisticated sister property, Eichardt’s Hotel and Bar nearby. He’s private chef on the Imperium Group’s private lake cruiser too. The group also owns The Grille by Eichardt’s where Trent is also currently acting head chef - thus his quirky title.
At 38, Trent has been a chef for 20 years, starting out as a part-time kitchen hand for his last two years at high school in hometown Hamilton. “I managed to obtain a ‘B’ Bursary and thought I’d take a year off before heading to University so I kept working,” he says. Somehow he got into the groove of hospitality’s late night hours working at The Wood Box in Hamilton, loved the people he was associating with and stayed five years.
“It became my passion. I just got better at it and I’ve never been able to let go,” he says. “I loved the adrenalin rush of a busy service, having to be fast and accurate, then a few drinks after a busy night.” >>
By what he terms ‘blind luck’, Trent then stepped into his dream job, working summers for a catering company working for rock stars and musicians touring New Zealand and Australia. “I just seem to be that person who falls into things,” he says. “I was in my mid-20s and walked into a restaurant where I saw a friend who’d trained with me at Polytech. I was in between jobs and had just finished working a summer on the Coromandel. These concert catering guys needed a chef for the weekend so I jumped into it,” he says.
That was to become his life for the next four or five very busy summers, feeding stars like Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton and Meatloaf. “We’d be feeding anywhere from 15 to 100 people at some of those big concerts, including media, the act and roadies,” he says. “It was really exciting and I was working with good chefs. It was something completely new and we were driving out a quality product in less than ideal conditions – camp burners, big stock pots, one barbeque and one gas camp cooker at times.”
Delicious seafood cooked by Trent and served on Lake Wanaka’s stunning waterfront.
The hours were long and hard – 15 to 16-hour days, seven days in a row. “One year I was cooking on tour with Taylor Swift. I’d done her concerts for two years (summers) and I was telling her manager how it was the first St Patrick’s Day that I’d worked in years. She walked past and overheard me so she sent one of the roadies out to buy me a six-pack of Guinness.”
Dolly Parton was one of Trent’s favourites. “She’s a lovely lady, one of the nicest people I’ve ever come across, super polite and humble,” he says. “She would take the time to come and thank us for the food personally and was really genuine about it.”
Trent finished this work six years ago and says it was just the beginning of the new healthy food craze, with some of the stars having explicit dietary requirements, and some vegan, which was still relatively new back then. “It was a nice way to be exposed to this early on.”
Lady Gaga was the only star who brought her own English chef halfway around the world to join them in the kitchen….just to fry her kale. “It was a very cool job for him but not so satisfying,” smiles Trent. “There are only a few ways you can cook kale.” The chef enjoyed his time, joining in the banter with Trent and the others though.
Breakfast was usually omelettes or frittatas, or whatever the stars wanted. “We just made it happen.” The crew ate much more hearty food, always two or three proteins like fish, pork, beef or chicken, served up with interesting salads in a high-end buffet style.
Trent was working among anything from eight to 10 chefs up to 30 or 40, all rotating shows with their different skill sets.
“This is where I really learned a love for being a chef and cooking for people, that interaction with people,” he says. “Before that I was just cooking to pay the mortgage and the bills, but this was a one on one context and you could see people really appreciating what you’d prepared as we dined in the same room as the acts guests and road crew.”
The crew and company Trent was working for had been doing this gig for 10 years so they were very practised at any disaster management. It was a skill that every member of the team quickly acquired, he says.
So when last year’s Covid crisis hit, Trent says he pretty much just swung into gear and knew how to adapt, although it was challenging, to say the least. “I feel like I coped quite well after that experience working backstage on concert tours. I’ve always been able to deal with issues and disasters with good professionalism,” he says. “Nothing’s a problem. You’ve just got to come up with a solution.”
Winters were spent skiing and working, just enough to pay his way with four winters around Mt Ruapehu, where he met his American wife, Bianca, and several winters at Broken River in Canterbury working in ski lodges.
He and Bianca also spent a winter working and skiing in Whistler before travelling around the United States. In the south Trent developed a love for fried chicken. “We’d stop at every little Mama and Papa fried chicken restaurant along the way. Every state was so different in its geography, culture and accent. It was like travelling to a different country.”
The couple were married in New Orleans before moving back to New Zealand and settling in Queenstown where Trent says he endured a few not so satisfying chef roles before being allowed to let his creative juices flow in the position at No.5. He says he thrives working with good quality chefs in a good quality venue, where chefs are enthusiastic and reliable.
For him the most satisfying aspect of the job is constantly being challenged to come up with something new every day, working with new techniques. “I like to challenge myself and grow, to be a little better every day.”
He also enjoys a good read and has recently finished Hiakai Restaurant founder Monique Fiso’s book which he says really inspired him.
The French Laundry and Per se, by Thomas Keller, has also been the source of some fresh ideas.
“One of my favourites has been an old Edmond’s Cookbook from the 1940s,” says Trent. “I suppose we’ve got to look back into that window from the past to know our history, what our grandmother was probably taught to cook by her great grandmother,” he says. “As a nation we’re so short in our history and we’ve already lost some of our early cooking history.”
