5 MINUTES WITH ... // Hayden McMillan
Hayden McMillan The Neptune head chef on finding your own style, creating innovative food and working for yourself. I ALWAYS LIKED cooking from a young
Style changes as you get older, as you
source as much sustainable seafood
amazing cooks or anything — it’s not one
with food. Until then, your style mirrors
grilled meats over charcoal, so we’re
age. My Mum and my Grandma weren’t
of those stories. I liked cooking at home
and school wasn’t for me, so I left pretty early and went straight to university in Auckland to train as a chef.
It wasn’t until I worked at Vinnies — one
of the best restaurants in New Zealand
(now closed) — that I saw the potential to make a real career out of it. I was always serious about it because I wanted to be good, but that was the next level up.
I was 25 when I got the head chef job
at TriBeCa, which was pretty young. You
can get a start in New Zealand because the industry is a bit smaller. Once you work at enough places, you become in demand. 26 | Hospitality
cook more and have more experiences a lot of the places you work at. When I was at Etta, I really found my own style. It’s always been sort of fresh,
lighter and produce-driven. Some of the
as we possibly can. We’re doing
sourcing grass-fed beef, and we’re doing some really awesome vegetarian dishes as well.
I left Etta so I could have more
stronger dishes I’ve made have all been
flexibility with my family. When you have
more of a challenge to turn a pumpkin
to make those sacrifices, like late nights,
vegetarian, for some reason. I find it
into something special compared to a
steak. Chefs should always innovate in
some way or another. The job is to give people something they can’t recreate at home.
The brief at Neptune is to create a
coastal Italian menu, so we’re trying to
a child, it changes things. I don’t want anymore. Working for other people is
also exciting. At Etta, we didn’t really
have a brief. I guess I felt the pressure
to be original and do things that hadn’t
been done. At Neptune, I don’t feel like
I have re-write everything. I’m enjoying going down the rabbit hole but staying within the brief.
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