From Paris to paradise
From French bistros to New York dreams, globe-trotting chef Paul Patterson has found his anchor at Ōhiwa Harbour's Fisherman’s Wharf.
words SUE HOFFART
photos CLAIRE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHY
Fijian-Kiwi chef Paul Patterson admits it was fun rather than food that lured him into commercial kitchens. The Ōhope restaurateur was 15 when he began washing dishes in a city pizzeria, relishing the vibrant social scene and comparative maturity of his female workmates. But everything shifted on the night a short-staffed chef called him to the stove.
“I was chucked in the deep end and I loved it,” he says. “By the time I was 16, I was half-running the pizza joint.”
So began a culinary career that has taken him to Paris, New York and to the Waiheke Island bowling club. He has flown to Glastonbury music festival to cook for celebrities and once scooped an award at the barbeque world championships in the American city of Memphis.
There have been a few additional stops along the way, too. Like starting a horticulture degree and completing an auto engineering diploma, with stints as a drainlayer, a security guard and photographer for a music industry magazine. Not to mention appearances on reality television show The Bachelorette. “But I always end up back in the kitchen.”
Now, at 40, he is settling into small-town life while casting for kingfish out the window of the Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant he has purchased on the edge of Ōhiwa Harbour. It was an act of charity that introduced him to the coastal community three years ago.
Paul had agreed to donate a personal chef experience for an animal welfare fundraising event, held at the Ōhope Beach Golf Links clubhouse each year. On that first visit, he was gobsmacked by the stunning beach backed by rolling hills and an especially relaxing rural ambiance.
During a subsequent stay, for the same event, he discovered a wharfside eatery with a bank of wooden windows that overlook darting stingrays, sailboats and a waterway stocked with fresh oysters.
Paul claims he pestered the previous owner into selling. Last year, he and partner Sarah Day moved their toddler son Hendrix to Ōhope to immerse themselves in a different kind of life.
“It’s a really beautiful place and this region is amazing, with the water and the bush. I can watch people floundering out the front here and 40 minutes’ drive from work, I can shoot a deer. A 40 minute boat ride and I can catch a marlin.
“I have customers with a gin distillery and there’s an island across the harbour with an avocado orchard on it. You can’t really beat it.”
Paul admits he was vastly less enthusiastic about the New Zealand lifestyle when Covid forced him to leave his central Parisian apartment and fly home in March 2020. He had been living on the banks of the Seine river, working as a restaurant consultant responsible for opening more than a dozen eateries in Paris and beyond.
In fact, he was weeks from launching an eatery in New York’s Lower Manhattan when the global pandemic scuppered not only the restaurant but his own plan to live part of the year on that side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Suddenly, Paris became eerily empty and Paul’s Fijian-born mother and Kiwi dad begged him to return to Auckland. He found himself marooned, unable to return to the bright lights of his former life and unsure how to move forward in his homeland.
It was, he says, a tough pill to swallow. So he dug drains to fund a new restaurant business in Parnell. When that didn’t work out, he moved to Waiheke Island to run the kitchen inside the island’s sole bowling club.
During his tenure, membership swelled from 300 to 900 members. His brief and unlikely screen career was sparked by an unsolicited casting call for The Bachelorette. He said no. However, he warmed to the idea after a few too many glasses of Bourbon with friends.
“And, actually, it was great. It was definitely a fun experience. You learn a lot about yourself. You’re stuck in a house with no phones, no music, no TV, so you have a lot of time to be in your own head. It was therapy.”
As always, he returned to his chef whites. “Yes, I love the food, the creativity, the thrill of getting a menu perfect but it’s more than that. For me, the kitchen is a place of crazy ups and downs, with a lot of emotions and a lot of pressure. You’re forever chasing something, trying to fix something, get better service, a better dining experience, better leadership of your staff. It’s addictive.”
On April 5, Paul will host a ‘Scales and Ales’ beer and seafood event for the Flavours of Plenty Festival. His ‘Cray Tales and Cocktails’ evening is scheduled for the following Saturday.
