Q&A with Simon Gault, high-flying chef

He’s known for his fervour for food, but as PJ TAYLOR discovers, there’s more to Simon Gault, the master of the kitchen. 

Where were you born and grew up?

I was born and raised in Auckland, and my earliest memories are of growing up in Papakura when it was a very different place to what it is today. My dad worked at Ardmore Airfield, and back then there was farmland all around us and not even footpaths on the street where we lived. It felt a bit more rural than suburban.

We later moved closer into Auckland city, but those early years in Papakura gave me a real appreciation for the outdoors and a pretty simple Kiwi upbringing. When I drive through the area now, it’s amazing to see how much it has grown and changed since those days.

Where did you go to school?

I started school at Sir Edmund Hillary School in Papakura before moving to Orakei Primary. After that I attended King’s School and then King’s College, where I stayed through to completing School Certificate. I was never the sort of student who was top of the class. To be honest, I probably did just enough to get by.

What I’m grateful for are the teachers who took an interest in me and encouraged me along the way. When it came time to decide what I wanted to do, there was quite a bit of pressure to go to university. I wanted to become a chef. Thankfully, my housemaster and my parents were very supportive and encouraged me to follow that path.

How did you decide on a career in cooking? Were you always interested in food preparation and creation?

I’ve wanted to be a chef for as long as I can remember. Both my mum and dad loved cooking and were very good at it, but Mum was definitely in charge of the kitchen. She was an exceptional cook who was always trying new recipes and experimenting with different flavours and ideas.

Looking back, Mum probably had a bigger influence on me becoming a chef than anyone. Dad, meanwhile, was the king of the barbecue. It was always charcoal until one day a very flash gas barbecue arrived, which was a pretty big deal at the time. They also had friends in the hospitality industry, so from a young age I was lucky enough to spend time around restaurants and commercial kitchens. Every chance I got, I’d wander into the kitchen to see what was going on.

What fascinated me wasn’t just the food. It was the energy, the teamwork and the way one person could bring everything together. To me, the chef was like the conductor of an orchestra, coordinating all these moving parts that ultimately ended up as plates of food in front of happy customers. I was convinced from a very early age that was what I wanted to do, and I never really changed my mind.

Where and when did your connection with east Auckland begin?

My connection with east Auckland began when I was 23 and had just returned from an OE in Europe, where I’d been cooking and learning as much as I could. On the way home, I also spent some time in Los Angeles, working in restaurants in Beverly Hills before eventually returning to New Zealand. When I got back, I was determined to get my hands on a restaurant of my own.

As luck would have it, there was an old house built in 1851 sitting empty at the Howick Historic Village. It had been a restaurant called Bell’s Farmhouse, but it had gone bust and was being sold cheaply enough that I could actually afford it. I took a deep breath, jumped in and reopened it as Bell House.

Back then the road outside was still gravel, with there was a rugby club next door, and east Auckland was very different to what it is today. That little restaurant at the Howick Historic Village became the starting point of my restaurant career.

What makes a good cook?

People often think being a good cook is about talent, but I don’t think that’s true. The best cooks are curious, pay attention to detail, and genuinely care about the people they’re cooking for. Cooking is a skill you develop over time. The more you cook, the better you get. Most importantly, a good cook gets satisfaction from seeing other people enjoy what they’ve made.

You’ve enjoyed media spotlight because of your cooking prowess and enthusiastic passion for cuisine. What are the things you like about being a high-profile cook?

To be honest, it’s never really been the profile that interested me. What I’ve enjoyed is the opportunity it has given me to share my passion for food with a much wider audience. The funny thing is that my television career almost started with a disaster. My first appearance was a live cooking segment on the Good Morning show. I’d never been on television before and was happily cooking away when the casserole dish I was using started making some very strange noises. I remember thinking something wasn’t right, so I quickly transferred the chicken into another pot. A few seconds later the original dish exploded live on air and sent bits everywhere. I thought my television career had lasted all of five minutes, so I just carried on cooking and pretended it was all part of the plan. Afterwards, the producer came down and said: “That was gold television. Can you come back next week?” Somehow that disaster turned into the start of my television career.

What I’ve enjoyed most since then is helping people become more confident in the kitchen. The profile is really just a by-product of doing something I genuinely love.

When did you get a taste for aviation? Do you fly?

My love of aviation came from my dad. He flew aeroplanes and taught people to fly, and as a kid I thought he had the coolest job in the world. He also had the best office, with a constantly changing view thousands of feet above the ground. When I decided I wanted to learn to fly myself, I was 16 years old. I started at the Auckland Gliding Club in Drury and on my days off I’d hitch a ride, catch a train, do whatever I could to get out there and spend time around the gliders. That’s where I learned the fundamentals of flying and developed a lifelong passion for aviation.

One thing I’ve always loved about the club is that it’s a real club in the old-fashioned sense of the word. The instructors are incredibly skilled pilots, but they volunteer their time because they genuinely love flying and want others to experience it as well. Everyone mucks in. If a glider needs pushing, you push it. If someone needs a hand launching, you help. There’s also a fantastic social side to it, with the clubhouse being a place where lifelong friendships are made.

A lot of people think gliders just go up and float back down again, but they’re actually remarkable machines. They can fly long distances, stay airborne for hours and teach you more about flying than just about any other aircraft. What I particularly love is seeing young people get involved. My daughter Hazel is now learning to fly at the club, which has been pretty special to watch. The best part is that it was her idea, not mine. She wanted to do it herself.

What can be learned from aviation?

I’ve seen firsthand how flying teaches confidence, discipline and responsibility. Most parents don’t even realise it’s an option. They think flying must be out of reach, but joining a gliding club is often much more achievable than people expect. It’s not just for young people either. Plenty of people take it up later in life because they’ve always wanted to learn to fly and finally have the time. My fascination with aircraft started long before I learned to fly. As a kid in Papakura, I watched a Pitts Special being built and decided one day I’d love to own one. Years later I eventually bought a share in a Pitts Special with a group of other owners. Of course, having a plane meant I needed to learn to fly powered aircraft as well as gliders, so I asked my dad if he’d teach me. Thankfully he said yes.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to fly everything from gliders to classic warbirds and have even flown in air shows around New Zealand, something the young boy who used to stare at aeroplanes at Ardmore could never have imagined. Aviation has been a lifelong passion, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

If there was one thing you’d like to see change in New Zealand society, what would it be?

Getting more people back into the kitchen and cooking at home. We’ve become increasingly reliant on convenience foods and highly processed products. Yet some of the best meals come from simple ingredients that don’t need a label. More importantly, cooking brings people together. Some of the best conversations happen around a dinner table with phones put away. If we cooked a little more and shared a few more meals together, I think we’d be healthier and more connected as a society.