Josh Emett's GREATEST PASSION There are no regrets'

It doesn’t matter what you do, just make sure youre in the top five per cent’ Sage advice from Josh's dad to his young son as he embarked on a culinary career that would find him at the helm of some of the world’s most exclusive restaurants.

- WORDS by JUDY BAILEY

‘It doesn’t matter what you do, just make sure you're in the top five per cent.’ Sage advice from Josh's dad to his young son as he embarked on a culinary career that would find him at the helm of some of the world’s most exclusive restaurants.

Immaculate in his chef’s whites, when we talk, Josh Emett has been in the kitchen at Waiheke Island’s The Oyster Inn since 8am, meeting with staff and testing new offerings. He became a household name here as one of the judges on multiple seasons of MasterChef New Zealand. He’d famously come to the role fresh from an 11-year stint with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, working his way up to eventually running Gordon’s offerings at both Claridges and the Savoy Grill in London, where he earned the Grill its first Michelin star in its hundred-year history. He would also run restaurants for Gordon in New York, Los Angeles and Melbourne. He’s come a long way from the small Waikato township of Ngāhinapõuri where he grew up. It was an idyllic childhood, spent on the family farm. “I loved farm life, riding motorbikes, building huts, eeling, shooting and running through the bush with the dogs,” he enthuses. Josh is the middle of Raewyn and Roger Emett’s three children. They were a tight-knit unit.

“I love my brother and sister,” he says. “Mum and Dad were amazing. They were levelheaded, pragmatic and never forced us into anything. We were allowed to make our own decisions and they expected us to deal with the consequences.”

Josh’s father was, he says, “The loveliest guy. When friends needed help, as happened often over his life, he’d work through things and give them solid advice.” Roger died of cancer 14 years ago.

“Mum is more intense,” Josh shares. “She’s extremely ambitious and driven. She went back to university in her thirties and completed a doctorate in social work. She was really disciplined with her study and that went on for many, many years.