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Widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s preeminent chefs, Harris has led some of the finest restaurant kitchens in the country during a 25-year career at the top.

Aug 15, 2022

Having led some of the foremost New Zealand kitchens over a celebrated 25-year career, Des Harris has moved beyond the restaurant walls and is taking his exceptional cuisine into people’s homes.

To taste the incredible cuisine Des Harris creates, the assumption might be that here is a man who honed his early talent at culinary school. While that certainly is true, he didn’t like a single minute of it. The camaraderie of the kitchen and the crucible it can often be, is where Harris found himself most at home.

“There is nothing l enjoyed more than being in a kitchen, right from the earliest days of my career,” he says. “The idea that you can come in each day and get better and more efficient while hitting a high bar with consistency really appealed to me.

“You’re only as good as everyone around you as a chef. But its an incredible industry in that way because you become a team. It’s often a very intense environment which builds that sense of a team – more than that, of a ‘family’.”

Originally from Wellington, he spent his formative years leading the kitchen at Logan Brown Restaurant under famed chef Al Brown.

With a move to the Martinborough Hotel – a move that shocked many of his contemporaries after the bright lights of Wellington’s vibrant food scene – Harris led the restaurant there to win the best Regional Restaurant category in the Cuisine awards within his first year.

“Logan Brown was it; it was the hot spot. But I decided that I had to put my ego to the side and really learn how to run a business. I wanted to tailor food to what was right for that specific business, and the Martinborough Hotel was the perfect proving ground for that.”

Moving north to Auckland he then went on to be Clooney Restaurant’s Executive Chef for almost nine years. Here he won ‘Chef of the Year’ accolades and lead the restaurant to a 3 Hat standard in the inaugural edition of the Good Food Guide

“I leaned early on that everything on the plate needs to be relevant. At Clooney the spotlight was literally on the food. It was an incredible place to work and dine and I think we really evolved the Auckland dining scene there.”

Time at The Hunting Lodge and Tantalus Estate followed. But remarkably, this award-winning chef has decided to walk away from full time roles within restaurant kitchens altogether.

Today, Harris has realised something of a second career for himself as a private executive chef, creating bespoke menus for a variety of clients, both corporate and private. The idea is to create a personal, relaxing experience to remember. Working with sommelier Joe Wang and a small team of trusted colleagues, Harris says he still does all the “donkey work” himself, up to and including growing herbs and vegetables in his home garden. But it is an immensely rewarding way of working.

“I had a realisation that I don’t need bricks and mortar to do what I do. I can take my ideas into any environment. And I have the freedom to be truly creative too,” he says.

“I don’t want to be doing the same thing over and over anymore – working outside of the restaurant environment allows me to constantly be challenging myself. I’m still learning new stuff every day and I’ve never been happier than I am now.”