Welcome home
Moving to Greytown, chef Martin Bosley has heard all the ‘over the hill’ jokes. He just smiles benignly. By Sue McLeary. Photos by Lucia Zanmonti.
“Unsuccessfully looking for a new place in Wellington, Wairarapa was off my radar. Then I saw a cute Greytown cottage photo and with nothing to lose, took a look.
“Leaving Wellington in filthy weather I was stunned to find a cloudless 32°day in Greytown. Real estate agent Sheryll Brasell greeted me with “Welcome to your new home!” and I moved in two weeks later. Simple!”
What has surprised and delighted Martin is the sense of community. “Within a week my neighbours brought me food and made me feel I was already home,” he smiles. “I fell in love with Greytown very quickly.”
Martin’s chef career reflects Wellington’s emergence as ‘the culinary capital’.
“I wasn’t academically inclined, but cooking came easily. The men in my family always cooked.
“I learned to cook from Cordon Bleu magazines, with fool-proof recipes and a photo. Knowing kitchens were my place, at Wellington Polytechnic I learned new skills and loved mainly classical French cuisine.
“Fine dining is all high-octane pressure and I relished the excess! At 22 I opened Giverny, in a tiny cottage in upper Willis Street. Full of ideas, I experimented on my customers and produced some damn good food! I love it that many top chefs – like Kent Baddeley and Rex Morgan -- also made their mark from that gorgeous uneconomic site,” he grins.
In late ‘80s Brasserie Flipp opened with Martin as Head Chef. “Flipp was a big loud brasserie, taking me from serving 24 to 240 people a night. I switched from classical French to pumping out robust Mediterranean flavours.
“Flipp was a phenomenon, and every week someone still mentions it fondly. It shaped my guiding food principles: food should be local, fresh, in season, often deceptively simple. My core criteria is ‘Is it delicious?‘”
Superstar chef Gordon Ramsay and Martin once cooked together, and needing leeks and cauli we dropped into the local supermarket.
“Gordon was astonished at the quality: “I’d have to go to a very high-end supplier and pay a fortune to get that quality” he said (expletives deleted).
Martin unhesitatingly says the best thing he has ever done is the Gate to Plate event at Remutaka Prison, for the annual Wellington on a Plate festival.
Yet when the Department of Corrections approached him 10 years ago about a pop-up restaurant inside Remutaka Prison he was highly sceptical. “After my first visit to the prison and meeting the people involved, I felt compelled to do this potentially life-changing programme. Gate to Plate was a phenomenon. We went from worrying if anyone would come to adding dates and finally introducing a ballot system to manage demand.
The only such programme worldwide, it is now one of the most successful programmes Corrections runs.
“Long-term inmates learn new skills, are empowered in a way few have ever been, and dinner guests are impressed by both their attitude and talent. Simply, the programme works. It is life-changing. I see the difference in attitude, pride in their achievements as inmates (often for the first time) can imagine turning their lives around. Several are now working in the Wellington hospitality scene, and Corrections rates its success as 100%.
“The programme changed me too: my focus shifted, I had more empathy and humility. When my Yacht Club restaurant collapsed, I recognised the shame and humility prisoners feel. I valued that I still had things to be grateful for,” he says.
Nowadays Martin runs Yellow Brick Road, a speciality supplier of “spankingly fresh” seafood directly from fishermen to restaurants. Covid restrictions hastened the planned extension to contactless home deliveries, and demand has sky-rocketed.
Discovering the pleasures and challenges of gardening in his 500sqm garden, Martin has planted fruit trees, vegetables and roses.
“This is all new to me and I’m finding it so enjoyable. People talk to me over the fence and I cannot tell you how much I value the absence of wind! I have Kina, my black Lab puppy. Greytown life feels good.”
