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December 20, 2024 13 mins

Mark Gregory is a chef who has worked around the world, cooking for royalty, music legends and sporting greats - and has spent decades in top European kitchens.

He’s appeared on TV shows like Ready Steady Cook and the BBC’s Good Food Show and Mark was the first kiwi chef to be awarded both the Master of Culinary Arts by the Royal Academy and France’s  Master Craftsman status.

He joins Francesca Rudkin in studio to talk all things Christmas cooking and his cookbook 'Christmas at the Castle'.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
You.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
This is Saturday Mornings. I'm Francisca bud Can filling in
for Jack Tame. With you until midday. Lovely to have
you with us now. Christmas has crept up on some
of us, but I can guarantee, as a man who
has been in hospital all his life, our guest today
will be well prepared. Marke Gregory is a chef who
has worked around the world. He's cooked for Royalty, Music Legends,
Sporting Greats and has spent decades in top European kitchens.

(01:03):
He's also appeared on TV shows like Reddy Steady Cook
and the BBC Good Food Show. And Mike was the
first KEYI chief to be awarded both the Master of
Culinary Arts by the Royal Academy and France's Master Craftsman
status as well. He was in twenty twenty two inducted
into the Restaurant Association's Hall of Fame and as a
founding trustee of Dine Aid, the charity for New Zealand's

(01:24):
restaurant industry, and he's a massive fan of Christmas as well.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Good Morning, Good Morning, Francesca.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Lovely to have you with us, and thank you very
much for the book. Christmas at the Castle Cook.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yes, isn't it fun?

Speaker 3 (01:37):
It is fun? Clearly you do like Christmas, hence you've
done a book about it. Is it a favorite time
of year? Is it a favorite food time?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's a favorite for so many ways. We all know
it's full of hope and joy and things like that.
At Christmas, all roads lead home, so people come home,
and we have four children and six grandchildren and we
get to see them, although these days online on your
phone because they can't all be in the same country.
But I think food, yes, I think a lot of

(02:10):
our early memories are wrapped up around food and Christmas
times and having fun, you know, eating, playing games, hanging out,
falling out, cracking a joke, and for us, I wanted
to put all that into a book. So in the book,
there's loads of things to make and bake for Christmas,
loads of gifts you can make. And then the final

(02:32):
section chapter is play. So there's loads of games you
can play, in fact, our Top twelve, plus a load
of things you can make and do with the family
during the holidays. So it's about I hope, spending time
and reconnecting.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Do you have strong traditions around Christmas or do you
mix it up? Do you sort of have the same
you know that family expects, but then occasionally throw on
a surprise or two both.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
I'll tell you a true story. This morning. We're having
a little bit of a party tomorrow someday. And I've
got some tags because in Italy, when people arrive, you
get them to write on a little card something joyous,
something positive, and you hang it on the Christmas tree.
So your Christmas tree has filled with lots of little
cards or tags filled with people's best wishes. I've got

(03:21):
them out this morning, ready for tomorrow. And my wife said,
what have you got those out for? I said, oh,
for the traditional put happy notes on the treesh goes,
Oh we're not doing that again, are we?

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Oh you're bringing a bit of positive into Christmas. Oh
we're not doing many again.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I said, my darling, are you wearing green today?

Speaker 3 (03:41):
As the Grinch just got out of bed?

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (03:45):
Blease. But you do live in a real life castle,
or maybe as close as it comes li having a castle.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
It is. It was built one hundred years ago by
a captain and He built it for his Scottish wife
who was missing Scotland. So if any anybody knows Takapoona
and Milford, it's on the waterfront between Takapoona and Milford.
A lot of people walk past it, you know, each
day on the coastal walk. So we live there.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Oh it's a wonderful spot. I know it I very much.
The minute I saw it in the book, I said
a bit.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Ah. It puts a smile on our faces every morning
we wake up.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
You've got one of the best views in your kitchen
if you're going to stand at a bench and do
some cooking looking straight out at Ringo total.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Do you know what. I spent almost twenty five years
working in underground kitchens in London and other countries. So
you go to work on the underground, you work underground,
You go home on the underground for about five months
of the year. You don't you do not see daylight.
So now with that view, we never ever take it
for granted.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Oh it's so spiritual. Are you a Christmas hair man
or a Christmas turkey?

Speaker 2 (04:51):
We do both. My son wild If we do not
have a baked hand with caramelized pineapple basically he won't
come home. However, turkey, I whilst cooking for a long time,
we found a way to lock in the moisture in turkey.
So turkey in our house is actually rather nice and

(05:12):
not dry because all we do is brin it. The
secret to it is to brine it, okay, and it locks.
You know, when you have smoked salmon or smoked chicken,
they're always moist. If you brine a turkey, it will
end up moist.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
I thought that the problem with the turkey was people
just overcooked it and hints it was dry.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
I think these days with probes. Yeah, there are a
couple of great recipes in the book, but get yourself
a temperature probe and basically probe the turkey, check it's done.
And also I think I do about thirty five minutes
per kilo something like that, and then give it an

(05:51):
extra thirty five minutes at the end.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
See it all just feels like it feels like such
hard work for me. I've given up and I've gone
for the turkey roulard. You know what I mean? Yes,
would you fantastic?

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Look I talked to someone this week. They're having a
leg of lamb. I was someone last week and they're
having salmon. They're going down to talk on anyway, they're
having salmon, which they're doing on a barbecue. But if
you want the easiest Christmas ever, charge everybody forty dollars
for coming and do a seafood platter. Make a seafood
platter because they are expensive, so do charge everyone. It's

(06:24):
a big thing around the world now where people are
beginning to charge family members to come for Christmas Day
because there is a cost of living squeeze, not just
here in New Zealand everywhere. But you buy it, even crayfish,
it's all cooked. All you've got to do is take
it out of the fridge, put it on a platter,
and every and it spoils everyone.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
A couple of salads. It's really interesting you talk about
that because it's been quite controversial sort of over the
last few years, when you know it's hit the news
that some you know, a family member charged her family
to come for Christmas. But actually it makes sense if
you haven't divvied up the work, if you're not all
turning up with a plate yes, or the salad or
the dessert or something. Then and if one person is

(07:07):
doing all the work. I think it's a great idea.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
It makes it It's about sharing. I mean weddings. To
give you an idea, weddings around the world, from China
to Italy. Quite often when you have a big wedding
outside of the immediate family, everyone else pays for their
own ticket. So you have these in many parts of
the world and have done for many decades. Huge weddings.
No one can afford them, but everybody who wants to

(07:31):
come can come, so that you can invite the whole village,
but they know that they pay their for their seat.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
There we go. The book has lots of side recipes,
which is great for vegetarians, especially.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
My wife's a veggie side So.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
That's what.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
You have cooked for some really famous faces. Haven't you
were you just seventeen when you cooked for Muhammadale?

Speaker 2 (07:54):
I think I was about seventeen eighteen. Yes, Basically I
had to do a party for Muhammad Ali and he
arrived around twenty minutes twenty five minutes before his guests.
I was a spotty teenager. It was two o'clock in
the morning because it was after an event, and he
talked to me for twenty minutes like he didn't know

(08:18):
me from a barus soap, but he was so gracious
and so considerate. And then when his guests came, you know,
he entertained them. The next morning when I came in,
there was a week's wages, which is about sixty dollars
at the time, waiting for me as a tip. Now,
it was definitely not about the tip, but how gracious
a man.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Absolutely, I mean, what is there more pressure on you
when you are cooking for presidents and rock stars and things?

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Actually not really, because I looked after Brad Pitt for
a couple of months and in London when he was
making a movie. And you know what, most people, the
stars themselves are absolutely brilliant. The pains in the neck
are all.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
The rounds on ah right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
My goodness me right, it's interesting. Yeah, you know, give
an idea. We looked after Ricky Martin. He was a
big star in the nineties and early two thousands, massive star,
and all he liked was fried chicken and a salad,
night after night after night, fried chicken and a salad.

(09:26):
Like any chef can do that with their eyes closed,
so simple.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
I was wondering whether they're actually interested in food or
is it more about do they have quite specific dietary requirements?

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Very often yes, you get what's called the treatment, which
is a book of what they like and what they
don't like, and if there's any allergies, Like where's King
Charles Really no seafood because you can get you know,
he feels when he's traveling and doing things, he can
become sick more easily with fish and seafood. But then
you know, looking after Michael Jackson, you actually got the

(10:02):
recipes as well the actual ingredients, so it was like
cooking by numbers.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Oh my gosh, seems to be cooked for everybody. If
you could cook for someone today, who would you love
to be able to cook for?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Oh? Good good. I have not been asked that.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
I'm just thinking about it because I suppose you actually
do want to cook for somebody who has an appreciation
for food, right, who loves it? Who would be who
wants to kind of be blown away rather than I
love it the fried chicken.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
I think who I'd like to cook for, and I
haven't done it yet. I'd love to go down to
City Mission one Christmas and do the big meal there
and help with that, purely because Christmas is like and
cooking for people is like a giant hug. And to
go and give all those people a giant hug at
Christmas time would actually be rather cool.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
And I know that you do give back a lot.
Can you tell me about dynad.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yes, dynad we work with many restaurants around the country.
I'm here in Auckland, there are many. Just go on
the website dynad dot org dot and you'll see all
of the restaurants like, hell O, Beastie, We've got a
message the other day. They've already raised four six hundred dollars. Incredible.

(11:18):
You go to a restaurant, there's two dollars added to
the table bill, which is paid by you, the customer,
so only two dollars per table. We've raised about one
point two million dollars and one hundred percent of the
money goes to the food banks around New Zealand, so
not one senders taken out. Everybody volunteers. Sophie Gilmour and

(11:39):
Lauren and Jane Torrance does the pr Everybody volunteers, and
that means all the money we fundraise can actually go
and help people.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
No, it's amazing because food and security is becoming a
real issue, and we're seeing food banks really struggle.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
At the moment.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Well on us, you know, a serious note. I was
talking with Helen, the city missioner here in Auckland a
little while ago. She said, one in five families at
the moment, one in five US struggling with low food security.
So that's a deep concern. So basically, if you're going
out have a good time, please say yes to the
two dollars at the end of the meal, add another

(12:18):
two dollars if you wish to, and all of that
money will go and do some good.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
Now, if people can pick up the book Christmas at
the Castle Cookbook, but also you've got a series on
YouTube and new cooking series on YouTube.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yes, I'm I'm really happy. We only came out about
a month ago. We've just passed two hundred thousand views
and next year it's already been picked up by Apple
TV and Amazon. So it's all It's called Christmas at
the Castle and we've done eight programs. There's Annabelle White,
there's a friend of mine, Oliver Maurice who cooks on movies,
and my daughter and Elise who's quite a well known chef. Yes, overseas,

(12:54):
so we've done a series all about Christmas. It's the
same as the book. We make something lovely to eat,
we make a gift, and then we play a game
at the end of each program.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
I love it, really nice to meet you, and thank
you very much much for the goodies that you bought
me as well. That was very kind of you. I
feel like I'm I feel like Christmas is really coming now.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Mark well, ho ho ho, hold on to your Santa
hat make Gregory.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
Thank you so much. It is a twenty past tenure
with News Talks EB.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks EDB from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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