What does community mean to you?

Max | Te Whanganui-a-Tara

Max, a chef of 20 years, describes his community as one grown from their a love of kai and manaakitanga.

“I’m from Chicago in the United States. I moved here when I was about 14. So I’ve spent about 20 years in New Zealand, which is kind of my country now – not MY country – but I’m honoured to be a part of it. I’ve been cooking for more or less the 20 years that I’ve been here.

The ability to feed so many people. Such an essential part of life is around kai. Having people come through our doors at Graze and I get to welcome them every time. Be it a friend that I’ve seen for the last 20 years or someone that I’ve just met for the first time, I’m happy to be able to give them a good time and give them a taste of New Zealand through all the produce that we get there. A lot of the produce that we get here in New Zealand, you can’t find anywhere else in the world.

I did a Matariki dinner at Māoriland a few years ago, and I was able to work with not only local farmers and local fishers, but also the local community up there. And I remember I got 20 crayfish that I was able to give to people and crayfish is pretty expensive. So the incredible generosity from fishermen to be like, ‘yeah, this is, this is amazing.’ And it was my job just to not mess it up and to cook that crayfish in a way that was respectful and utilised every part of it.

Hospitality is all about making people feel at home and giving them a good time. Where everybody comes together to put on dinners like that and have everybody just be blown away. And so appreciative is, yeah, that’s community 101 that connecting of all those different areas.

My community is probably all the food suppliers and producers here in New Zealand, as well as my family and friends, which kind of have slowly also become food growers and suppliers as I immerse myself in the industry that I love so much.”