CHEF OF THE MONTH By the time Jay was 13 he was entertaining his friends, cooking for them at home. “I would host barbecues from an early age and my friends would all come over and watch the Super Bowl. I’d cook a bunch of steaks. It was just my thing.” He’d never envisaged it becoming a career though and headed off to university in Phoenix, Arizona, where he studied education and Spanish. Little did he know the Spanish would soon come in handy. While at university Jay used his cooking skills to earn some part-time cash until he unfortunately broke his arm, which landed him off work for a while. It got him thinking how much he liked cooking and wondering if he could score a job in a top restaurant in Phoenix. “I knocked on a whole lot of back doors and eventually I got a trial at Christopher’s, an awesome, renowned restaurant,” says Jay. “Christopher starred on Julia Child’s network. That was my first glimpse of a really dedicated kitchen. It was top of the line, exciting and fun – the real deal,” he says. It was thanks to that pasta maker he’d asked for, while his 11-year-old friends wanted skateboards, that scored him that first fine dining job. “They asked me to roll out pasta and it was a time trial. I did it in under the time and got the job, so I had Mom to thank for that pasta maker.” Jay was just 17 then and he worked there part-time for a few years while finishing his degree, but the food scene kept luring. From Portland, Oregon, where he gained more experience in a top food scene, it was off to Europe to mix with the best. Jay ended up working in restaurants in Spain where that Spanish language proved invaluable. “That was probably the best decision of my career and I worked an amazing three years with Martin Berasategui in his 3-star Michelin restaurant,” says Jay. “He was so focused and dedicated to excellence. Your chef’s jacket had to be super clean and your carrots perfectly diced. It was a real discipline and I learned a lot. These people were dedicated to the craft.” These days he’s a lot more relaxed in his role as executive chef for the People Like Us restaurant group in Arrowtown, near Queenstown. Jay oversees Penelope Johnson and Sam Gruar’s fun, Spanish-inspired, Latin American, tapas-style restaurant, La Rumbla, and their Slow Cuts, which
Ceviche, and homemade pasta are two passions of Jay Sherwood, when he isn't cooking on the barbecue to relax.
offers a range of good honest slowcooked meats. It was his time in Spain that landed Jay in New Zealand, after he’d worked with and made friends with wellknown Amisfield Kiwi executive chef Vaughan Mabee. Jay had spent time working in Italy as well as Spain before returning to California and it was then that Vaughan “enticed” him to New Zealand. “He intrigued me and I remember seeing New Zealand in a great surf documentary called ‘Endless Summer’. They said there were more sheep than people and I remember thinking, ‘how amazing’,” says Jay. “Vaughan had a really good pitch and I was up for another adventure. I thought, ‘What’s the worst that can happen? I’ll probably last six months to a year, and I’m still here nearly nine years later.” Jay, who is now a fully-fledged Kiwi, loves cricket and knows how to drive a manual, worked for a time at Amisfield before one day serving up an impressive meal there to legendary Aussie golfer Greg Norman. “He said, ‘Mate, those are the best potatoes I’ve ever had in my life. Would you like to come work for me, ‘The Shark’?” For six months Jay worked as Greg’s private chef based
mostly at his alpine lodge in Colorado and his private home in Jupiter, Florida. More travelling ensued but Jay says Queenstown by now had become home base. These days he’s turned his hobby of brewing, picked up during his time in Portland, and his innovative cooking style, into a fun aside for People Like Us. Jay’s boutique brewing company Lake & Wood Brew Company is now turning out small scale production of tasty craft beers from a 400-litre brewing system at Slow Cuts. He says he was inspired by the amazing beers that so impressed him in Belgium, the Czech Republic and Germany. “They wowed me after coming from the States and drinking Budweiser,” says Jay. He now brews small scale microbrew beers once or twice a week and supplies local pubs and bars around Arrowtown, as well as La Rumbla and Slow Cuts. “I do some cheffy things. I like to use seasonal ingredients, for example, my Acorn Porter.” Jay dries, roasts and adds acorns to his brew, which he says creates a delicious nutty, slightly chocolate, espresso flavour. “In summer I use Cromwell stonefruit for my Apricot Wheat Beer and cherry beers.” The fruit must be fresh though and it makes a difference. “The cool thing about brewing is we are small scale and I love using local ingredients,” says Jay. “We’re also only using kegs at this stage so it’s also environmentally sustainable, which I like.” n
“That was probably the best decision of my career and I worked an amazing three years with Martin Berasategui in his 3-star Michelin restaurant,” – Jay Sherwood
HOSPITALITY BUSINESS - JUNE 2021 19
