hi I'm Danny i have worked as a professional chef for 11 years , My upbringing ,how I grew up and working as a chef are the major influences on how cook today . I grew up on a dariy farm in a tiny rural area in the north island of New Zealand , as with most areas of New Zealand plenty of food is to be had wether it be from land or sea. Most of the food my family ate were either grown and harvested on our farm , hunted as game or gathered from the land & sea. Beef,pigs,chicken,lamb,rabbit,deer,ducks,fish,shellfish,fruit&vegetables were the types of food we ate year round, with the change of season bringing special treats aswell. My backround in cooking steam's back to a young age it starts firstly with the "apreciation of food" ,of how our food was grown & obtained and the way the changing seasonings influenced what we ate .Food played a huge role in my upbringing as it was our primary lively hood and the cornerstone of our family life at home i like braised meats dishes , or any soulful comfort style foods, also stir frys and asian are fast, healthy and tasty , BUT! my favourite things to cook at home are what i guess you could call home made junk food pork crackling snacks with dips ,any kinda crispy roasted,savoury, toasted ,cheesy, flakey pastry snacky things you dunk in yummy dips and eat while watching sports( and gulping beer of course). In the professional relm i like to cook international style cusine influenced by classical tecniques modern equipment ,vaired cooking methods and new inovations hunting rabbits, smelling pot roasted leg of home butchered lamb cooking on the wood fired range in the kitchen , early morning smoking of ele and fish we caught from the river , gathering stone fruits from our orchard & eating the ripest apricots there juices warmed by the scorching summer sun in a way they were perfectly cooked, mums pantry full of preserved peaches & pears , red plum jam ,and a number of pickles and chutneys and of course home made pickled pork .... so many memories learnig how to make my first mashed potatos ,growning sweet corn out in the garden , running my first professional kitchen burning any number of things for as far back as i can remember