As a boy, Ross spent idyllic times beach combing and exploring the rock pools. Even at the tender age of five he wanted to be Jacques Cousteau, the famous underwater explorer.

One of his most vivid memories from his youth is of a scene that greeted him one morning after a storm. Ross left the family’s beachfront house, which they visited many times during the year, to discover the beach covered in Janthina – a small sea snail that is vibrant violet in colour. There must have been nearly twenty million of these little creatures washed up on the shore – providing a purple carpet of nearly one kilometre in area. Another time, the beach was covered in nautilus, living fossils that have remained unchanged in over four hundred million years.

It is easy to see where and how Ross’ love of natural history was born. Even whilst at school he worked at the local marine zoo cutting up and preparing fish to feed the marine life there.

The wonderful produce grown locally in Hawke’s Bay nurtured his love of food. Ross remembers how he savoured the only two weeks in the year when he could pick and eat his paternal Granny’s raspberries – and how much sweeter those raspberries tasted after waiting a tantalising fifty weeks to eat them! Ross is still very much an advocate of seasonal produce, which is reflected in his recipes and views on food production.