British chef Gordon Ramsay with Michael Lee Richards in Auckland, during the former's visit to New Zealand to promote a cookbook. Photo: Getty Images / Phil Walter
Those involved in the country's culinary scene are remembering chef Michael Lee Richards, who died on Wednesday night aged 66.
Originally a lawyer, Richards's successful cooking career began in Ōtautahi in the 1980s, when he bought central city restaurant Casa Del Sol and began White Tie catering.
By the 1990s, it was called Michael's Restaurant and a cooking school was added upstairs.
He went on to create a festival, write a cookbook and teach all over the world.
Tina Duncan, who bought Richards's White Tie catering business from him in 1999, was an old colleague of his.
"As a restaurateur and a foodie, I think he was certainly ahead of his time. He was the most creative person as well as being so much fun and infuriating as well, I have to say," she said.
"He just had a real flair for cooking."
Michael Lee Richards - creative, fun and infuriating, friend Tina Duncan says. Photo: Supplied / White tie Catering
She began working for Richards in 1994, starting as his personal assistant.
"We travelled the world. We went on world cruises because he taught cooking on cruise ships. We went to Singapore because he was doing the menus for Air New Zealand. We [were over there] to see the food go onto the international Air New Zealand planes."
Between 1999 and 2001, Duncan and Richards began Savour New Zealand.
The biennial food event ran until 2009 and was a mainstay on the calendar of the culinary community, said Lauraine Jacobs, a longtime food writer and supporter of the New Zealand food scene.
"He wasn't really fearful of anything and he would invite fantastic overseas guests to come and talk. Because of him, I think, we became aware of a greater world out there in food. And I also think he introduced a lot of New Zealanders to international food.
"A dinner that was part of Savour New Zealand. It was astonishing. One night he put the whole team on stage who were preparing our dinner. So it was theatre as well as dinner. It was amazing," Jacobs said.
She and Richards were close friends for many years.
Lauraine Jacobs says Michael Lee Richards wasn't afraid of anything. Photo:
He had a big heart, in the way he opened up his home to others, she said.
"[British food writer] Diana Kennedy MBE came to New Zealand...So I rang Michael - he lived over in Governors Bay in the most wonderful house where he did wonderful entertaining - I asked and he was like 'of course, of course Diana Kennedy can stay'," she said.
"Diana had only been staying there for two days when she rang me and said 'Lauraine I'm going to be very naughty. I love Michael and his partner so much that I'm not going to Queenstown!' And she stayed for the rest of the week.
"He was just so generous and so wonderful that he could just embrace somebody from another country who was in her late 80s. He looked after everyone."
Jacobs did not hesitate in naming his signature dish, either.
"His glazed salmon was the party piece for everyone. It's a cold dish but it was a smoked, glazed salmon and everyone would want that on their catering menus," she said.
Richards also had a great sense of humour, she noted.
"He also had a lovely line too that if he ever made a mistake, he never ever said anything. He'd say 'oh, just tell them that this is a rustic dish.'
"Michael Lee Richards was an absolute champion of New Zealand food and it's a very sad loss for all of us."
Duncan missed being able to talk with her friend.
"I worked for him, then we worked together, and then I became his neighbour. My husband used to say, 'there are two men in this marriage'," she said.
"I was thinking this morning, I'll never be able to sit down with a glass of wine and just chew the fat with Michael again."
Richards died in Christchurch with his partner and sister by his side following a decade-long period of ill-health.