By Clare McCarthy

Copyright evoke

For New Zealand-born chef Jess Murphy, the secret ingredient to her success isn’t just her talent and hard work, but the unwavering support of an Irishman who has been by her side since they met in their early twenties.

They say that ‘behind every great man is a great woman’ but in Jess’ case, the opposite is true. Her now husband, Dave Murphy, has moved countries to support her culinary career and now runs Kai restaurant in Galway alongside her.

Ahead of the release of her first solo book, The Kai Cookbook, this month, Jess praised her husband of 23 years for following her wherever she needed to go to help her gain culinary experience.

Jess told EVOKE how the couple first met and how she knew ‘from the very beginning’ that Dave was willing to support her to achieve her dreams.

She said: ‘ We met like every other Irish-Antipodean couple. Dave was backpacking and I was working in the mines of Australia, and we just met like that, and that was history really.’

Jess continued: ‘Luckily for me, Dave is an engineer, he’s a fabrication metal worker, so Dave could get a job anywhere. And so Dave just let me have my whole career my whole life.

‘If I wanted to go to the UK and work, we went to the UK. If I wanted to work on an island off the coast of Australia, we went and lived there, all for my culinary experience.

‘He was really sound like that. From the very beginning, no ego and super sound and let me do whatever I needed to do to learn more.’

Despite her husband being a native of Carlow, it was Jess who suggested the move to Ireland when an exciting opportunity arose to work in Thornton’s Restaurant in the Fitzwilliam Hotel in Dublin, which held two Michelin stars at the time.

She explained: ‘When I said I wanted to come to Ireland to work in a two-star Michelin restaurant, he was like, “Well, I have an Irish passport. I wouldn’t mind going home. I haven’t lived in Ireland for a long time.” So off we went.’

The couple relocated to Ireland in 2003 and have since made Galway their home, opening Kai restaurant in 2011, which now holds a Michelin green star.

She said people often assume it’s difficult to work as a husband and wife duo in the restaurant business but Jess says they have been together so long, they don’t know any differently!

 Jess said: ‘People think it’s really hard, you know, like John and Mary from Father Ted, but I’m really in the kitchen with my team, a good solid 10 to 12 hours a day. So I really hardly see Dave unless it’s a question about, “Do we need to order milk” or anything like that. We’re just so used to it.

‘Me and Dave have been together since we were 21 and 23. I think it’s just like longevity at this stage. I think we’re too far in to even get angry with each other.’

Jess has now spent half her life in Ireland and half in New Zealand, where she grew up on a rural farm in Wairoa, on the North Island, and where her love of food was passed down to her from her grandmother, who was part-Māori.

 She explained: ‘My love of food began with my grandmother. I know it’s cliche but with my grandmother, because we come from a farm, like a really rural farm in the middle of nowhere, she made everything ourselves.

‘We had one cow to milk to make butter. The rest was a sheep farm. So agriculturally, that inspired me being on land, being part-Maori.’

The name of both her restaurant and her upcoming book, Kai, comes from the Māori word for food.

And while she finds it difficult to choose a personal favourite recipe, she admits the standout dishes for her are the lobster with coronation curry mayo.

The Kai Cookbook, A Love Letter to the West of Ireland, is avialable to pre-order now ahead of its release on September 25.