MY MONEY
Jody Daunton
THE INVESTOR
|
19
W
hat do you get when you combine the flavours
of olives, rosemary and chocolate?Well, if
Andrew Kojima is involved in the concoction,
you get a dessert thatTV presenter Gregg
Wallace – a man who really knows his
puddings – describes as‘genius’.
Koj – as he now brands himself and his cooking – starred in the 2012
series of
MasterChef
,making it all the way to the finals with cooking that
Michel Roux Jr said was‘from a professional chef, not an amateur chef’.
Yet, when Koj applied for the show in 2011, he really was an amateur.
His culinary skills had been developed by holding dinner parties for
friends, and he was making a living as a freelance investment analyst.
Koj read Classics at Oxford and then moved
to the City, working for the London arms of
three international investment banks:Warburg
Dillon Read, UBS and then Morgan Stanley.
But after just a few years he realised that
banking – the long hours, the stress and lack of
social life – was not for him.
‘I was in my mid-20s, not far away from
starting a family, and knowing I just didn’t want
to be there in 10 years’ time.The pay cheques
weren’t enough of a compensation.’
In 2005 he switched to fund management
with Silchester International Investors, a small
firm that manages money for institutions.The
move changed his life.‘Fund management
allowed me to change my work-life balance
and I was suddenly in a much nicer place. I got
my evenings back, and because dinner parties
were more my thing than nightclubbing, I
developed a passion for cooking.’
After five years Koj and his wife decided
to move out of London. He became an
investment consultant; with the increased
flexibility created by working from home
enabling him to apply for
MasterChef
.
When Koj applied in March 2011 he was
one of 25,000 applicants, and after telephone
and casting interviews, he was one of about 100 applicants invited
to audition for the show.‘It took place over theAugust bank holiday
weekend. I had been invited to a wedding, and because we had to keep it
secret that I was interviewing for
MasterChef
, I couldn’t tell the bride and
groomwhy I couldn’t go.’
Filming the programme is a hugely emotional experience – regular
viewers will know that most contestants end up in tears at some stage,
and Koj admits he cried more than most.‘You’ll be there at 8am, they
interview you all day long and you are under pressure the whole time.
You’re talking in clichés, and suddenly those clichés become real because
you are giving up so much to be there and it’s so important. It’s the
biggest cooking programme in the UK.’
The sadness – mixed with relief – when contestants are voted off by
GreggWallace and JohnTorode is absolutely genuine.‘You get to know
each other very well during the filming, and you share the same passion,’
says Koj.‘Those 20 seconds of waiting to find out who is leaving the
competition are just the worst.Your heart is pounding.’
Unlike other reality shows where the winners are offered cash prizes,
recording contracts or jobs with entrepreneurial millionaire bosses, all
MasterChef
offers is a trophy and a reputation for being able to cook.That
is not enough to earn you backing for your own restaurant, or even a
job in a professional kitchen.‘I didn’t know how to cook properly yet,
let alone open a restaurant. Chefs are not going to offer you a job.They
don’t want a 32-year-old upstart in their kitchen.’
Realising this, he used his success in
the competition to ask for unpaid work
experience, or‘stages’, in top,Michelin-
starred restaurants, including Le Gavroche,
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal,The Ledbury,
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Oud Sluis in
the Netherlands.
Now, through writing, cookery
lessons, workshops, corporate events and
demonstrations, Koj passes on the skills he
has learned to others. His lessons cover a
wide range, from knife skills and butchery
to preparing sushi and sashimi, and he offers
private tuition for individuals and small groups
of friends in their own homes. He also does
private catering, ranging from lunch parties to
a full chef service. For one client, on holiday
with his family in SouthAfrica, Koj used the
shells of huge .50-calibre bullets as gravy boats
for a dinner of kudu, a native antelope.
Although he clearly lives and breathes his
new career, the impact on his salary has been
drastic: he estimates that he earns about 20%
of his peak earnings in the City. And you could
even argue he has now gone full circle and
returned to a life of long hours and stress.‘I’ve
changed career from salaried to self-employed,
started a new business, bought and renovated a new house, had a second
child and set up a website (
) – all in the same year
– and my St. James’s Place Partner,Matthew Swan, has been through the
whole process with me. Now that I can see light at the end of the tunnel
is credit to the groundwork that Matthew laid more than five years ago.
Hopefully I can become a more profitable client again!’
After three years working as a chef and cookery teacher, Koj is finally
considering opening his own restaurant serving Japanese food. His
father, who was Japanese, suffered from cancer during the filming of
MasterChef
and it was uncertain whether he would live long enough to
see the programme aired.‘He died later that year, but he did get to see
me in the final,’ says Koj.‘For him, I want to make Japanese food.’
I didn’t knowhow
to cook properly yet,
let alone open
a restaurant
