Karl has always been a late bloomer, but the Tortoise always wins the race right? Karl came to cheffing late in life by industry standards. He’s been in the hospo circuit for the majority of his working life and despite multiple forays into the arts (Bayly ran multiple galleries in Hamilton for a time) he has always landed back somewhere in the hospitality world. Like all good cooks, Karl started out as a dishie (at Bestie). He then graduated to a waiter and eventually ended up as a barista and prep chef in the kitchen at Coffee Pen. In 2000 and whatever after a solid year of hustling the scene, he fled Aotearoa and spent a year travelling the Middle East. Karl has always had an inexplicable fascination with this part of the world and on this trip, he fell deeply in love with food and with the flavours of the region. 

On return to New Zealand, he wasn’t entirely sure where he would land work-wise but he didn’t have to think too hard about it because lockdown hit and he was trapped in a shitty little residential kitchen where he ended up becoming the in-the-house chef for his flatmates. It was then that he decided to really give cheffing a crack and he landed his first cooking job at Mr. Morris, before spending a year at Candela and a stint at Celeste alongside his own pop-up dinners and private events under @cooked_plates. 

After deciding to put a pause on his cooking career and deciding to quickly retrain and become a web developer (a baby was on the way so needs must!) his wife made a whim decision to take a lease on a very small commercial space on K Rd and throw out all their much-considered plans to start a pipe dream restaurant that the pair had been musing about for a few years. And so Karl and his partner opened Roses. 

Although Karl owns Roses he prefers to take a backseat from the limelight, working quietly and tirelessly alongside every single guest chef to finesse menus and ensure the consistency of food and service. Karl loves to cook but he loves to learn just as much and the residency format of Roses allows him to constantly be sharing his own knowledge and learning from the guest chefs he hosts at the same time. 

Karl more often that not cooks private events at Roses which means if you’ve been lucky enough to have had a private dinner at Roses you may have tried his food, but for the most part he ticks away in the background so this is a rare opportunity for the public to try one of his plates.

Alongside building Roses into the host it has become, he literally built almost every single aspect of Roses with his bare hands and does a hideous amount of admin (such is the life of the small business owner) and so even despite his dyslexia has become a prolific Excel spreadsheet-er. Karl is also an avid wine enthusiast, hence the considered and eclectic wine list at Roses and has even started tinkering with making some of his own wine (stay tuned). 

Karls favourite movie’s are the fast and furious series because “they are about family”. His favourtie scenes are where they all get together in someones backyard for a bbq and a beer.

Karl loves wine almost more than he loves food so he’s pumped to be whipping up dishes which really are only existing to accompany a bunch of
winemakers and wine that he simply adores.