Jax to the max HOMELESS TO MASTER OF HER DOMAIN!

The exuberant TV cook tells how hardship has given her the strength to pursue what really matters to her

- Leena Tailor

Growing up in a volatile home in England, then becoming homeless at 16, 2011 MasterChef NZ runner-up Jax Hamilton turned her life around, working in the music industry, starting a qualitative research agency, then finding love with a Kiwi and moving to Aotearoa. “That was in 2001 and I haven’t left,” says Jax, 55, whose “morning medicine” is two coffees, before switching to a local Kiwi-blend tea. The Weekly sat down with her to talk motherhood, lessons in love, healing from trauma and how New Zealand has helped her live her best life.

When did you start finding joy in cooking?

Very young! My mother and aunties would go to the markets, sit down, tell stories, laugh, cook and dance. I’d sit underneath the table listening. And because my mother was a nurse who worked nights, I was cooking family meals from seven. When I went to high school, the food was terrible and I didn’t understand why since they had money. It was because they didn’t care. My mum’s food was cheap, but divine. That’s where my love came from.

What’s the first thing she taught you to cook?

A Jamaican chicken curry with coconut and black bean rice. It’s an emotional, traditional, spiritual dish young girls learn to cook. When I go back to London, I can smell it from Heathrow.

How would you sum up growing up in England?

Painful, but strength-enhancing. When I was born, there was no love left in my house, so it was about growing up quickly. There wasn’t a lot of emotion in the household and, at times, a lot of domestic violence. It made me who I am today. It didn’t feel different until I went to school and recognised other people didn’t have the same household as me.