How did I get here: The Chilean chef carrying on the family name in New Zealand

Thursday, 14 April 2022

Ricardo Hormazabal is originally from Chile but now calls Taranaki home and loves it. He has a food truck business called Chiwi Catering.

Ricardo Hormazabal, 43, Chile.

I was born in Chile, my parents moved to Aussie when I was one-and-a-half.

There was a military coup and my parents just had two kids. I spoke to my mum just the other day about it, and she said we didn’t flee from the military, we had an opportunity that was given to us, and we chose to leave our place and, it was how she sees it and tells me with two kids, you want to give them the best education possible.

You’re either Communist or you’re not in Chile, and so I didn't realise until later on in life that my parents, one was one and one was the other. So when it came to the military, if you were a Communist, you pretty much weren't given a job, or you're fired from the job. So it was difficult, in that sense for the men to get a job.

They were going to go to Venezuela and just before they were about to move the military came in and found out there was a lot of people doing dodgy under the table dealing to get into the country, and then they cancelled everyone's visas. That's when an opportunity came up for them to move to Australia, so they took it, and they never looked back.

Hormazabal is soon to become a father and is proud his family name will carry on.

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Chileans went all over the world.

It's funny because you speak to other Chileans and, if they're around my age, or they're my parents’ age, it's always a political thing, and that's one thing that I didn't really learn about what happened then. And my parents didn't really speak about it much.

We did Spanish school for seven years. My parents were the principals of the Spanish school in the local town that we were at, and so they forced us to go to Spanish school every Friday from 6pm to 9pm. I now know how to read, write and speak Spanish.

I 100% still identify with Chile culture. South Americans, I think in general, are quite patriotic.

I've been back three times throughout my life. I don't have a lot of my affiliation other than half of my family, but it's a pride thing, it's in our blood. So I love dancing, I do salsa, I found a nice group we do Zumba with. Soccer for example we’re patriotic, we’re fanatic and the fact that we didn't make the World Cup again, we’re gutted, I don’t like talking about it.

I moved here about five years ago. I married a Kiwi and fell in love with New Zealand.

Unfortunately, the marriage didn't eventuate, so I bought Chiwi Catering and then moved to New Plymouth.

I worked three concerts here, and I just found the people here were lovely, and the fact there was a beach and was a mountain, and we have got the Andes in Chile, which are beautiful mountains over there.

Whenever I used to fly over to New Zealand, I'd think the same thing because you can see the mountains, you'd see the snow, and it'd make me feel like I was at home in a while.

Before buying the food truck I worked at The Devon Hotel for about six months, that's where I met my new partner, who I'm about to have a baby with in seven weeks.

We just had our 32 weeks scan on Monday. Baby's looking good. He's healthy. He's a little bit big, but not too big.

I tried to have kids in my previous marriage, we just couldn't. We tried IVF but unfortunately, we weren't able to have kids.

So yeah, I see this as a miracle, I've always wanted to be a dad. I've always wanted to have a child.

For me, it was a big thing like having a boy because I'm the only Hormazabal here in New Zealand. So to be able to keep the name alive means a lot.

It was pretty quick, but I mean, we really fell for each other. You meet someone that just makes you feel so good about yourself and gave me a little spark.

Covid really put a downer on everything, especially running a business, times are tough and having a light at the end of the tunnel was such a blessing, to have a child that's just gave me a boost.

I just signed a new lease at Liardet Street Projects. It’s a good spot here, we’ve got Vietnamese, we got Poke, there are traditional burgers.

No one's doing Spanish food and Latin American food, at least not in this town.

The truck was custom-built in Melbourne, and then I shipped it over. The idea was to cook paella on the balcony and people would smell and see it, but I didn't realise how windy it got here.

I was based in Palmerston North, we ran two Latino festivals with council and that was to try and get the Latino community together. It was really cool to see that sort of connection with the Latin community.

It's something I'm trying to do here, that's my goal. Covid really put so many plans that I had in place on hold. To have it here where we bring music, we bring dance, we bring food, and even just language.

You can see it is a very Kiwi sort of town. I mean, it’s definitely multicultural you just got to go down and look at all the restaurants that are in this town.

One of the reasons why I loved moving here was there's hospitality here. You come from a small town where there are two pubs, an Indian restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, and a roast shop, and six fish and chip shops and your Maccas, your KFC, and your Burger King. Here, there's variety, there are small restaurants there are cafes, there's hotels, you know, there's food trucks, you don't get that in many towns.

I think locals take their town for granted. A lot of them don't go out of town and go other places.

This town has got so much potential. I think it's just the locals trying new things and need to like, reach out and try something different. Because I'll tell you now, even the Missus she's like, nah, I don't eat coriander. But then she tries my tomato salsa, and she loves it.

I've been in hospo 20 years, and you learn a lot. I've been from cafes, hospitals, casinos, fine dining, you name it, I've done it.

It doesn't matter where you go, you always learn something new and that's what I love about hospitality.

It's hard work and if you don't love it you’re just ruining it for others.