She’s known for her outspoken personality and, as she puts them, her “dodgy one-liners”, so it’s only fitting one of the first things to come out of Jax Hamilton’s mouth in our interview is “bloody macaroons”!
Who could forget the moment in the season-two finale of MasterChef when her elaborate macaroon tower collapsed and crashed to the floor? The nation’s collective heart dropped as we watched her dreams of winning the MasterChef title fall to pieces along with her dessert.
However, being an eternal optimist with a keen sense of irony, she’s decided to include a crumbled macaroon trifle recipe in her new cookbook, Jax Cooks. “Well, it’s the only way to eat them isn’t it? When they’re all smashed,” the chef cackles. “But I had to include them didn’t I? There’s still a bit of a demon in me that says, ‘Grrrr, macaroons,’ but everyone still comes up to me and says they’re so sorry about that damn tower.”
Far from being bitter, it’s this sense of turning life’s lemons into lemonade that has inspired her cookbook, which, unlike a traditional cookery book, is structured according to the chapters of her life.
“It’s funny because the book is so unusual, but to me it’s not, because it’s so me,” she laughs. The book serves as an ode to her family, featuring contributions from her sons Jack and Tom, as well as her partner Heidi and her Jamaican mum Dulcie, who Jax remembers could turn sow’s ears into silk purses as she tried to feed her six children with next to nothing.
“She could take a pig’s tail or kidneys, or something really quite disgusting, and turn it into these feasts,” Jax recalls. “I took some of those recipes and ‘Jaxed’ them up a bit. It’s a nostalgic thing for me, and to keep making them is lovely.” Now happily residing in Christchurch with Heidi and her boys, Jax is extremely thankful she made the move to New Zealand from London in 2001, giving up corporate life to settle in the South Island.
“It was time for a change, and if I didn’t come [here], this never would have happened. I used to watch* UK MasterChef* religiously, and here I was on it! But even though she lost the crown to Nadia Lim, Jax says the aftermath of the competition has been one of her happiest times.
“I’m just loving my life. It’s actually really nice to sit here at 46 years old, and say ‘I love what I do and who I am,’” she enthuses. “That’s well cool!”
