I worked with Hughie at The Banff in 2001/2002 until shortly before I left Australia. We lost touch as Hughie ,and I too , we were not people who’d go on the web and interact with the world, until Covid pushed us to join the crowd. We finally reunited on Facebook in 2020 after almost 2decades of silence.

Not only have we worked together, we also partied together on a regular basis. He was such a huge influence on me as a person and also as a chef. He totally revived my passion for cooking and because of this I am still cooking today.

There are so many things that I’d like to tell people about Hughie but, if I have to pick one, it’d have to be one of the services had at The Banff.
One night we got totally slammed. Hughie was quite angry and he shouted “Yuki!! Play Led Zeppelin!!”. I said “Which one!?” Hughie replied “Rock n Roll!!!!”. I remember turning the volume all the way up and also trying to cope with the loudness as I was right in front of the stereo.

I am so so grateful that I got to know Hughie well. I am proud to say that I was a close friend of his.
Such a wonderful soul that he made my time in Australia rather special.

I’d like to send my condolences to all the people he loved. I feel that we are all fortunate to have known him.

Love you Hughie. I hope that I’ll be able to see you again finally when my soul leaves my body.

Until then take care and keep rockin
Your friend
Yuki

P.S.
Please play “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones if possible.
He told me once that it’s his preferred tune for his own funeral service.
I could not help to think to myself that moment, “What a cool guy“.

Thank you