Mr Lewis has accrued 12 years in the fine dining industry but originally attended Laurieton Public School and Camden Haven High School before training at the Intercontinental Hotel School Sydney.

He has most recently worked as a chef at La Madernassa in Italy, as a general manager and head chef with The Locksmith Restaurant in Guangdong, China and as a general manager at Tin Hill Social in Singapore.

"It's actually my nan's 90th birthday in about a week's time so that was the main reason to come back," Mr Lewis said.

"I've done about six years in Singapore and then one year in China and was now in Italy for about 18 months.

"We left on February 24 and the day that we left the Milan airport was extremely quiet but it was just before those massive spikes in coronavirus numbers which happened in that area. Already you could notice there was quite a lot of unrest in that area.

"We were supposed to depart from Australia on March 18 but all our flights have obviously been cancelled because they do go into Milan.

"So at this stage we're just checking on those updates of when we can actually fly. I think it will be at least a month minimum."

Mr Lewis has a deadline to meet in France after accepting a pastry chef role with three star Michelin restaurant, Régis et Jacques Marcon, in Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid.

"While I'm in Europe I want to see as much as possible and they had an opening for the executive pastry chef role. I've accepted that but now it's just the waiting game until they're allowed to actually open," he said.

"It's a three Michelin star place so no matter what position you end up with there I'd consider it a step up. Definitely an investment in my future career.

"My passion is definitely still in the savory side of kitchen, but for many head chefs when it comes to pastry it's just an extreme weakness for them. I think specialising in pastry is only a bonus for a chef overall."

Restaurants in the Hastings need to think about buying more local produce and looking for locally sourced food from aquaculture farming, Mr Lewis said.

"I think there's definitely more progressive restaurants here now than what there was 10 to 15 years ago and that will only improve with time," he said.

"I would personally love to see more focus on local produce or even local sort of foods that grow wild here. There's a lot of local herbs and native flowers which are actually edible.

"I'd love to see this sort of local farming, foraging and even aquaculture or something developed within the area. I think it would be good for the local economy."

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