“I didn’t know if i’d make it to 78”: Iain “Huey” Hewitson reveals the turning point that became his biggest chapter yet
For Iain “Huey” Hewitson, turning 78 is more than just another birthday.
The much-loved Australian chef and television personality admits there were moments over the past two years when he genuinely wondered whether he would make it this far.
Instead, a difficult period spent going in and out of hospital has led to something quite different: a nearly 500-page memoir looking back on a life filled with food, music, restaurants, television, love, loss and plenty of unforgettable characters.
And, in typically Huey fashion, he still manages to find the humour in it all.
“I’m still bloody here”
Ask Huey what he considers his greatest achievement and his answer comes without hesitation.
“I’m still bloody here,” he jokes.
The Kiwi-born chef has spent more than five decades in hospitality, first making his name in Melbourne’s restaurant scene before becoming one of Australia’s most recognisable television food personalities.
He rose to fame in the 1990s through Healthy, Wealthy & Wise, later appearing in a string of successful food programs including Huey’s TV Dinner, Huey’s Cooking Adventures and Huey’s Kitchen. His straightforward approach to cooking, colourful personality, signature braces and distinctive moustache made him instantly recognisable to Australian viewers.
His television career eventually stretched across decades, while his restaurant career included more than 10 venues, among them the influential Clichy, Tolarno Bistro, Fleurie and Big Huey’s Diner.
But the past couple of years have been considerably harder.
Two years of uncertainty
Huey has spent much of the past two years going in and out of hospital as doctors tried to determine what was behind a serious problem affecting his knees and legs.
The condition left him struggling to walk, and although he remains hopeful that things are improving, he admits he is still hobbling.
“I’ve had a lot of trouble with my legs and knees,” he says.
After roughly 50 years working on hard kitchen floors, Huey jokes that perhaps he simply has what he calls a typical hospitality problem.
The uncertainty was difficult, but there was one unexpected upside.
He had time to write.
A memoir that grew far beyond the original plan
Huey originally imagined his memoir, Who Called the Cook a Bastard?, would be a modest project of perhaps 30 or 40 pages.
Instead, it grew to almost 500.
The book traces an extraordinary journey — from his early days as a folk singer in New Zealand, including a Battle of the Bands win, to his arrival in Australia, his rise through Melbourne’s restaurant scene and eventually his transformation into a television favourite.
The memoir was published in 2025, with the project also tied to the 2026 revival of Clichy, the Collingwood restaurant Huey co-founded in 1977. Clichy was brought back to life for a limited run at Melbourne restaurant Bistra during the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival in March 2026.
Huey insists the book is not intended to settle old scores.
Instead, he describes it as a story containing plenty of laughter — along with some moments that still hurt.
The memory that remains difficult
Among the most emotional parts of the memoir is the story of his first wife, Pam Potter.
Pam was the keyboard player in Huey’s band and was only 22 when she died in a car crash shortly after the couple moved to Sydney.
She had also worked alongside him in the kitchen, and Huey still finds it difficult to talk about her.
“It was tough, very tough,” he recalls.
He remembers Pam as someone who could turn her hand to almost anything and do it well.
Decades later, that loss remains one of the moments in his life that brings the strongest emotion to the surface.
A handwritten memoir — and a very patient wife
There is another remarkable detail behind the book.
Huey wrote the entire memoir by hand.
He does not use a computer, does not have a mobile phone and does not drive. His wife, Ruth Krawat, then took on the enormous task of typing up the handwritten manuscript.
The couple have been together for 28 years after first meeting when Ruth and a friend visited one of Huey’s bars.
Huey readily admits that technology has never been his strength.
His handwriting, fortunately, was good enough to make the process possible.
At home, meanwhile, the division of labour is rather simple: after spending decades cooking professionally, Huey says he has little interest in doing the same thing when he finishes work.
Ruth, who is also a talented cook, handles most of the home cooking — with one notable exception.
Huey still takes responsibility for Christmas.
Then came an unexpected second act
Just when many people assumed they had seen the last of Huey, another chapter began online.
His daughter Charlotte encouraged him to try YouTube and TikTok, initially filming simple cooking videos in the family kitchen.
The response was far greater than either expected.
Their first effort reportedly passed 500,000 views, and Huey was later nominated for Food Creator of the Year at the 2024 Australian TikTok Awards.
His online audience has continued to grow, bringing together people who remember him from television and a much younger generation discovering him for the first time.
His philosophy remains much the same as it was on television: good, straightforward food without unnecessary fuss.
His recent work across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram has helped turn him into an unlikely social-media favourite decades after his original television success.
“They thought I was dead”
Perhaps the funniest sign of just how unexpected Huey’s comeback has been came from some of the messages he received.
A number of people apparently contacted him to say they had assumed he had died.
Huey, naturally, found the whole thing rather amusing.
He is still here, still cooking and still telling stories.
And while his hospital years may have slowed him down physically, they also gave him the time to put five decades of memories onto paper.
For someone who once thought he might not make it to 78, there is something quietly fitting about reaching the milestone with a nearly 500-page record of everything that came before.
And if Huey’s latest chapter proves anything, it is that his story was far from finished.