Auckland mates Charlie Farrelly-Gruar and John 'Seymore' Harrison share a passion for delicious kai and deep kōrero.

Auckland mates Charlie Farrelly-Gruar and John 'Seymore' Harrison share a passion for delicious kai and deep kōrero.

As the Eggplant Boys, their delicious recipes and fun cooking videos are winning people over on Instagram.

Charlie, who previously worked as a tattoo artist, tells Kathryn Ryan he learnt how to cook from his mum.

"She had this amazing ability to put love into all her meals and create magic with what seemed like minimal effort."

When Charlie's mother died in 2019, he wanted to use cooking as a way to stay connected with her memory and what she believed in.

"She was a psychiatrist so she had a love for helping people with their mental battles ... and we kind of use food in the same way - to throw people together and facilitate conversations and openness, vulnerability and all that."

Around the same time, Seymore, who'd been DJing for years, knew he needed a career change.

He thought about what he loved doing - and cooking was it.

"It's so simple and it made me feel so much more again. I wanted to share that with my friends that follow me on Instagram ... and then linked up with charlie and we became the eggplant boys through the help of a mutual friend."

It's a powerful thing to realise that you can figure out your passion and change direction later in life, Charlie says.

"There's usually transferable skills you learn growing up just by being a human being in the world that you can use to put into your passions once you figure out what they are. And there's no real timeframe for when that happens to you.

"I was running a tattoo shop and that was awesome ... I still love the space but it kind of made me realise what I wanted to put my energy into and what was going to give me fulfilment at the end of the day when I got home.

"There's nothing better than creating a meal for loved ones or even strangers and seeing joy in their faces with new flavours and ingredient combinations... it's an amazing thing to be able to provide people."

Once the ball was rolling, and Charlie and Seymore became the Eggplant Boys, they had to think about what their voice was going to be.

Part of "being the change they wanted to see in the world" is using te reo Māori as they cook and chat, Charlie says.

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Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details