Chef’s hot chips ire launched ad-warrior career

AUCKLAND, Today: Colenso BBDO MD Angela Watson was a waitress before her stellar ad career began – with a feisty introduction to Saatchi & Saatchi/Lewis Rd Creamery legend Peter Cullinane.

“The year is 1990 – in one of Wellington’s trendiest lunch spots,” she told Weekend Herald business writer Damien Venutto.

“A young server goes to a table of sartorially elegant men she’s served many times before. They’re the guys from Saatchi & Saatchi – and even before she reaches their table, she knows one of them will ask for a dish that isn’t served at an establishment of this calibre …

“A plate of hot chips.”

“When you’re a server, you simply don’t say no to regulars like these.

“When you’re a server, you simply don’t say no to regulars like these.”

“She nods, smiles and heads for the kitchen. She’s been on the receiving end of the chef’s rage a few times – and now the screaming escalates.

“He moves closer. And before she can flinch, he punches her in the face.”

It’s the moment that marked the end of Angela Watson’s career in hospitality.”

“It turned out her knack of getting the chef to make a plate of chips was the exact skill the adman felt he needed at Saatchi,” she said.

• There’s more – all good stuff. Here (you may need a Premium sub)