Michael Lee Richards Death, Obituary – Richards kicked off his successful career in the kitchen in the 1980s in Tautahi, when he bought the restaurant Casa Del Sol in the central district of the city and launched White Tie catering. Both businesses were located in the same building. Richards had prior experience working in the legal field. By the time the decade of the 1990s arrived, the business was known as Michael’s Restaurant, and an upstairs cooking school had been built. Following that, he launched a festival, wrote a cookbook, and started giving talks in a variety of locations throughout the world. In 1999, Richards sold the catering business he owned, White Tie, to an old employee of hers named Tina Duncan. Richards kept the name White
Tie.”As a restaurateur and a foodie, I think he was definitely ahead of his time. He was the most creative guy in addition to being so much fun and obnoxious as well,” she said. “He was the most creative guy in addition to being so much fun and frustrating as well.” “He really had a genuine flair for cooking,” she said of Richards, with whom she began working with him in 1994, first in the capacity of his personal assistant. “He was the most inventive person in addition to being so much fun and annoying as well,” she said. “He simply had a real flair for cooking,” Richards said of Duncan.
“We travelled the world. We went on world cruises because he taught cooking on cruise ships. We went to Singapore because he was doing the menus for Air New Zealand. We [were over there] to see the food go onto the international Air New Zealand planes.” Duncan and Richards founded Savour New Zealand between the years 1999 and 2001. According to Lauraine Jacobs, a food journalist who has worked in the industry her entire life and has been an advocate for the New Zealand food scene, the food festival that took place every two years up until 2009 was a fixture on the calendar of the culinary world. Jacobs is the one who made this statement.