About

Andrew Thomas Heusser (AKA plain Andrew Thomas) is a born and bred Englishman of Swiss heritage.  He’s related to Johanna Heusser Spyri, writer of the Heidi novels. The family name is pronounced “HOYZER”.

He has been an Engineer (B.Sc Eng Hons,  Imperial College, London 1971) in hard rock mining, explosives etc.

What on earth possessed him to go down this unsuitable route had something to do with pleasing his father, a tough, aggressive WW2 soldier, described in the regimental history as ‘gruelling’, and ‘not to be trifled with’.

I think he was misheard when, as a young guitarist, he said in his quiet voice that he wanted to work in hard rock. Finding a fossil on a Dorset beach sealed his fate. Mining was a ‘good’ manly career, carrying a generous bursary.

The rest of his adult life has been spent escaping the dangers, heat and cheerless nature of the remote gold mine in South Africa, to which he was wholly unsuited.

Self taught, his first darkroom was a broom cupboard, his first customers, parents of small children working at the mine, whose portraits he took for little money. His mentor was the doctor’s wife, who spotted real talent and persuaded him to leave and follow his dreams.

Skip 20 years, (firstly a portraitist and later in advertising), after numerous one-man exhibitions, he won a prestigious Merit Award at the Association Awards in London. An agent followed, with some decent fees. lecturing assignments in the UK, Holland and Germany, and various magazine articles.

Having married, after a season of dismal weather, he and his new wife left for France to have their babies in the sunshine.

Comprehensibly wiped out in the financial crash of 2008, the returned to England and bought a restaurant with a photography gallery.

A passionate and inventive cook, he took over the chef duties and gained an admirable following. He hopes to peak late as the writer of his extraordinary life.

His literary creation Kenwood the Chef is yet to be released upon an unsuspecting world.