A decade is an age, an era, an epoch.

"When I first opened, my goal was for the restaurant to be at least 10 years' old," says Emerson Rodriguez, chef and owner of Emersons restaurant, located in Lovedale, in Hunter Valley Wine Country.

"I felt like if I closed my restaurant before 10 years, that I would have failed, that I wouldn't have achieved anything. I don't know why," he says, "It's just my mindset."

Through the fire, to the limit, to the wall. Emerson Rodriguez has risked it all.

In September, Emersons celebrated 10 years of trading.

That's roughly 2600 days manning the pans, or 35,000 hours steering the stainless-wheels-of-steel. Indeed, a decade since Emerson opened his eponymous restaurant, independently, on September 22, 2010.

A tremendous achievement, by any measure.

Although, he very nearly didn't make it. 2020 has been a hell of a year.

"We've been struggling since the start of the year, with the drought, and the smoke, and the fires. A lot of people stopped visiting over the summer, last year, and then COVID hit and we were shut down. I remember thinking, 'that's it. I'm done'," Rodriguez says.

Literally, overnight, the fate of the business and his personal 10-year dream was taken away from him, dropped into the void and left to free fall for at least three months.

"That was the biggest thing for me, it was out of my hands. Out of my control. It's like, there goes my 10-year goal, you know ... I don't have a restaurant, I don't have a business anymore, and who knows when I'm going to be able to open back up?" Rodriguez says.

But, of course, he has survived.

Emerson is intimate with the concept of struggle. Of working hard. He's been working hard all his life. Growing up near the City of Manila, Philippines, his youth was plagued by poverty and unfledged work. As a boy, he worked at his grandmother's market stall; carting handfuls of freshly killed chicken carcasses, turning lechon (whole pig) while it roasted over a fire, and rolling hundreds of spring rolls, every day. His father passed away when he was only 6 months old.

"We lived on dried fish and rice. There was always crime in the streets. We had nothing, and I learned quickly, nothing's ever given to you. You've got to work hard for everything ... for everything," Rodriguez says, repeating those last words for emphasis and clarity.

Before starting Emersons, Rodriguez and his then wife, Samantha, sold their house, and he quit his well-remunerated job as executive chef of Peppers, Hunter Valley.

"I remember talking to the general manager of Peppers, saying, 'I'm 31 years old, what if it doesn't work out?', and he said, 'Man, I did the same thing when I bought into Peppers. I was scared it wouldn't work out too, but I'm still young enough where, if something goes wrong, I can start over again. You can too. Just don't f- - - it up ...'," Rodriguez recalls.

'Flavour, texture and colour are what this food is all about. An amuse bouche demitasse of vibrant green pea soup permeated with truffle oil wakes the taste buds and gives a glimpse of what is to come,' wrote the Weeekender's own Liz Love, back in 2011, some five months after opening.

Rodriguez's food is impeccable, with an equal emphasis on flavour and detail. His seafood dishes, in particular, are some of the best you'll ever eat. Fact. And while reviews and accolades are nice, it's the loyal and local customers who keep coming back year on year that have ensured Rodriguez has been able to reach his ambitious goal of 10 years trading.

"After we had our first paying customer, you know, someone you don't know, who wanted to come in, sit down, and dine at our restaurant, I was excited. Like, 'wow, this is the first paying customer!' That feeling was unreal," Rodriguez recalls, smiling.

Hard work, good food, good customers, and good staff, of course.

"Obviously, I couldn't have made it to my goal of 10 years without the help of Samantha, in those early years, and every staff member that's ever worked here over the last 10 years. I have say thank you to all of them, because I couldn't have done it without them," Rodriguez says.