This story is part of the November 1 edition of Good Weekend. See all 13 stories .

Japanese chef Kazumasa Yazawa, 41, and his Thai-Chinese wife Thana, 45, were living in Jakarta when COVID-19 hit. Fearful they’d die, they made a radical call: to move with their daughter, Sora, to small-town Tasmania and open a B&B.

Kaz: My father had a mental breakdown when I was 16 and took his own life; I ­discovered him. I moved from Japan to Australia for a fresh start and trained under Tetsuya Wakuda in Sydney. When he opened a restaurant in Singapore [in 2010], he sent me to work there.

I met Thana in a wine bar. I was 26 and having a good time. She helped me style my new apartment and we got along. I wanted to get serious, but she wasn’t ready then and dumped me. We met again about a year l

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