Aaron Turner is head chef and co-owner of Igni, a Geelong restaurant he opened in 2016 after his marriage breakup forced the closure of his former restaurant, Loam. Igni has since won a string of awards, and Turner was voted chef of the year in the 2017 edition of The Age Good Food Guide.

You worked crazy hours at your first restaurant, Loam, from 6am until 2am, up to 90 hours a week. What effect did this have?

Much bigger than I realised at the time. It affected my mental and physical health, my friends, marriage, my family. It was pretty stupid. I've tried to learn from my mistakes. I have three days off a week now and come Sunday night, I'm happy to walk out that door. But I still work 16 hours a day. You need to do that in this industry if you want to be good, you have to work the unsocial hours. But I try to balance it now so I can switch off. Something that has become slowly apparent to me is that we talk so much about the sustainability of produce – how about we talk a bit more about the sustainability of staff?

Your upcoming book, Igni, is not the average cookbook. You write in it about discovering via text message that your wife was having an affair with another chef at Loam. After your marriage ended and Loam closed, you write that you hated cooking and eating. Your life pretty much imploded.

I would be lying if I said I didn't think about suicide. But I didn't think about doing it, and there is a massive difference. A lot of people go through dark periods and I have taught myself not to deny I did, but to acknowledge it was a trauma which was life altering. You can either let it define you or be thankful you are still upright and get on with it.

You fled to Nashville for a bit, where you had friends. How was it that two years later you ended up opening another restaurant in the same corner of Victoria as Loam?

I had these voices in my head saying, "Cooking is to blame for all your problems." But there were also smaller, quieter voices saying, "You love cooking, it gives you satisfaction." So it was a process of swapping those voices around. I thought cooking had failed me; it had ruined my marriage, my life. But I'm stubborn and I don't like to be defeated and I felt that if I had not gone back to cooking, I would have failed.

You still hated cooking the day you opened Igni and nerves made you vomit in the shower the morning before you served your first meals. Has your love of cooking returned?

Love is a funny word. I am much more cautious now. I hold cooking more at arm's length; before it was my everything. I am in a good space now though and I can find moments of joy. And I am not so hard on myself. If we burn the sauce, we burn the sauce; it's not the end of the world.

What are you most proud of?

My record collection. I have at least 400 LPs, everything from country to hardcore punk. When I moved to Nashville, I bought a record a week and forced myself to listen to all different types of music. Now I buy between two and five records a week and spend about 24 hours a week listening to them. I don't bring my vinyl in to work, though, they'd get covered in fat. I'm also proud of the restaurant and the people who work here. They do an amazing job.

Igni by Aaron Turner (Hardie Grant, $60), is published on October 1. Lifeline: 13 11 14.