Career Path: Started in Kitchen (age 19) > 10 Years Working with Best Chefs > Executive Chef
“I do loads of TV chef work now"
My Story: Having started at Le Gavroche at the age of 19, I spent the next ten years working with some of London’s best chefs in seven top Michelin star restaurants, where I perfected the art of fine French cuisine. I am now Executive Chef at Pearl Restaurant and Bar and have just launched my first recipe book.
Funny Story: First Head Chef job was at Chives Restaurant. AA Gill came in to dine one day, and I checked after every course that he was happy. After his petit fours, he told me that they had been cut using a knife that had previously cut garlic and that he could taste it. I was pretty sure it hadn’t but I accepted his feedback.
A few days later he came back into the restaurant and at the end of a meal he asked the waiter, as a joke, for some garlic petit fours. The waiter came to me, so I prepared a plate of petit fours and stuck loads of garlic all over the plate and sent them down to him!
Needless to say, he did mention in his review that I was cocky and young, and with retrospect he was right! I would never do something like that now, having had experience in the industry. I was lucky he was in a good mood!