Last July I graduated from Westminster Kingsway College after completing the final year of a three-year NVQ course and being awarded a Professional Chef Diploma with Merit. I chose WestKing because of its reputation as the best catering college in the country and I was not disappointed, although it was a very demanding course. After graduation I spent the summer deciding where to start my professional career.
Many of my fellow students elected to follow a traditional path and select a Michelin-starred restaurant, cooking Modern European cuisine. But I've always been more interested in more innovative fusion cooking, drawing on processes and ingredients from across the globe to create a style of food that transcends regional cuisine.It seemed to me that the most adventurous and exciting food of my generation was - unlike the food of the previous generation - to be found not in France but in Spain. Leading that revolution were the Nuevos Cocineros de Barcelona - a group of creative chefs most of whom learnt their trade with Ferran Adrià at the world's #1 rated restaurant, El Bulli. And of all those chefs, the one whose menu impressed me most was Carles Abellan of Comerç 24. When offered a 3-month training stage, I had no hesitation in accepting. Since October I've been in a small, open kitchen as a small part of the amazing team at one of Europe's most adventurous restaurants. The irony is that, just seven weeks after I started at C24, it was awarded its first Michelin star!
At the end of my three-month stage, I was fortunate enough to be offered a one-year contract to remain at Comerç 24 and I accepted without hesitation. I could probably earn more working at Dunkin' Donuts, but that's hardly the point. I'm incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to learn in this environment, amongst great chefs and serious foodies, working at the edge of creativity with modern food. How many people can honestly say that they are doing exactly what they've always wanted to do... and getting paid for it? I only need Chelsea to win the Champions League for life to be just about perfect.
Click here to see my photo diary of one day in my life as a third-year student at Westminster Kingsway. It will give you an idea of just how long my working day was and all of the activities that I packed into that long day. Hospitality is a tough career choice - my current job involves two shifts (with a siesta in-between) totalling over ten hours of work per day.I've been very lucky to experience quite a lot in the first 20 years of my life, because my parents worked hard to give my brother and myself plenty of opportunities to try things out. We both did a lot of sport when we were young and that taught me the importance of always turning up on time and trying hard even when things aren't going well. I never quite reached the football standard of brother Joel, who trialled at Under-16 for England, but I was goalkeeper for one of the most successful ever teams in the Waltham Forest league in East London. Click for information about my youth football team Apex Arvendale FC.
Both mum and dad were brought up in relatively poor families and missed out on many things that they were later able to give their own children. But they always understood the difference between the price of things and the value of things, so they never held back when it came to making sure we had valuable experiences. Now they are more comfortable financially, I don't feel guilty suggesting visits to top restaurants as presents and we've enjoyed a few such outings, including to Midsummer House (left). They promised me a table at El Bulli to celebrate graduation, but for one reason or another it didn't happen. Now I'm working for a protegée of Ferran Adrià it's more likely that I'll be taking them to El Bulli.
My early travels around the world have taught me that the planet is a very small place where we don't all have to be the same, but if we don't all get on with eachother we will all sink together. I want to reflect this in my cooking.I have enormous respect for regional cuisines and for classical cooking that has proved itself over the years. Food is an integral part of national and regional cultures and should be protected and developed in the same way that art, music and language should be. But it's global cooking that turns me on. New Zealand chef Peter Gordon summed up exactly how I feel when he wrote in A World In My Kitchen: "There are many chefs cooking beautiful, authentic regional food... I love to eat it but I don't want to cook it... The world as a whole excites me more than a region defined by political boundaries."
Here is my CV as a .pdf file and you can look up my references for any further enquiries. Trig.