Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Chef from a Swiss village who became master of the kitchens at a great London hotel, recognized as one of the world's great chefs.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:01Do you ever feel you just can't face cooking another meal?
Not at all. I'm looking forward for the next one all the time. I just love it and enjoy every minute of it.
Presenter asks
5:43You always knew you were going to make it big, didn't you?
Always. I had always dreams and somehow self-discipline to be just an inch ahead of most of my colleagues. And I knew one day I wanted to be a chef in a large hotel with many, many cooks around me cooking for very different tastes and for well known people. I knew that then.
Presenter asks
6:25Was your drive born of a love of good cuisine, a desire for recognition, or a desire for wealth?
I'm not quite sure which one. I was the only child, and somehow not spoiled like most, but I had to work very hard and I got used to it as a very young boy. So somehow I wanted to be recognized, yes. Money I always liked too, but it wasn't actually number one. Number one was to produce something and give pleasure to other people.
The keepsakes
The book
Bartolomeo Scappi
I like to study much more in details, and that's Bartolomeo Scappi, who used to be the chef to the Pope in fifteen hundred twenty five. He wrote the first cookery book. with wonderful recipes, and I love to go back page by page, and try to study it more in details.
The luxury
I love to have a steamer, because I cannot live without a steamer. And even this beautiful island here, I think a steamer I need to to survive.
Presenter asks
What is it that makes a great chef beyond what can be taught?
I think it's a gift. When I train chefs, there's only so much you can give them, so much you can tell them. So much you can show them. But the rest they have to know, they have to feel themselves. And I believe it's a gift from God you have to have.
Presenter asks
15:28Why is it that women are cooks and men are chefs?
So I think that that's that's changing too actually. In fact, I had one or two very good chefs at the Dorchester ladies who were extremely creative, dedicated to their jobs and very good at what they've done. So I think in years to come we have more women chefs than we have now. There's no reason why a woman shouldn't be a head chef in a large hotel.
Presenter asks
27:11Have you ever had a great culinary disaster?
I think a few, but one I remember which was really very difficult to rectify. We had a banquet for five hundred people, and they all had a soup in a cup covered with puff pastry. And somehow all the soups collapsed, all the puff pastry fell into the soup. ... we had to cover the soup with new puff pastries. We had to let the people wait, obviously, for about ten minutes. But sometimes it's better to let people wait for ten minutes than serving something which you're not quite happy with. ... it's very important that you keep calm.
“I had always dreams and somehow self-discipline to be just an inch ahead of most of my colleagues. And I knew one day I wanted to be a chef in a large hotel with many, many cooks around me cooking for very different tastes and for well known people. I knew that then.”
“I almost cry sometimes when uh a chef touches a melon and ... no w with no feelings. I mean, the melon you touch like a little baby, you take it to your mouth and to your nose and you smell it and say, Mm, lovely melon. Yes, it's ripe, you can use it.”
“I believe in being a gentleman in the kitchen. Explain your chefs. Talk to them. And work as a team.”
“I remember I took over a hundred and thirty two chefs, with twenty-eight years of age. Most of them were actually older than I was. And the first day one of my assistants came to me and said, You know, sir, my son is just one year older than you are. I got the message.”
“I think it will be memoried from Barbara Dixon. I think will bring back so many memories of my youth when I was sitting next to the lake of my hometown. Dreaming out my future. Looking forward. Couldn't wait to get older. one day to be in charge of something, to be successful.”