“My defining moment as a chef? I still remember it so clearly. I got to a little town north east of Barcelona and had nowhere to stay, so I slept on a beach for the first night. I rented a bicycle and set off on a six-mile bike journey up this unbelievable hill. I ended up leaving the bike halfway and walking the rest of the way to knock on the door of elBulli.
“Until then Ferran Adrià had absolutely ignored me, but I walked into that kitchen and begged for a job. Finally Eduardo, the chef at the time, caved in and gave me a chance. I just stood in that kitchen and watched the lunch service, watching Ferran move, watching the chefs work with food… I knew then; that was it. The smells, the colours, the magic going on. This is where I belong.”
It’s a typically modest tale from Jason Atherton, the Chef Patron of maze London, who’s travelled a long road from growing up in drizzly Skegness in the north-east of England.
“My mum didn’t want me to move to London as she’s a bit of a mother hen. They went to Spain on holiday and left my big sister Vicky in charge of the house. While they were away I literally packed my bags and went… and never came back!” he chuckles.
Despite no classical training, spells in the kitchens of Pierre Koffman and Marco Pierre White, and two decades of hard work, have paid off for the 38-year-old Atherton. He was the first British chef to complete a stage in Adrià’s laboratory-cum-kitchen and now boasts his own Michelin star for his Grosvenor Square restaurant that regularly ranks in the top five eateries in London.
“When I left home to go to London at the age of 16 I never even dreamt I would be in this position. I came to London to learn to cook and I learnt it all on the coalface. I was literally trained in the kitchen, from when I was a young chef. It’s all about hard work.
“For me it’s a great honour to be a Michelin-star chef, but it’s a double-edged sword because it means the expectations are so much higher. Every young chef wants to come and work with you and we’re a busy restaurant, doing 150, 160 covers a night, so to balance the whole thing together is very time-consuming, and very draining.”
As we chat on the terrace of maze at the One&Only hotel in Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, Atherton shows none of the ego I’ve come to expect from top-notch chefs, and he’s amused by the inevitable questions on his foul-mouthed boss.
As part of his gourmet empire it’s Gordon Ramsay’s name that appears on the door of maze London, but it’s Atherton’s culinary signature that is firmly stamped on the restaurant’s adventurous fine-dining menu.
“Because of who he is, people think Gordon cooks everywhere. They think he cooks here in Cape Town, they think he cooks at maze London. When people ask if Gordon’s in the kitchen I say: ‘Well, of course he’s not. It’s not his restaurant!’ The restaurant bears his name, but he’s a businessman and TV personality. He owns it, but I cook in it!”
Not having his name in lights doesn’t seem to ruffle the man whose creations set the tone for maze restaurants from Australia to the Czech Republic. While maze London is where he creates magic in the kitchen, Atherton also oversees the opening of maze restaurants around the world, adapting the brand to local palates.
“Maze London is like the mother ship, I suppose. We have a development kitchen, which is working on seven to 10 new concepts all the time and we then ship out different techniques and new ideas to the various maze restaurants around the world. It’s then up to each local chef to decide whether they use them or not – does it fit into the local menu, is it relevant to here.”
At maze Cape Town South African flavours are playfully reinvented with the likes of Chef Phil Carmichael’s Biltong Consommé; a perfect starter for the meat-heavy menu that’s aimed squarely at carnivores. Along with tailoring the menu, finding the best local produce is key, says Jason, and before opening maze Cape Town he was impressed at what he found among local producers.
“You’ve got such fantastic fresh produce here. When I first came out here we got taken to a nearby trout farm, we were shown the wonderful late berries, the meats. And I love the mussels here too; they’re so much better than what we get in the UK. At maze we use local produce absolutely wherever possible. Almost everything on the menu here is from South Africa; the lamb’s from the Karoo, the fish from local boats. And when your produce is this good, it’s easy really.”
"Jeremy Clarkson… he’s a chain-smoking dimwit"
Atherton’s love for all things local extends to the wine-list. Although he lets the sommeliers look after the cellar, with maze Cape Town boasting a 5000-bottle wine wall pairing wine and food is something he takes seriously. And unlike a certain compatriot, he rates South African wines as some of the best in the world.
“I apologise on behalf of Britain for Jeremy Clarkson… he’s a chain-smoking dimwit. Our wine-list here at maze Cape Town is 90 percent South African and I think your local wines are amazing! Wine is an equal partner to the food, and we even showcase your South African wines at my restaurant in London.”
Apart from being a committed locavore, Atherton also believes passionately that fine-dining restaurants have a duty to support sustainable food producers.
“I hate it when chefs go organic this, organic that. What is organic? It’s such a grey concept. Sustainable is much better. Sustainable is what we should all be concentrating on. When something like Blue fin Tuna is on the verge of being extinct it is our duty not to serve it. This goes far deeper than what customers want. If it is that rare it is our job to make sure it is not fished, and if chefs didn’t buy it they’d stop fishing it!”
As he wanders off to discuss the evening’s tasting menu with the kitchen team, I ask him how he finds space in his hectic schedule to spend time with his wife and four-year-old daughter Keziah?
“I never shut the door on maze, it’s impossible,” he says as he scans through his Blackberry, going over the kitchen logbooks for the previous night at maze London. “I haven’t spent a full day with my family for about a month, but it is what it is, y’know. How lucky am I to have a job where I actually don’t feel like I’m going to work. I eat, drink, sleep, live restaurants and I love it. Absolutely love it.”
First published in Food&Home magazine; May 2010
|
