![\"\"](\"https:\/\/test10.co.za\/C\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Dominique_Crenn_and_Kirsten_Shaw_1x56.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhen did your passion for food start?<\/h4>\n
I never knew I wanted to cook. Growing up I was very happy eating Bovril on toast every day! It was only after university, when at the age of 23, I packed my bag in search of a teaching job in Vietnam that I truly discovered the magic of flavour associations and feeling almost out of breath after a meal. It was transcendent.<\/p>\n
From there, I realised I could make other people feel as good as I did, and a new creative world, with infinite possibilities opened up to me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
From there, I spend all my weekends (and money) in Vietnamese and Thai cooking classes until I realised it was time to take it to the next level and invest in a culinary education at the age of 25.<\/p>\n
I grew up in Durban North until the age of 12, terrorising the neighbourhood with the local boys, swimming and surfing. From there, we were uprooted and moved to a small town in the French countryside, where we had to adapt to a very different way of life.<\/p>\n
Where and what did you study?<\/h4>\n
After French high school, I moved to England to study English and history in Bristol. It was only six years later that I moved back to Durban to study culinary arts at the 1000 Hills Chef School.<\/p>\n
Where are some of the places you have worked?<\/h4>\n
I started my career in a 2 Michelin Star restaurant in the Loire Valley in France. The hotel and restaurant were gorgeous, the chef a self-taught culinary master in French technique, but an absolute tyrant in the kitchen. It was a true eye-opener to what a traditional French kitchen really was. I must have cried every Sunday for 18 months without fail. I learnt the hard way.<\/p>\n
They like to break you down, rid you of your childish aspirations, and build you into a machine. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I hated it but I stuck it out, I knew I had to do the time. It was really when plates hit the pass, that I realised how fortunate I was to work in such a stellar environment.<\/span><\/p>\n
From there, I needed a breather and a mentor. I was hired by Eric Guerin, a Michelin star awarded chef I wanted to work with him, not because of his Michelin status, but because he was a spokesperson for condoning violence in the kitchen. He spoke out against famous chefs who had reputations for physical and emotional abuse. I looked to him for personal inspiration, I knew I never wanted to be one of those chefs who ruled with an iron fist, yet I had been shown no other way.<\/p>\n
The restaurant – Le Jardin des Plumes (the Garden of Feathers) was hidden away in Giverny, in Normandy, home to Monet and Renoir, impressionist painters who sought inspiration through natural sources. We looked to do the same. Our plates were Eric\u2019s canvases, and we wove a deep interpretation of the local area.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After two years, I headed for Paris, working at a funky up and coming bistro, as their grill chef. The \u2018Grill\u2019 at this point was an understatement, it was a three-meter-long open fire pit, with French rotisserie and smoker. We sent out over 200 covers a day, grilling anything from arms length long John Dory to perfectly manicured pigeons. It was the most physically demanding chef job I have had to date.<\/p>\n
After four years of high-pressure French restaurants, I escaped and took to the seas on a large sailboat, enjoying the carefree environment, the fresh air, fishing and cooking enormous tuna and Mahi Mahi off the back of the boat, swimming in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a calm day, exploring Caribbean produce and the island way of cooking.<\/p>\n