How to become a Michelin Star Chef
Select default video size
Use the tabs on the right, to select a default video size.
You preference will be saved for future videos, but can easily be changed at any time using the tabs.
Transcript
- Wellington High School:
What is a Michelin Star Chef and how did you become one?
- Adam:
The Michelin Guide (you've heard of Michelin tyres) It’s the same company, a French company that has set up a guide book, not only to inform people in France about what good places to go and eat, but it was really to get them driving and use more tyres. This was a long time ago, 70 or 80 years ago. And it’s grown into this phenomenon now, which is Michelin Stars. I was lucky enough early on in my career that I caught the bug, if you want to call it that.
I was lucky enough to then work in a restaurant in London, on Fulham Road. The owner was thinking the same way as me, and it was really hard-core for a long period of time.
The guide inspects your restaurant. They can inspect it a dozen times a year, when they want to award anyone a star. They are anonymous; so you never know that they come in.. You might go to one, two, three, four, five, six, and it’s all fantastic. They’ve had great meals. They come the seventh and then they won’t come again. They won’t visit your restaurant for about another two to three years; just to see how you go.
But boy, when you get a little bit of a sniff of or get downwind of something that might be happening, it’s just an amazing feeling to be part of that team. I have always said it, to this day, to a lot of people, that I have never worked with a team like I did at Fulham Road restaurant. They were just totally committed. We were working from seven in the morning until one at night, 6 days a week, just purely to get that Michelin Star.
But what you’ve got to realise, as well, is even though the Michelin Star thing is fantastic to achieve, it doesn’t mean it’s going to bring you success. It brings you the success of winning a star or an accolade, but it might not mean, financially, that you will become a millionaire or that you will do very, very well. You still have to have your feet on the ground, and that is where the Roux brothers did it for me. There are only a few guys in the world who have got that ability and the people around them, to do it. But it is achievable. You guys sitting there, if you want to be a chef, get your qualifications and you could quite easily go to London and work with these people. There is no reason why any of you cannot earn a Michelin Star, yourself, but it’s going to take a lot of hard yakker.