Gordon Ramsay
Leading through a culinary maze
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Phil Carmichael has found himself in the middle of the cult of celebrity that has grown up around top chefs through cooking shows, books and name-brand restaurants. At 31, he is remarkably young to be heading up celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s maze — the first of such restaurants in Prague — that he helped open one year ago this month. But it’s a position he’s earned a bit sooner than expected, he admits, by working at a nonstop pace since he started in kitchens in his native Wales.
“There’s no romantic story to it. I finished school and worked part time in brasseries. It was something I enjoyed doing, and I was quite good at it. I wouldn’t say it’s all natural talent; I’ve actually worked very hard to get where I am today,” he said during a late afternoon break from the Maze kitchen in the Old Town Hilton, where he spends 16-hour days.
After working under the famous Roux brothers restaurateurs — first in Amsterdam, then at Le Gavroche in London — Carmichael hooked up with Ramsay and maze London Executive Chef Jason Atherton in 2005. His education under the top chefs in Europe has been priceless, and far more enlightening than the standard trip through culinary school would have been, Carmichael said.
“The whole process of sitting down and having someone dictate to you didn’t agree with me. I wanted to get out and get involved and learn on the job,” he said.
The pressure on Carmichael would seem obvious: Ramsay’s restaurants collectively have 12 Michelin stars, and Prague recently landed the first star in Central and Eastern Europe when Allegro, an Italian restaurant headed by Andrea Accordi, also 31, grabbed one in March.
A kitchen whose sole focus is the accolade could easily lose sight of its real purpose — the customer — and the purpose of the restaurant would be compromised, Carmichael said.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it, but it’s not the reason we’re here; it’s not the reason I’m a chef. If the restaurant is full but you don’t have any accolades, it’s still a successful restaurant,” he said. “It is nice when Michelin awards these things, because it’s very knowledgeable people saying your food is spot on. But you should get a Michelin almost as a byproduct of what you’re doing anyway: cooking food to the best of your ability.”
Both the praises and criticisms land squarely on Carmichael’s shoulders. Ramsay may have his name on the restaurant, but the menu is all Carmichael, a process that took him nearly six months of developing dishes in London with feedback from Ramsay, Atherton and other head chefs in the group.
“They’d sit around and be honest and say, ‘That was crap; that was beautiful; that would work better with something else.’ We finally whittled them down and came out here with 25 dishes that we were confident with.”
Atherton is more than pleased with the results. “Phil is one of the most dynamic chefs that I know. His maturity and creativity at Maze Prague has proven to be amazing and he is definitely a star of the future,” he says.
As with the accolades, the criticisms — though there have been few — have little bearing on what Carmichael brings out of his kitchen. With the exception of one review that he considers a personal attack on Ramsay rather than a real assessment of the food, the professional restaurant critics have been largely fair in their write-ups, he said. But it’s the smaller blogs and comments online that he’s more interested in reading, as they’re often written by customers, the demographic he really wants to impress.
“With professional critics, it’s their job to criticize you, to come in and almost look for the faults. Whereas some customers come in, eat a meal and then go online and write about it. I’m more interested in what those people have got to say,” he said.
Carmichael becomes almost reverential when he considers the wonders of braising meat, a transformative method of cooking that yields his “comfort food.” It’s not for the impatient — cuts of meat that could appear inedible are cooked in varying degrees of heat and water, often a low simmer, for an entire day, coaxed into tender and unrecognizable versions of their former selves with flavors distilled to their very essences.
“You can take this tough, chewy piece of ox cheek, and then, after you’ve braised it for 12 hours, you’ve got this buttery meat that your fork just sinks into. It’s soft; it’s beautiful,” he said.
The technique is at the heart of many of Maze’s dishes and is especially valued in the colder months as customers seek out warmer, richer meals. A braised pork cheek will be one component of four in a new dish he’s excited to introduce this month that also includes crispy pork ear, a pork confit and lentils with trotter vinaigrette. The dish is an example of contrasting methods of cooking that create complimentary flavors, as well as a nod to his customer’s tastes.
“They love pork out here; they’re mad for it. It’s four different parts of the animal cooked in completely different ways, and we’re bringing it all together on the plate. It’s going to be beautiful,” he said.
Carmichael’s own style is just as disciplined, but he has adjusted his approach to get the best work out of the “local boys” who work under him. What works in London doesn’t quite translate to Prague, he’s found.
“In London, when I was a sous chef, all you had to do was scream a little louder. Over here, you start raising your voice, and they sort of freeze up. We learned that very quickly, so we knew we couldn’t run a kitchen with an iron rod out here,” he said.
Instead, the kitchen has taken on a larger staff than would be normal in London, so cooks don’t become overworked and Carmichael and his sous chefs from the United Kingdom have more time to correct mistakes and explain techniques. The slower pace suits him after the kitchens in London.
When Carmichael’s workday is finally over, he walks 10 minutes and is home. In London, he walked 10 minutes to his bus stop. That’s not to say his job leaves any room for much of a social life, he remarked, but when he has gone out to eat at other restaurants, he’s been impressed, especially with La Degustation and Aromi. He sees himself in Prague for at least another two years to get the restaurant completely stable, after which he’s open to whatever opportunities arise, although he’d like to stay out of London for a couple more years. Eventually, he wants to own his own restaurant.
“Whether it’s something that’s with backing from Gordon or my own thing, yeah, definitely. I’ve worked too hard and put in too much effort to just sit back now,” he said. “That’s the beauty of doing this job: If someone had told me five years ago I’d be in Prague running one of Gordon’s restaurants, I’d have said there’s no chance. Now, who knows where I’ll be in five years.”
Source: The Prague Post