53—MARYLEBONE JOURNAL
FOOD
FOOD & ME TOM MCNEILE, MD OF L’ATELIER DES CHEFS
Have you always loved food? Yes. I would describe myself as a good home cook, though I’m nothing special – I’m definitely not a chef. Food for me is important. My brother eats cheese three times a day, because he has no interest in food; it’s fuel, nothing more. But I like a bit of flavour and to use food the way I believe is correct. It’s probably wrong – Andre our head chef would probably kill me.
Have you always run a cookery school? No, in a previous life I was a salmon fisherman in northern Russia, spending six months of the year in the Arctic Circle – 24 hour daylight, -40C. I ate nothing but salmon – fried, boiled, frozen. And it was a very exciting time. I was in my early 20s and was convinced I was James Bond.
How did that come about? After I left university, I wanted to travel. I heard about a company running salmon fishing up there, so I went for an interview. I signed up for night school courses in motor mechanics and Russian, so that at the interview I could say: “Yes, I’m doing motor mechanics. Yes, I speak Russian.” They sent me out there and it was fantastic, though it scared the hell out of me. I had a very nasty experience with a bear, which convinced me to leave. So I came back to England and got a job in the City as a currency trader.
How long did you work in the City? For just under four years. I have an entrepreneurial mind – it’s in the family – but that spirit wasn’t necessarily welcome. I was looking after people’s money and it was quite dry, staid and pedestrian.
When did you join L’atelier des Chefs? November 2009. I heard about the position, in a roundabout way, from Francois Bergerault, one of the founders of L’atelier des Chefs. It appealed to me on every level. It quickly became apparent that I was interviewing for the role of managing director, and the opportunity to run a business based around a passion of mine was far too attractive.
Tell us about the business. It was set up in Paris in 2004 by brothers Francois and Nicholas Bergerault. They had noticed that over the generations the French had slightly fallen out of love with cooking and that recipes weren’t being passed down. L’atelier des Chefs took off very quickly and we now have 17 units in France. We have a joint venture in Dubai and the unit here in London.
Who is the cookery school aimed at? Literally anybody. It’s not vocational. We’re not going to turn you into a chef, but what we will do is show you how to do recipes differently and how to expand your repertoire. They will teach you how to make food on a daily basis and show you that food isn’t always expensive, doesn’t always take hours to make, but can be ultimately delicious. If you’re shown how to do things by an expert then they become very simple and second nature. You go home and cook for your family and friends, and your food is better and you’re healthier.
How good are the teachers here? Second to none. Andre Dupin, who heads up the brigade, is an absolutely amazing chef. He was at the
Michelin-starred Chez Bruce, cooked at Claridge’s and ran the Four0nine kitchen in Clapham. Satti was the senior pastry chef at Pied a Terre, which has two Michelin stars. Andy Press worked with Gary Rhodes for many years and we have a fantastic Peruvian chef called Fabricio Cano Davila. These guys are real pros.
What sort of courses do you offer? The range is huge. Our shortest course is the Cook, Eat and Run, where you spend 30 minutes in the kitchen, while our longest is the four- hour Grande Cuisine Master Class. We show our courses on the website for 28 days. If you were to look now you’d see 160 courses.
Do you do special themes? We do almost everything you can think of: French, Italian, sushi, baking, fish, meat and vegetarian. One that seems to be really popular is British Classics – we clearly love our food and people want to learn how to cook it a little better.
You run courses for children. Is that wise? For me, it’s really important. My son is 15 months old and will eat anything, but I know the stage will come when he’ll turn his nose up at certain foods for no apparent reason. But my wife and I are adamant that when he’s old enough to sit at the table he’s not going to have different food to us. Working with children is great. We teach them to cook real food, for example, salmon en croute. Recently we had local schoolchildren making fish fingers. The children took the gujons of pollock and put them through flour, egg and breadcrumbs. My chef then cooked them in the oven. They were the politest clients we’ve ever had.
LINKS
L’atelier des Chefs 19 Wigmore Street 020 7499 6580
atelierdeschefs.co.uk
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