Prince Philip medalist chef Michael Kitts is director of culinary arts at the Emirates Academy. Here, he talks of defying the sceptics, teaching and how it felt to win a Craft Guilds award
On celebrating 11 years in the region
When I said I was first coming out here many chefs questioned my decision. I was so pleasantly surprised at how good it was, and this is 11 years ago. Obviously as the country has progressed, we have so many F&B outlets, it’s mind boggling, and it’s still growing.
The downside of that, from the chef and service point of view, is that it has dipped a little bit. Getting the quality staff in F&B is always an uphill slog and to retain them is an even bigger problem. It’s on the rise again – it tends to go round in circles. There’s no end of talented people out there, and the quality is as good as anywhere else – it’s buzzing, vibrant. All the big names are coming out here.
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On rubbing shoulders with Prince Philip
I had to go to Buckingham Palace and read out a citation as part of the medal awarded through City and Guilds.
To begin with, I thought the entire thing was a bit of a wind-up. Then I started getting these official looking envelopes, and a table plan came through and I saw I was sitting next to the duke; quite daunting as you can imagine – I was wondering what I would talk to him about.
As they went to pour his glass of wine, he said ‘oh no no, I’ll have a half a bitter thanks,’ – it was just nice. We were laughing so much, all the people around were looking and wondering what was going on at our end of the table. He should have only been there for an hour, he was there for over two hours.
A guy came over to me, Sir Clifford Chatwood of Chatwood and Chatwood Associates, and said “you’ve joined a very special club now. There’s only x-amount of us. I’d give up my knighthood before I give up this.”
That’s how big this award is and I’m very proud, it was a great achievement.
On the issue with the new chef generation
The problem was that 15 years ago when the celeb chef came along ... everybody aspired then to be a celeb chef. What was forgotten was the fundamentals and ground works. Everybody wanted to go on the fast track and be a superstar before they could do anything.
It’s not a bad thing that people want to do well, but it has had a knock on effect in that the skills level isn’t quite the same as what it was. But it is getting better and is going to be a case of having to go back to basics.
On winning the Craft Guilds award
It came out of the blue. I got a phone call from a friend congratulating me and I didn’t know what he was talking about. He told me I was nominated for the Craft Guilds under the People’s Choice category. Looking at the competition my response was “I haven’t really got a prayer here.” If I had to put money on it I would’ve said Paul Gaylor is going to win. He’s done so much for the industry, as had all of them in the category. When they actually announced me as the winner, it felt very humbling.
On his culinary idols
John King. He was the exec chef at the Ritz Casino in the UK. He knows his stuff backwards. He used to let us, as the sous chefs, get on and do the menus. He gave us quite a nice rein to do what we wanted to do. We built up a huge, huge reputation at the casino because of his drive and enthusiasm. Also, the late Peter Kromberg, chef InterContinental Park Lane – a genius. I’ve been really lucky – I’ve worked with some really good guys.
On his aspirations
I’d like to see growth within the academy – I think there is still masses we can do. I’d like to see us get involved with a culinary institute at one stage– hopefully that will be down the line, let’s keep our fingers crossed. At the moment we are going from strength to strength here. It’s great – I love it.
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Aug 28, 2012 , United Arab Emirates
Congrats Chef Kitts!