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Talk Asia
Superstar Chef's New Labor of Love
Aired August 24, 2014 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
MONITA RAJPAL, CNN HOST (voice-over): This is Curtis Stone in the filling (ph), in the kitchen and in front of the cameras. It's also how the
Australian launched a hugely successful career as a master chef, TV celebrity and an entrepreneur.
CURTIS STONE, SUPERSTAR CHEF (voice-over): What a wine to drink, eh?
RAJPAL (voice-over): After crossing the Pacific to successfully impress the famed Marco Pierre White in London in his early 20s, Stone had his
first small screen break on the Australian traveling cooking show, "Surfing the Menu."
STONE (voice-over): We've been cooking up a storm but all --
(CROSSTALK)
RAJPAL (voice-over): But it wasn't until he hosted the TLC program, "Take- Home Chef," in 2006 that he had gained notoriety in the U.S. He's since battled "Iron Chef's" Bobby Flay on the hit cooking series "Iron Chef
America."
He's used his business savvy with other American personalities on "The Celebrity Apprentice" with Donald Trump and has impressed Oprah with his
barbequing skills on her 2011 trip to Australia.
This month, we're in Melbourne to meet Curtis Stone in his hometown to talk food, family and the future. We get hands-on in the kitchen.
STONE (voice-over): This is my restaurant. Come in and let me show you around.
RAJPAL (voice-over): And get a personal tour of his new labor of love in Beverly Hills.
Coming up only on TALK ASIA.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
RAJPAL: Curtis Stone, welcome to TALK ASIA.
STONE: Thank you very much.
RAJPAL: We are here in Melbourne, your hometown. You've come a long way in your career from when you started growing up here to where you are now
in L.A. You've literally traveled across the globe to build up your career.
How would you describe that journey so far?
STONE: It's been a beautiful journey. You know, I guess I fell in love with something really young in my life. I was 18 years old when I started
cooking and it's taken me on such an incredible journey. I feel like I owe it a lot.
But, yes, I started cooking when I was -- much earlier than that, when I was kid with my parents and my granny and started professionally cooking
when I was -- when I was 18 but then once I -- you know, back then, in Australia, all of the great chefs were European. You know, they -- even
the Australian chefs that were getting recognition had worked in Europe.
So you know, it was sort of very much of the idea if you wanted to make it in the culinary world, you had to go and live and work in Europe, which I
did.
RAJPAL: The interesting thing is television has changed the way cooking and the way chefs are today.
How do you think that's affected your, I guess, trajectory of your career?
STONE: It's certainly changed it. You know, I went and worked in the U.K. and was working in some of the best restaurants in the world and I was
quite young to be doing what I was doing. I was one of Marco Pierre White's head chefs of one of his restaurants, which when I was 25 years
old, you know, so quite young.
And I guess at that point I sort of was presented with an option to do a little television and write a cookbook and all of that sort of stuff or,
you know, carry on in that, you know, high-end restaurant world. And I, for a little while, did both of those things and then eventually the
television and books and all that stuff became so intensely busy that that's where I sort of put my focus.
So you know, the media has played a huge role in food more recently. It's interestingly, because you sort of stop and reflect and you think to
yourself what would have happened if I had have just stayed in restaurants? More recently in my life I got to the place where I still really missed
cooking in those incredible restaurants and had a -- having a tiny dining room where you cook for 25 guests with 10 chefs and so I decided to do it.
And I've opened a little restaurant now in Beverly Hills and --
(CROSSTALK)
RAJPAL: Why Beverly Hills?
STONE: I fell in love with a girl from California. We live in L.A.
RAJPAL: It always begins with a girl.
STONE: Right. The root of all evil.
(LAUGHTER)
STONE: We're very happy together. We've been in L.A. now for seven or eight years. I spent a lot of time obviously back in Australia, but we --
you know, we met there in L.A. and we -- that's where our family is.
So yes, the restaurant had to be in L.A. for me to be able to be there all the time.
RAJPAL: You mentioned you started your professional cooking career with Marco Pierre White. We was someone who has been notoriously been described
as the enfant terrible of the kitchen, if you will, very rebellious, even with his Michelin star that he had, very rebellious. So someone who always
said a chef's position is behind a stove. And that the ego is a poisonous ingredient in the kitchen.
He probably would have not had very good things to say about the track that your career went on, because he was very much against the whole TV
celebrity chef thing, wasn't he?
STONE: He was. Absolutely. And goodness, I remember hearing conversations between him and the producers of TV shows when they would ask
him to be on a TV show and you're right. He thought that chefs belonged in the kitchen.
And I don't disagree with him in some respects.
RAJPAL: What was it about his style or even his recipes that you thought you wanted to learn from?
STONE: Marco had this intensity around him that -- it sort of verges on craziness, you know, and the amount of time that he would put into a
kitchen and, you know, with that absolute perfection that he drove for. There's something really beautiful about that. It's like a sports person
hearing about a trainer that would just drive you so hard that you'd be the best that you could ever be.
And I literally crossed the world to go and find that. I wanted to work for Marco and I did read his book and was -- totally transformed me in the
moment of reading it that that's what I wanted to do.
And I went and found him and walked in his back door and started working for him and you know, he did have that intensity around him. He did have
all the -- all the stories you hear about Marco Pierre White are true. You know, it's -- he's very intense individual. And I think being a part of a
little environment like that, all of those guys really got a lot from.
RAJPAL: What's it take to survive it? What did it take for you to not just survive in that high intensity environment, but also to thrive?
STONE: Look, I think survival's an interesting term when you think about that kind of a kitchen.
I was in London at the age of 22. I had no money. And I was literally about survival for me because --
(CROSSTALK)
RAJPAL: So you were the -- offered to work for free.
STONE: Right.
RAJPAL: That's how badly you wanted it.
STONE: Yes, initially. And so I literally was on the bread line. And he eventually started to pay me. I think that the interesting thing about an
environment like that is you make it through the day. You get to the end of the night and not everybody does. You know, he throws people out of the
kitchen here and there and you make it through; you're like, well, I must be doing a good job because I'm not getting screamed at or you know, it's
that sort of reverse psychology, I guess, that you don't need praise; you just need not to be screamed at.
RAJPAL: So that just shows how competitive it is.
STONE: It's interesting having these young guys who are 22 years old come knock on my door and say, you know, I want to work. And I said, well, what
are you looking for? What kind of restaurant do you want to work for? What kind of food do you want to cook? What sort of money do you want to
earn?
And the ones that say I don't care about the money, I don't care how much money I earn, they're the ones that you know will do well.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
STONE (voice-over): Welcome to Maude. This is my restaurant. Come in and let me show you around.
So this is it. It's a tiny little dining room. And as you can see, there's only 25 seats. So every inch of space in here is really important.
So we use everything, even these drying racks. At the moment we've got flowers but as different menus, we had different herbs drying in the room.
We literally use everything.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
STONE (voice-over): So it's a tiny little kitchen. We wanted it to be really functional. There's about 10 chefs on any given night that work out
of here.
The garde manger or the cold section, right at the very front. So that's what the customers are sitting on that counter. And then down here, we've
got our pastry section.
And our incredible pastry chef, Vanessa, come and say hello, Vanessa.
VANESSA GARCIA, PASTRY CHEF: Hi, how are you.
(LAUGHTER)
STONE (voice-over): Vanessa's the most creative one amongst us.
This guy: without this man, Francisco, we don't have a clean pan; we don't have clean pots. We work as a real team. We all sit down together and
have an incredible family meal, occasionally a glass of wine with dinner. It's really important for us to feel like we belong here, we spend so much
time.
Give us a wave, Francisco.
FRANCISCO: Hello.
(LAUGHTER)
STONE (voice-over): So Maude was my granny's name. She was the first person that really got me interesting in food. She was from the north of
England. And she used to make this really sweet sugary fudge. She'd teach me how to make it. I wanted her to be present in some way in this room.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
STONE (voice-over): This is one of the first dishes I ever learned how to make. We used to do a foie gras and chicken liver parfait. I've taken the
foie gras out because everything California and we (INAUDIBLE). But it's a chicken liver parfait, pretty similar to how I made it when I was 20 years
old.
So I've got a bunch of different things that I'm going to put on the plate and plate it a little differently than probably seen parfait plates before.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
STONE (voice-over): This is one of Marco Pierre White's most famous dishes. And I only have to smear it over a plate.
RAJPAL (voice-over): Are you able to define your style?
STONE (voice-over): It's something I have trouble doing. You know, I wish that I could just say Italian or it's French. I mean, if you had to choose
a cuisine I guess it's more French than anything else.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
RAJPAL (voice-over): Wow.
STONE (voice-over): So that's it, the chicken liver parfait, pickled onions and mustard seeds, a little onion crumble, some rhubarb powder,
Banyuls vinegar. It's actually quite a simple dish. But I think the flavor's really delicious.
Let me get you a plate.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
RAJPAL (voice-over): Wow. It's beautiful.
STONE (voice-over): I'd better cook some more --
(CROSSTALK)
RAJPAL (voice-over): Yes.
Yes, they are looking pretty hungry.
(INAUDIBLE).
(MUSIC PLAYING)
RAJPAL: Your grandmother had a huge influence on you when it came to your earliest memories of food as well as your mother.
What kind of a presence was your grandmother for you as you were growing up?
What did she mean to you in that -- what was she for you?
STONE: Look, my granny was a beautiful inspiration for me in many ways, not just with -- not just with food; she was a great cook. She was from
the north of England in a place called Asbury (ph) in Yorkshire. And she would cook so -- very sort of country style food, roasts, roast dinners and
that British, you know, some people would say it's horrible. But I have really fond memories around that lumpy gravy.
But she -- you know, she was a really nurturing woman. She quite spiritual and probably the most religious one in our family. She would teach me a
lot of stuff.
You know, some people just get down on the floor with kids and be very happy on their knees. And other people aren't. She was one of us.
RAJPAL: Your parents divorced when you were very young. Food and I often think food and emotions -- you even touched upon it -- go hand in hand.
Do you think perhaps that food was the one thing -- even though you grew up in a somewhat in a stable environment with your mother and your siblings,
is there a sense that perhaps food represented that sense of stability, that one thing that perhaps you had control over?
STONE: Maybe it was. I mean, Mum would -- she was a really hard worker, my mum. I think I've still got my work ethic from her. She would drop us
at school. She'd pick us up from school; she'd be at work all day while we were at school. She'd found a job that, you know, she could work as a
florist between 8:30 and 3:30 when she'd get us from school.
Then she'd come home; she'd cook dinner and then she'd do the housework and it was kind of nonstop for her. And when it came to dinner, there was
always that sort of ritual of setting the table; everyone set up. We used to play this game called "Best and Worst," and we'd say the best thing that
happened to us that day and the worst thing that happened to us that day.
And I still think of food in the same way, that it's really just a conduit to the great conversation and it's the -- it's what bring you together to
have all of the emotions that you have as a family or a group of friends.
RAJPAL: Your dad is probably very proud of you right now. But he probably wasn't too thrilled about the idea of you becoming a chef and not getting a
quote-unquote "real job."
STONE: Right.
RAJPAL: The lawyer or an accountant, like him.
STONE: Like him.
RAJPAL: Yes.
STONE: Yes, he's a finance manager, my dad. And I think his mind was the more money you make, the happier you are. And that's just sort of -- I
remember having this funny conversation with him when I was a teenager and he said -- I was going through a bit of a rebellious time, not doing so
well at school.
And he said to me, "Do you want a beautiful wife?"
And I said, "What? Of course."
And he said, "Then you should make money."
(LAUGHTER)
STONE: And this was his attempt at a father-son conversation.
He thought, you know, he'd like -- I can convince him that have a look at all the Mercedes and the Porsches driving around. They've all got
beautiful women in them.
You want to get one of those? You'll get one of those.
And you know what, it kind of worked, because it was probably 14 or 15 and hormones ranging. And something triggered that maybe I did need to start
concentrating a bit more at school.
Then when you get to that point of turning 17 or 18 and you have to make the decision, I mean, what a decision, to give a kid to make, right, do you
go to university and study? Do you go and learn a trade?
And I was really torn, to be honest, because you know, what Dad had said to me made sense about you know, furthering my education, getting that -- an
executive type job and whether it be a lawyer or an accountant or my love of food and cooking. And my love of food won out. And thank God it did.
RAJPAL (voice-over): The irony is, though, you've got both. You've got your empire, cooking empire. You got to do -- get to do what you love to
do. You've got the beautiful wife. You live in Los Angeles, probably near your restaurant in Beverly Hills. What does he say about all of this
success that you've had now?
STONE: It's funny, you know, I think Dad probably put a really good business brain on my shoulders. You know, I think that he's probably
pretty happy with how things ended up for me. I joke and say it's a good thing; you would have ended up in a horrible retirement home if I'd --
(LAUGHTER)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
STONE (voice-over): We had to wear those big silly white hats and long white aprons down to the floor. And I'd go to the footy ground after my
shift and I'd still have my uniform and my mates would laugh at me. There's nothing cool about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
RAJPAL (voice-over): So we've seen what you would do -- would serve at the restaurant.
STONE (voice-over): Right.
RAJPAL (voice-over): What kind of stuff do you cook at home?
STONE (voice-over): OK. So I'm going to make you a chicken casserole. Root vegetables, so I've got some carrot and some onions, some mushrooms.
So nice, earthy flavors.
RAJPAL (voice-over): How many onions have you chopped in your lifetime?
STONE (voice-over): Yes, too many.
(LAUGHTER)
RAJPAL (voice-over): You can tell; he doesn't even have to look at it.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
STONE (voice-over): I've been lucky enough to spend half my life doing that and half my life doing this. And I like them both equally. You know,
restaurants, cooking at home.
RAJPAL (voice-over): What does your mum think of your food?
STONE (voice-over): Well, she has to love it. She's my mother.
It's funny, you know; sometimes your parents are your hardest critics. And my mum always told me exactly what she thinks. But, no, she thinks I'm all
right.
OK. So once you get just the tiniest bit of color on those onions, that's really all that you need.
RAJPAL (voice-over): I wish you guys had Smell-o-vision.
Oh, it smells so good.
STONE (voice-over): Isn't it delicious?
And now a little bit of cheese.
Pop it under the grill. Just a couple of minutes and we'll be eating it. And that's it. You can now stick that in the middle of a table with a --
like I said, a bottle of wine, crusty bread and you're (INAUDIBLE).
RAJPAL (voice-over): Nice.
RAJPAL: You mentioned brand building.
What does it take to build a brand, do you think?
What has it taken for you?
STONE: It's interesting. It's happened pretty organically for me, to be honest. We -- as a business started off extremely small, you know. It was
-- I was a one-man band. And at some point in the U.K. got approached by an agent and then it was Martine and I. And she'd run off and get me jobs
here and there and I sort of managed a lot myself, which is an interesting way to build a business, because when you get to the place of having 50 or
60 employees and you look around and you're like, what do you do? Or what do you do? And you think, oh, yes; you did this element of it. I remember
doing that, obviously, on a small scale when you're doing it solo.
But you know, to me, you have to be really authentic in building the brand, otherwise the brand doesn't have any integrity. And I think the best
brands have real integrity. The first person I employed was one of my best friends. We've known each other since we were 4. And she's still with me.
She's worked with me for nearly 10 years and she's the COO of my company and you know, we've been on quite a journey together. My business has
carried on growing in a similar sort of way. And you know, I feel like they're my family. And hopefully they feel the same way about me.
RAJPAL: How has being a dad changed your day, changed the way you live your life because your life as a chef and as the head of the brand, a face
of a brand, is almost not your own.
STONE: It changes it a lot. (INAUDIBLE) start your day a lot earlier. Darling little Hudson, he's probably up at 5:00 or 6:00 most days. And
that's my time with him, you know, because I'm still at the restaurant when he goes to bed. So I make sure that I get up -- sometimes I drag myself
out of bed -- but we go into the veggie garden and we pull a few things. We make juice together. That's our first activity of the day. So he's
already cooking.
It's beautiful.
RAJPAL: How do you keep challenging yourself?
In the kitchen, how do you keep challenging?
STONE: Look, I think, you know, having a son in some ways totally changed my thought process around food as well, because I can remember when I had
Hud, I looked at him and I was like, I wonder what he'll think of me one day? You know, I wonder how he'll look back at my career and say, yes, he
was a good chef, but was he a great chef? You know, he was this; he was that.
So I guess a little part of doing the restaurant for me has been to prove myself again, whether it's to prove it to him or prove it to myself or
prove it to everybody else out there that I can still cook at a really elevated level.
RAJPAL: What do you believe has been the biggest misconception about chefs or anyone who is striving to be a chef?
STONE: Yes, I think the industry's so different now compared with what it was. And when I joined the industry, it was nothing cool about being a
chef. You know, it was before the days of celebrity chefs and we had to wear those big silly white hats and long white aprons down to the floor.
And as a young man, growing up in Australia, I played Australian football. I'd go to the footy ground after my shift and I'd still have my uniform and
my mates would laugh at me. You know, there's nothing cool about it.
Nowadays it's become quite glamorous and people do see that sort of sexy side of the restaurant business and the TV shows that we've all watched.
And I think people come into it with a very different attitude. And the truth is, if you want to be good in it, you still have to cut those boxes
of onions and you have to peel those boxes of carrots before you get to the point where you can even do your preparation right.
So I think it's a very different industry now. You know, I got into it because I love to eat and I wanted to learn how to create that. I think a
lot of people today get into it because they want to sit in this chair and talk to you. And that's a real shame, because the truth is you only --
even if you're brilliant, you might not get that opportunity.
I know chefs that are better cooks than me, that have worked their entire lives at it. And that's just -- that door's never been knocked on for
them. And that's OK, you know. It's -- they still love what they do and they really enjoy it. And that's why you have to get into our business.
RAJPAL: What do you think makes a very good -- a top chef? What do you think it is about what quality in their being?
STONE: I think it's somebody that's really discipline, somebody that's not scared of hard work, somebody that has a real passion for food, somebody
that loves to eat. It's very rare that you see a chef cook beautifully and then you say what do you like about crab? And they say, I don't eat crab,
don't like it.
You always do -- you always cook really well what you like to eat, I think. So if you find a great pastry chef, they usually have a sweet tooth. If
you find, you know, a great sauce chef, they usually have a bit of a hard ass and they like to eat roast beef. That's just been my experience.
You've got a lot of them.
RAJPAL: Curtis Stone, it's a pleasure.
STONE: Pleasure to meet you, too.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
END
