Where do you work?
Bia Rebel Ramen, Belfast's only authentic ramen restaurant and takeaway.
Are you calm in the kitchen?
Mostly, yes. If I'm not then it's a very bad day. I worked Gordon Ramsey's kitchen, so I know what it's like to work with an angry chef – it's not a good place to be.
When did you start cooking?
I started working in the Glengannon Hotel in Dungannon when I was 13. I decided I wanted to be a chef when I was about seven after seeing Albert Roux on television.
What fires you up about food?
I love the joy that food brings to people's lives. That moment when they take a bite of something you cooked, and they close their eyes and are transported to a happy place for just a few moments. It's a powerful feeling to be able to give that to someone.
What’s been cooking lately?
We make ramen, a kind of Chinese noodle that was popularised in Japan and is now a global phenomenon. I've spent the last three years living and breathing noodles. They are made in a very specific way, they have very little moisture because they go into a hot soup. So you have to make a very hard dough that is pressed loads of times – it's almost a meditative process and you really have to become one with the noodle, as nutty as that sounds.
Your signature dish is…
At work it's our Belfast Ramen, which is the noodles in a 40 hour broth, with chasu pork and a tea egg. At home it's osso buco, a slow-cooked Italian beef stew with all sorts of good stuff in it.
Your favourite thing to eat is…
My partner Jenny makes an amazing cabbage and bread casserole. You boil cabbage in salted water, and layer it on top of day-old bread – not sliced bread but something dense and crusty like sourdough works best. You add some cheese on to the layers and then pour the water the cabbage cooked in over the whole tray so it's not too dry going in the oven. And that's it. It's simple but very hearty and delicious. Perfect for our cold and damp winters.
What chef inspires you most?
Jean Georges Vongerichten. I've worked with many of the greats including Gary Rhondes (RIP) and Myrtle Allen, but when I met JG he was the full package – three Michelin stars for his restaurant JG in NYC, a global restaurant chain under the name VONG that fused Asian and French cuisine together effortlessly, his name on cooking product lines, worth millions. But more importantly he had the time to focus on a young chef who struggled or needed guidance on how to execute Asian food and for that I owe him a great deal. He taught me more about flavour than anyone else.
