Cooking came naturally to them from a very young age. They watched their mothers cook at home, and were interested in food early on. Combining different flavours and products was their past time and, eventually, the kitchen became their natural habitat.
Gastronomy was their particular calling and they worked exhaustively until they become chefs. Now, after a career of decades, some of the world’s major chefs have established themselves in Doha, by opening their own restaurants, or by joining the cooking team of five-star hotels in Qatar.
This is the case of W Hotel Executive Chef Ramon Salto who discovered the art of cooking when he was 11 years old thanks to an activity organized by his school to learn about different professions. The father of one his classmates was a chef at a cruise ship. His stories about food and travelling the world caught Salto’s eye and awakened his passion for cooking.
At 17 his parents encouraged him to start working and he landed a job as a kitchen helper in the local country club. Six months into his contract, he found himself in charge of the kitchen. His next step was cooking school, which included work experience in England, France and Spain.
When he finished his studies he began a 21-year career with a seven-and-a-half year stop in Kuwait, before becoming Executive Chef at W Hotel in Doha two years ago.
“When I start in a new place the first thing I do is make an effort to learn everyone’s name and understand their different cultures. This can even be more important than understating the gastronomy of the country. In my kitchen there are 18 different nationalities and they all need to be appreciated. This is crucial when you work in the Middle East,” explained Salto.
A chef’s daily routine is very demanding and, for this Spaniard, it begins around 7.45am when he arrives at the hotel. “The first thing I do is make sure everything is going smoothly with breakfast, later I read my emails to check on the orders. At 9am we have the daily morning meeting with other managers and after that I check that everything is in place to follow the Municipality’s regulations, a task which can take up to five hours every day,” said the chef.
Other things on an executive chef’s daily to-do list include taking care of food transfers between different restaurants and attending the briefing with cooks to prepare the next day’s meals, followed by another stop in the kitchen and the evening meeting with managers. Afterwards, Salto usually is in charge of banquets or celebrations the hotel frequently holds. His workday can easily finish around 10 or 11pm.
In this context, this cook said that among the qualities a chef must have are dedication and passion for cooking, as well as an understanding and flexible family. “I am very lucky in this sense, because chefs are under a lot of pressure and need a strong family structure,” he added.
To list one of his favourite dishes, or one he’s particularly proud of, Salto has to walk down memory lane to his days as a student. “Back then I made a tomato vinaigrette which turned out delicious. When I cook the same dish nowadays it doesn’t taste that well,” he stated.
Doha’s chefs get together every one or two months to exchange ideas or simply chat. Among them is Chef Didier Quennouelle, Manager at New York Steakhouse, located in Renaissance Doha City Center Hotel, who started working in the kitchen when he was only 14 years old.
“I knew it was my passion very soon, so I approached a restaurant in Paris and asked for a job. For the first two years I did not touch any food,” he confessed. Throughout his 20-year career, this French cook has worked in several Michelin-star restaurants. He was also employed in China where, he admitted, at times he struggled to communicate: “Until then, I thought culinary language was universal.”
The hierarchy in the kitchen of a major hotel begins with an Executive Chef at the top, followed by an Executive Sous-chef and managers for every outlet. Executive Chef at Renaissance City Center Doha, Christian Jean, is at the top of that chain of command.
Jean talked about the chef table where local cooks frequently gather and inevitably talk about food. They learn a lot from each other and enjoy sharing their knowledge, while always doing their best to offer a unique experience to customers. “We have to adapt to this dynamic world, be innovative and learn new things every day,” he added.
On his part, Jean-Christophe Fieschi, Executive Chef at Grand Hyatt Doha, has been here for three weeks and hasn’t had time to attend one of these meetings yet. However, he has lived and worked in the Middle East before, with stays in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Bahrain.
Fieschi comes from a family associated to the food industry: “I have always been involved in this environment,” he explained. When he was very young he realized cooking would also allow him to travel around the world and, from his point of view, the main virtues needed in a chef are consistency and patience.
Pastry Chef at Ritz Carlton Doha, Khaled Rashwan, born in Egypt, has been cooking for 20 years, 12 of them in Qatar. “My career in cooking started in 1993 but my fascination for cooking begun in my childhood,” he explained.
Chef Rashwan added: “It all started when my sister gave me a piece of cake that she made. She told me to simply mix the ingredients together. It was a shock for me as I always thought that cooking was a very difficult thing. With that, she turned my life around.”
This declared cheese cake lover, original from Egypt, knew that he wanted to be a pastry chef from the very begging. His daily routine kicks off with a meeting with the team, where they also have a chance to talk about their personal life.
“That way we strengthen our relationship,” said the chef, while adding that he personally checks the stock and quality of ingredients to make sure that the supplier delivers the right products.
For some of these experienced chefs, younger generations don’t realize that this profession is very demanding and give up after two or three years in the business. Still, interest for the career has grown in the last few years in many countries thanks to television shows and celebrity chefs.
Qatar has attracted other major chefs who opened their own restaurants in Doha, such as Guy Savoy, who inaugurated Quisine in The Pearl last year, as did celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey and French chef Alain Ducasse.
