Daniel Galmiche is a Michelin-starred celebrity chef and author who has worked in some of the best restaurants in the UK and around the world.

He achieved and maintained a Michelin star in four restaurants in his career; Knockinaam Lodge, Harvey’s, L’Ortolan and Cliveden.

After over 20 years in Michelin kitchens, he decided last year to take a step back and is now a consultant for The Gore hotel in London where he will launch 190 by Daniel Galmiche at the end of August. It will be brasserie style food and he says he is definitely not looking for any more stars!

The Staff Canteen spoke to Daniel about his career, working at Le Gavroche, his passion for the industry and his role as an ambassador for the Norwegian Seafood Council and Fjord trout.

You had an interest in cooking from an early age, did this mean you always knew you wanted to be a chef?

Yes! My father’s father was a surgeon in Paris, my father had two sons and wanted one of us to become a surgeon but neither of us did, it’s because we were always in the kitchen. Every weekend I couldn’t wait to be in the kitchen with my great aunt or in the garden or the orchard. It’s very French and Italian for the son to be with mamma in the kitchen. I loved the smell, you can’t replace that, I’d get up on a morning and my mum would already be cooking the food for lunch and dinner.

My father didn’t speak to me for a long time when I became a chef, then I got my first Michelin star in Scotland and someone knocked on the door a few days later and it was my father, he had driven all the way from France! He congratulated me and he was happy for me. I’ll always remember that!

Take us through your career up till now.

When I decided to cook, I did an apprenticeship in a one Michelin-starred restaurant in my region with chef Yves Lalloz in Luxeuil-les-Bains and what was good about it was it was still the three year apprenticeship not the two years so it was very complete. There was small holding there so some of the produce was coming from the farm which was very interesting. From there I worked in a number of places including Le Gavroche, two star restaurant Schillinger in Colmar, three star Marc Meneau in Veselay, and two star Hostellerie du Chateau Servin.

My first head chef position was at the country house hotel Knockinaam Lodge in Portpatrick, Scotland where I stayed for 7 years. I brought the first Michelin star to the place in 1989 and at the time there were only six Michelin stars in Scotland. It was a special six people and we are all still good friends.

I went to Harvey’s in Bristol, we got a Michelin star there and I stayed for 8 years and then I went to L’Ortolan and again brought a Michelin star. So that was three restaurants, three stars – which was quite good going at the time!

I moved on to Cliveden and we got a star there too. In 2009 I was approached by the MD of The Vineyard to replace John Campbell and I stayed there until last year when I decided to stop my full time employment and start to do some consultancy work, charity work and be at home more.

Tell us about your time at Le Gavroche?

It was in Lower Sloane Street not Upper Brooke Street where it is now. I had a fantastic time and it was very hard work but I learnt so much. At the time both Michel and Albert were both involved in Le Gavroche as it was before they purchased the Waterside Inn.

It was amazing training and I’m still friends with all of the Roux family, once you are Roux stable you are always Roux stable.

Kitchens ae very different places to what they were when you were training, ow tough were the kitchens you worked in?

They were hard, some would drink a little bit and mixed with the heat of the kitchen it could be hard-core, but I took this experience as a way to teach others what not to do. I didn’t become like those chefs, I was very aware that these people had a problem.

You left the Vineyard Hotel last year, what prompted the decision to leave?

I was working 85 hours a week and I’d done Michelin star kitchens for twenty odd years, it’s good going but tough going. My wife one day said ‘Daniel I think it’s time for you to slow down a bit’ because I was tired to be honest. I’m 59 years of age, I’m not old and I do a lot of sport and I’m fit but never the less when you do a full week at that pace you pay the price a little bit.

You now work as a consultant, can you tell us more about this?

I’m consulting for The Gore which is a beautiful, British hotel and the restaurant is going to be called 190 by Daniel Galmiche and will launch at the end of August. It’s a very simple brasserie with very good produce. The car there is very famous because it’s where the Rolling Stones wrote their music and the restaurant is where Anthony Worrell Thompson was 19 years ago.

I’ve got a head chef there and a sous chef who used to work with me at The Vineyard. There will be a team of seven chefs and I will go every week for two or three days.

You took a step back from being in the kitchen full time, but do you miss it?

I always do. I’m contracted for 75 days a year at The Gore but I’ll always do a little bit more and I tend to do one or two services with the boys because they worked for me before, I trained them and they are a nice bunch. But yes I do miss it and every chef would. You are never really out of the kitchen though – it’s part of you and it’s the buzz but I’m not looking for another Michelin star. I’ve done it four times and you have to devote all of your time to it.

How do you work on menu creation?

I use only seasonal produce so in a sense it’s quite easy, even if there is a mini season of two weeks I’ll introduce that produce for those two weeks. I’m also an ambassador for the Norwegian Seafood Council so I’m passionate about sustainability. My team knows that and we’ll do the menu with each other every three months and keep that standard.
It’s a lovely brasserie, it’s lovely food with wine by the glass – it’s what people relate to. People don’t relate to Michelin stars, they relate to simple good food. That’s the reason so many Michelin-starred chefs do brasserie, they can play around more easily with a free mind instead of trying to follow the consistency of Michelin.

Is much of the menu inspired by your travels?

A little bit, I like my food to be light and I do a lot of Mediterranean style and I don’t use a lot of butter or cream at all which for a French guy is quite something, I promise you!
I love natural, colourful, instant fresh food. There may be hints of flavours from other countries but I don’t pretend my food is Asian for example, I just like to add accents of flavours from ingredients I’ve found.

Do you think it is important for chefs to travel?

Yes, definitely, it opens your mind!

What are your best memories from your time in the industry?

I’d say my three best memories from my career were my apprenticeship, my time at Le Gavroche and Harvey’s. If Harvey’s hadn’t been sold, which was the reason I had to leave, I’d still be there – I loved it.

You have won numerous awards and achieved and maintained Michelin stars, what’s the key to your success?

I think you need to be focused on your job but also you need to love the trade. You don’t go into a kitchen just for the sake of having a Michelin star it doesn’t exist. You go to the trade because you love sharing, and that’s a habit in Latin countries we have because we love sharing on a daily basis. You have a big table and invite all of the family around and lunch lasts eight hours. I cook because I love it, I’ve never cooked to gain an award or for Michelin – I cook what I love and I want people to enjoy what I put on the table.

You are an ambassador for the Norwegian Seafood Council, can you tell us more about this?

They approached me, they know I’m an ambassador for sustainably for the Clink Charity and I think they like my style of food and what I’m doing. Michel Roux Jr and I are sharing this and he is focusing more on Skrei cod with Simon Hulstone and I’m looking after the Fjord Trout - I really enjoy my role.

It's amazing produce which is very different to salmon, it needs to be known and used because it is amazing. I’ve created recipes for them, done photoshoots and demonstrations and recently I took a group of chefs to Bergen in Norway to see the whole process of farming the trout.

What is it about Fjord trout you like?

It’s the welfare, the way they look after it – they are passionate. There’s a lot to learn from Scandinavian countries, they’ve learnt from their past mistakes of over fishing and they have changed everything. It didn’t happen overnight but it was quick and it’s important to think about the future, our children and what they are going to eat.
The Fjord trout lives in some of the purest water in the world and they are fed with natural produce – no colouring, it’s very natural. It’s a slow, sustainable process and that’s what I like about it.

>>> Related: Norwegian Fjord Trout: From farm to plate with NORGE Seafood from Norway

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