Who is chef Anastasia Brown, MasterChef: The Professionals 2022 semi-finalist?
Ahead of MasterChef: The Professionals 2022, which airs on BBC One every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2 november, we find out more about the chefs taking part.
Introducing Anastasia Brown, Junior Sous Chef at JP Morgan, London
She recieved formal training at Leiths School of Food and Wine and has worked as a Private Chef Verbier and CDP for The Grill at The Dorchester
NAME
Anastasia
AGE
27
Where are you from/where do you live?
Anastasia was born in London before living in Bicester, Oxfordshire until the age of 11. She has been based in London since university, where lives with her boyfriend.
What type of a chef are you?
Junior Sous Chef
Do you have a favourite type of cuisine?
My style of cooking revolves around big flavours, and using seasonal ingredients. A lot of my influence comes from my training at Leiths, but also from living abroad.
Classic flavour combinations and French techniques are what my training revolved around so this certainly plays into my style.
The food I love to eat in general has Thai and Asian flavours, which I love to play around with as well. I’d say these are my main influences and together that form my style.
How did you become a chef?
During the holidays I would go off and cook as a private chef in Greece, and on the weekends, I would go and do ad hoc cooking jobs.
This was the starting point really and it really spurred me on to pursue a career in food. As soon as I finished uni, I went to complete the Diploma Course at Leiths. I cannot sit still, so an office job was never an option for me.
Food was a huge part of my life growing up and that has played a huge part in my journey cooking. I love the adrenaline in the kitchen, I love food, I love that it pushes me to be creative.
Where have you worked?
Previous training and roles include: Formal training at Leiths School of Food and Wine; Private Chef Verbier; CDP The Grill at The Dorchester
What has been the highlight of your career to date?
There are a few but I think the highlight so far was getting the opportunity to go and work abroad.
Tasting and cooking with different ingredients and meeting so many amazing people was an incredible experience and something I would love to do again in the future.
Why did you want to take part in MasterChef: The Professionals?
I wanted to take part in the competition because Covid really threw me off. I had only been a chef for less than six years, and just as I was starting to find my feet in the industry when suddenly I was furloughed for a year.
I was really nervous about returning to work, and felt like I had lost out on so much time. So I applied because I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone, and challenge myself.
I am a very competitive person but this was more about proving something to myself after a very long and hard year, previously.
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