He might be a Michelin-starred chef with restaurants all over the world, but Chris Galvin talks unabashedly about his humble origins.“I was introduced to cooking or rather the basics of cooking at a very young age, helping my grandmother at home,” says 61-year-old Chris Galvin.
Growing up in war-ravaged London was not easy, let alone feeding a growing family. “We used to have war gardens, small furrows where we would grow the most basic of produce. It was a time of terrible shortage and rationing because the food convoys had stopped and we had to make do with whatever we had.”
Working with his grandmother Gertrude gave Chris his first lessons on the basics of cooking or “how to get from the farm to the plate”. “I must have been about five years old when my nan taught me how to tell if a fruit was ripe enough or how raw produce could make your belly sore. We also raised chickens,” he says with a smile.
When he grew older, Chris would help by going to the markets or to the butcher for fish, meat and poultry. “In school, we had a cooking class for boys too and I realised I loved cooking,” he adds.
By the age of 15, he was running the household and looking for a job to sustain his family. “I was on the smaller side then and no one would give me a job anywhere. Finally, it was at a restaurant I got a job washing pots. Luckily for me, the chef there, Antony Worall Thompson, was to become a celebrity restaurateur.”
Chris was eager to help around the kitchen, learning a lot during the process. “I was willing to do anything — wash up, ready the vegetables, get the starters ready, help the cook — I did it all. I worked every hour I could and then I would study,” says Chris who is a great believer in lifelong education. “For more than 20 years, I worked as a stagiare (a cook who works for free in another chef’s kitchen) in France and New York, learning from the masters.”
Thompson was impressed with his initiative and roped in Chris, who was then 26, to be the head chef in a New York restaurant. All along, he continued to study, improving as a pastry chef and taking a degree in culinary arts, food and beverage and one in HR marketing too. “I sat for every exam and entered every competition I could,” he says.
All his hard work eventually paid off and he won his first Michelin star in 2000. In 2005, Chris and his brother, Jeff, opened their first restaurant Galvin Bistro De Luxe on Baker Street. That marked the beginning of the road for the Galvin brothers who went on to open seven restaurant in seven years. Today, they have 14 restaurants in different parts of the world, including two in Dubai.
“I think we were the only brothers in Britain who both had Michelin-starred restaurants at the same time,” he says without a trace of pride.
In 2009, Chris founded Galvin’s Chance, a programme that equips youngsters for the workplace. “There are so many transferable skills within industries whether it is marketing or communication. I keep telling young people they don’t have to restrict themselves,” says Chris, who is really passionate about giving disadvantaged youth a head start.
“If I were not a chef, I may have become a teacher. I love teaching,” he says and there’s more than a glimpse of it as he prepares for the masterclass he conducted in Bengaluru.
