INTERIORS / PROFILE
INTERVIEW
My Place is in
THE KITCHEN Cooking for Leonardo DiCaprio, sexism in the industry and power cuts during service, Pont St’s executive chef, Sophie Michell, stops at nothing Wo r d s e d w i n a l a n g l e y
EL: What is the ethos of Pont St? Healthy cooking is what you’re known for. SM: Well, Pont St isn’t about healthy cooking as such. We got some dishes on there which are healthy by default – the superfood salads, quinoa and pomegranate – but we also have killer truffle burgers and truffle fries, sliders and pork belly. I’m passionate about healthy eating, but this is a hotel and I want to cater for everyone.
EDWINA LANGLEY: So, from the beginning, you left school before your GCSEs? SOPHIE MICHELL: Yeah, when I was just 15 actually. In Somerset there’s some law, which means you can leave school early. EL: That was brave! SM: I had ME and lost lots of time at school so I didn’t want to go back. Also I was still quite ill, so it was half due to bad reasons, which went on to become good reasons! EL: So you then went into catering school? SM: I went straight into restaurants, actually. I worked for a local gastropubtype place. Then I worked in a couple of restaurants and did part-time training at college. Then, when I was 17, I moved to Dublin and cooked in restaurants for six months. Then I [came] back to London and did my NVQ Level 2 and 3 at chef’s school, whilst working at the Lanesborough. So, that was my first experience of London. EL: Then you worked as a private chef for Claudia Schiffer and Leonardo DiCaprio? SM: Yeah, that was a bit later on – when I was about 21. I started working for Claudia full-time, and worked for her for a couple of years. It was great. EL: And Leo? LEO?! SM: Leo was much later and that wasn’t for a huge length of time. It was more on location but he was amazing.
ABSOLUTELY MAGAZINES
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EL: You do a lot of writing too – how do you find the time? SM: I haven’t done much recently but I’ve done two books this year. I took a week’s holiday in June to do that. EL: You took a holiday?! Is that allowed?! SM: The ‘holiday’ was working on the book!
EL: Were you nervous? SM: You’re always nervous whenever it’s a new job. When you’re cooking for celebrities you end up serving recognisable faces, which seems quite weird. EL: How did you get to your restaurant, Pont St? You are the youngest female executive chef… SM: Yeah, almost by chance. I came in here for drinks at a networking event and said I was looking for my own site. I desperately wanted to get back into the kitchen properly. It just went from there really – I did a trial run and got the job. I’m very lucky. I love it here.
EL: Phew, for a second I thought you might have been relaxing… SM: It was a semi-holiday. EL: And on top of that you’ve just opened the healthy eating restaurant, Gorgeous Kitchen in Heathrow! How often do you get to cook there? SM: We go a few times a month. There are four [female chefs], so we divide our time – I think there’s quite a high presence for executive chefs in somewhere like an airport! EL: The Gorgeous Kitchen is a really great idea, not least since it was started by four great women chefs. Chef Tom Kerridge’s recent comments about women not having the ‘fire’ needed to make it in the kitchen
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