SkyChef Christophe Camacho tells us about his favourite eating places around the world
What is your background?
I was born in Corsica and grew up in Bordeaux, but my mother comes from Andalucia and I am three-quarters Spanish. When I was growing up, we always ate well – I used to love watching my mum cook. She’s fantastic with desserts: her cheesecake was the best!
How did you get into cooking?
I went to catering academy when I was 16; in the first year, you try being a cook, a waiter and a receptionist. I was best at cooking, so I chose that. It was very hard at the beginning. I had a lot of pans thrown at me!
Has being a SkyChef changed your direction?
Yes, it is taking me into menu design. I was a chef for more than 10 years – my last job was as chef de partie at Pierre Gagnaire’s restaurant Sketch, in London – but, for the past four years, I have been involved in designing menus across the airline. I am discovering the cuisine of the world!
What’s the strangest thing you’ve been asked to prepare as a SkyChef?
A First Class passenger once asked me for cornflakes with Champagne. I don’t know if he was testing me or if that’s what he ate every day! It was morning, at least. Of course, I did what he asked – and he ate it. A bit of a waste, I thought!
What are your favourite restaurants?
I like to eat food made by ordinary people. My wife is Thai and, near our house in Bangkok, there’s a restaurant – just a stall really, by the side of the road, without a name and the lady who runs it does an amazing som tam, papaya salad with grilled chicken, crab, tomato, chillis, snake beans, lime. It’s so fresh. I would love to fly to New York just to taste the pickled herring salad at the Swedish restaurant Aquavit and, in Paris, almond macaron at the Alain Ducasse restaurant. They have a special recipe for it; nothing like the ones we have in Bordeaux!
CHRISTOPHE’S FAVOURITES
NEW YORK
Aquavit
65 East 55th Street (+1 212 307 7311, www.aquavit.org)
PARIS
Alain Ducasse at Hotel Plaza Athénée
25 avenue de Montaigne (+33 1 53 67 65 00, www.alain-ducasse.com)
Interview: Matthew Teller
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