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Lifting the lid on the heat of the kitchen
MICHAEL Saxon's father was a chef in the RAF, and he wasn't best pleased when his teenage son informed him that he, too, wanted to make a career in the kitchen.
Opting for home economics as a 14-year-old wasn't an easy choice for a boy to make at Rossett High School in Harrogate 35 years ago. Taunts of "queer" and "sissy" came from other pupils, and he says the teacher herself wasn't too thrilled, assuming he must be stupid and out to cause trouble. Kitchens were, to her mind, the domain of women.
But it took only a few sessions for his fledgling talent to show itself; after that the bullies and wags left him alone. It wasn't long before he was even given his own pinny.
Back then the life of a chef did not hold any of the spurious glamour that surrounds it today, thanks to the posse of fast-talking TV personalities who perhaps give the wrong idea
that being good at food necessarily leads to big bucks and camera crews.
After all, very few go on to become a Jamie O, Gordon R or Hugh F-W – but it can still be a highly satisfying, adventurous and fun career, says Michael Saxon. After starting off with a Saturday job at The Majestic Hotel in Harrogate, as a waiter in a world "full of lunacy and stress" which he instantly loved, he gained his diplomas at the local FE college.
After the Majestic and a period at The Studley Hotel, the teenager was off on his culinary travels. Today he's general manager of prestigious five-star, suites-only Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Penang, Malaysia, one of the most luxurious havens in the so-called "Pearl of the Orient".
His office looks out on to clear blue skies and the Straits of Malacca between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, in a resort where the year-round temperature offers a reliable 30-35C. Only last week, the hotel entertained Rick Stein, one of our most famous chefs, and Michael Saxon and he enjoyed exchanging kitchen yarns.
In the intervening years, there were memorable spells spent in Toronto, Houston, Texas, the Bahamas, Hong Kong and the Philippines, as he worked his way up from being the lowliest chef in the food chain to top dog in charge of a group of hotels in a culture where the all-round hospitality is of a level mostly unknown back here in the UK.
Back then, as now, the drop-out rate among young aspiring chefs was high. Saxon's first experiences in Harrogate didn't bode well, when he had the temerity on one of his first shifts as a waiter to ask the chef when a well-done steak he was waiting for would actually be ready.
"This rather odd-looking man in a tall white hat screamed at me at the top of his voice, yet nobody looked the least bit surprised or stopped working…" The chef then calmed down and said he would make allowances for the green-horn because he was new.
However, that wasn't the end of it: when Saxon returned for the steak, he picked up the red-hot plate. As he screamed in pain and the plate galvanised itself to his hand, the chef coolly said: "Oh, is the plate hot, son? Sorry about that, but welcome to the zoo!"
You certainly suspect that these initiation rites have changed little over the decades, and that a hide like a macho-man rhino is a necessity in most kitchens.
But at that moment Michael Saxon determined that the kitchen was definitely the place to be. However, it was to be quite some time – a winding path via room-service (many naked women) and pot-scrubbing – before he got to do his first culinary duties, which involved washing lots of lettuce.
"Early on there were a few times when I was ready to pack it in," he says. "At 16 and 17, I was working a 16-18 hour day, and my mum was very keen for me to stop. At the time, the English weren't known for their food, so I guess my parents wondered why I was doing it."
Some of the tough experiences he endured early on made
Saxon vow that, when he came to run a kitchen, he would never act boorishly towards to his own trainees.
"One executive chef I worked with near the beginning saw that I'd cut my hand very badly, but he just put a bit of sticking plaster on it – no gauze – and told me to get back to work.
"When I got home, my father saw the state of it and took me
to hospital, where they took the tape off and a chunk of skin and flesh came with it. I needed seven stitches. I earned 16 a week back in 1977 for 80 hours' work, and in order to learn you did just get on with it and take whatever came your way.
"I think bad behaviour, shouting and humiliation of young staff in some kitchens is a predominantly British thing. Staff in hotels and restaurants abroad would never put up with some of the abuse that's dished out in Britain. I see how some of the TV chefs swear and think it's all so unnecessary."
Back in 1978, with his certificates under his belt, Saxon left economically-challenged Britain for the land of plenty in Canada. Catering jobs were listed as "unskilled labour" and there were plenty of them.
Saxon has a remarkable memory for colourful anecdotes about his life in smart hotels in some of the world's most glamorous locations. He's collected together these stories of sheikhs who take over a floor of 40 rooms with their massive entourages of beautiful women, bartenders who make off with the bottles, gangsters and ladies of the night in a book called Chef's Tales.
His aim is to entertain but also to show the reality of life in the hospitality industry and the compensations it has to offer. It shines a light on the not-so-good, including an episode with a rat up his trousers and a hairy period spent in Manila, and truly sublime moments – the satisfaction of helping to mastermind the opening of grand new hotels, countless sunsets to die for, rubbing shoulders with some amazing characters, and meeting and marrying a Malaysian beauty, with whom he now has two daughters.
He says he's had his share of "near-Basil Fawlty moments" when he has been very close to throwing his own tantrum in the face of a demanding customer. "I wouldn't call it subservience, but you have to learn to swallow a bad day. The job involves a certain amount of bowing down to the paying customer and learning to talk in the right manner.
"The customer who's being difficult may represent millions of dollars' worth of business from a company, so if there's a problem, you have to offer to put it right, no matter what the cause or whose fault it is."
Michael Saxon visits his parents in Harrogate each year, and at 48 he's thinking of possibly coming back to open a small hotel in the UK. In his opinion many hotels outside London have some way to travel.
"There are more top-flight hotels opening around the world and travellers are more educated and savvy than ever. So why would they want to go and stay in a cold, run-down hotel with expensive but poor food?
"If I had the money, I would run a small hotel which offered beautiful clean rooms, good food and a smiling person at the front desk. I could probably make a bomb, because at the moment there's not a lot of depth in quality."
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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