On the pass with Chef John

From teaching himself to make an omelette in primary school simply because he ‘didn’t want to have a peanut butter sandwich’, to being locked in the cold room in Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen – La Piazza head chef John McArdle has quite the flavourful story. We sit down with the passionate chef to find out what makes him tick…and explode!

“I actually wanted to become a professional footballer,” Chef John McArdle leans back in his chair and laces his hands behind his head. He grew up in Johannesburg and would, as most growing boys do, come home starving after school. “My sister would make a PB and J. I didn’t want that, so I made an omelette, and added stuff every time I made it.”

A stint as a waiter at the Victoria Lake Club taught John the workings of a restaurant, but he was thrust into the kitchen when the head chef took ill one weekend. “They asked the waiters who wanted to jump into the kitchen; of course I volunteered. I think I just chopped parsley all day, but I loved it – the fire, the smells, the atmosphere. That was the day I told my dad that I wanted to be a chef, and his response was: ‘have you gone off your head?’”

Nonetheless, John headed for chef’s school and got his first job at Coopers and Lybrand.

“I was just the run-around boy, really, but I got my first taste of the industry, being exposed to upmarket, different food. After that, I decided I wanted to work in the United Kingdom for a while.”

On his first day at the City Rhodes – a one Michelen Star restaurant in London owned by accomplished Chef Gary Rhodes – John realised food was ‘way beyond’ what he had thought.

“Suddenly I was working with live crayfish, duck, quail and truffles – things I’d never heard of before. Being in that kitchen also taught me discipline; I strode in wearing my chef’s jacket and was told to wash dishes. I learnt that I had to start at the bottom to earn my dues.”

John stayed at City Rhodes longer than the two-year course duration and was, through Chef Rhodes, introduced to notoriously hot-headed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey. When I asked if Ramsey is as vitriolic as we see on telly, John takes a deep breath and buries his head in his hands, before looking up with a knowing smile. “He’s a perfectionist. Always shouting in your ear until you literally want to ask him to leave you alone. But he pushes you to see how far you will go and I appreciated that.”

John laughingly recalls Ramsey throwing him into the freezer after splitting a sauce repeatedly; he stayed in the cold room for three hours. “I was near hypothermic when I got out of there but I wasn’t quitting. If anything, it strengthened my resolve to prove to him that I could be a good chef. Ramsey, Rhodes and the other chefs I worked with abroad hammered in values I still hold dear – discipline, hard work, love, passion, desire.”

Upon his return to South Africa John stepped into his first executive chef job. But the now-experienced chef acknowledges that, at 26 years old, he was not ready. “I’d been trained with shouting and screaming. But when my kitchen staff downed tools on me one day I realised it didn’t work. That was a low point…I felt like a failure.” Anger management classes helped John see that he had to treat his staff as individuals first before he could form a team, an approach he brought to La Piazza when he started there in April last year. “I’d been to Ballito on holiday as a child, so I knew the area. When I met owner Marco Bortolussi we hit it off instantly; both of us are our jobs and we have a tremendous passion for La Piazza.”

Marco agrees, adding that on their ‘off-days’ both he and John pop into La Piazza. I asked Marco to describe his chef and he wryly smirks: “aside from completely crazy, he is a brilliant chef. There is never a task too big for him and he pushes the kitchen to put love into every dish. When he’s on the pass, he goes for excellence.”

A typical day in the La Piazza kitchen for John starts around 6am – on Whatsapp with Marco.

“He looks for issues and sends me pictures,” John shows me his cellphone. “Keeps me on my toes.”

John arrives at 11am and has to start with a Red Bull, and then has a daily ‘pow wow’ with Marco before heading into the kitchen. And yes, he actually does cook.

So, what does food mean to Chef John McArdle? This question brings a huge grin to his face.

“Food is celebration; it brings people together. It’s comforting. Whether it’s a wedding, funeral, birthday or birth you’ve always got food when people are together. I want to know that my dishes were part of your life.” And, what’s his secret to running a tip top kitchen?

“When I spend time on the floor I very rarely remember the compliments. I remember the customer who may have said: ‘chef, I didn’t like this or that’. And, the next time I see him or her, I go over and ask how the dish was this time around? It’s my job to remember, and to get better. I am always drawing inspiration because I believe I will never know everything. I’ll never think I’m at the top.”