Dealing with an expensive ingredient like salmon might deter most cooks — but not British chef Gary Rhodes

With a career that has spanned more than 40 years and a constellation of Michelin stars, chef Gary Rhodes is one of the most celebrated chefs — consistently revered by his peers and colleagues as The Chef’s Chef.

In a recent cooking show in Jakarta, Rhodes showed how he could produce a five-star dish made out of salmon in less than 10 minutes without making a mess in the kitchen or ruining the dish.

The key, he said, was to not panic and do only the simplest things in order to get the ingredients to sparkle.

“My cooking philosophy is really all about simplicity because if you are using the right ingredients, they need very little help. It is about actually getting the right balance of flavors, making sure that you are putting together a combination of textures,” Rhodes told The Jakarta Post.

“So it is all about balance. That is my whole philosophy: Keep it simple and let the ingredients speak for themselves.”

Despite his simple and modest approach to cooking, Rhodes’ credentials are anything but simple.

Rhodes said he embraced all of the acknowledgements from his peers, including the Michelin stars, but being modest as always he said he had never really considered them as important for his career as a chef.

“The most important thing to a chef are the customers because without them you dont have a business,” he says.

“For me, it [a Michelin star] is a supplement. It’s a way for somebody to put that stamp on you and say that you are cooking to a certain quality and if you can maintain that quality, you will then have a consistent following, you will then continue your business and do nothing but grow with that.”

Born in London in 1960, Rhodes began cooking as a teenager in his mom’s kitchen. His father left young Rhodes and his siblings and his mother then had to work until late at night to provide care for her children.

While Rhodes’ mother was away at night, he, as the oldest, was responsible to cook food for the family. It was during this teenage years that Rhodes realized he loved to cook and had found his passion.

During the 1980s, Rhodes found he needed to travel to develop his technique and career as a chef. He began to work as a commis chef at the Amsterdam Hilton and started to experiment with nouvelle cuisine and challenge preconceptions of food preparation.

After traveling across Europe, he returned to his home country. In 1987, Rhodes took over the head chef position at The Castle Hotel in Somerset from Chris Oakes and got his first Michelin star at just 26 years of age.

During Rhodes’ time at The Castle, he developed a passion for British food and discovered his talent for taking traditional dishes and refining them into modern British classics.

With free rein to explore British cuisine, Rhodes has since embarked upon a gastronomic journey of reinventing and rejuvenating classic dishes to create new and incredibly exciting British food.

He then received acknowledgement as the ambassador for British cuisine and with the support of his government, he has been travelling the world introducing the best of his home country’s finest dishes.

Rhodes — who is still obsessed with making the perfect soup that he once tasted in a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Paris — said the power of British cuisine does not lie in just one or two signature dishes.

“Our signature is quiet simple. It is not about the dish. It is about the country as a whole,” Rhodes said.

“If you went to the UK and you travelled for two weeks or three weeks maybe and you started in the south and you made your way to the north to Scotland and Wales, you would see what our signature is about. It is about quality. It is about each region of the UK having another different kind of quality to show off,” he added.

On the one side, being the ambassador for British cuisine has allowed Rhodes to travel the world and share his culinary knowledge and on the other, the experience has also opened his mind even further about the richness of cuisines from the other side of the globe.

“What I love about being a chef is that you never ever stop learning. You can never stop learning. That is what keeps me interested in this industry.”

Rhodes said his journeys as an ambassador for British cuisine had given him so much new knowledge about how to make the perfect marriage between Western and Eastern cuisines. This is not something completely strange or new to him, however, and he still finds it to be fulfilling and enriching on both a personal and professional level.

“Coming to the Far East is something that I find to be a great experience and that’s why I want to do a TV series from country to country because it shows off that every single country has its own identity,” Rhodes said.

As for Indonesia, Rhodes said he found the cuisine here has a lot to offer and it’s a real shame the local government did little to promote it further.

“You have your own style. The government should be screaming as loud as they can to everybody that ‘You can come here as long as you promise to yourself that you will eat in the local restaurants!’ I think it shows off really what Indonesia is all about,” he said.

“Indonesia is not a small country and you actually have different areas that will give you different styles of food.”

Gary Rhodes - JP/Awo

Dealing with an expensive ingredient like salmon might deter most cooks '€” but not British chef Gary Rhodes

With a career that has spanned more than 40 years and a constellation of Michelin stars, chef Gary Rhodes is one of the most celebrated chefs '€” consistently revered by his peers and colleagues as The Chef'€™s Chef.

In a recent cooking show in Jakarta, Rhodes showed how he could produce a five-star dish made out of salmon in less than 10 minutes without making a mess in the kitchen or ruining the dish.

The key, he said, was to not panic and do only the simplest things in order to get the ingredients to sparkle.

'€œMy cooking philosophy is really all about simplicity because if you are using the right ingredients, they need very little help. It is about actually getting the right balance of flavors, making sure that you are putting together a combination of textures,'€ Rhodes told The Jakarta Post.

'€œSo it is all about balance. That is my whole philosophy: Keep it simple and let the ingredients speak for themselves.'€

Despite his simple and modest approach to cooking, Rhodes'€™ credentials are anything but simple.

Rhodes said he embraced all of the acknowledgements from his peers, including the Michelin stars, but being modest as always he said he had never really considered them as important for his career as a chef.

'€œThe most important thing to a chef are the customers because without them you dont have a business,'€ he says.

'€œFor me, it [a Michelin star] is a supplement. It'€™s a way for somebody to put that stamp on you and say that you are cooking to a certain quality and if you can maintain that quality, you will then have a consistent following, you will then continue your business and do nothing but grow with that.'€

Born in London in 1960, Rhodes began cooking as a teenager in his mom'€™s kitchen. His father left young Rhodes and his siblings and his mother then had to work until late at night to provide care for her children.

While Rhodes'€™ mother was away at night, he, as the oldest, was responsible to cook food for the family. It was during this teenage years that Rhodes realized he loved to cook and had found his passion.

During the 1980s, Rhodes found he needed to travel to develop his technique and career as a chef. He began to work as a commis chef at the Amsterdam Hilton and started to experiment with nouvelle cuisine and challenge preconceptions of food preparation.

After traveling across Europe, he returned to his home country. In 1987, Rhodes took over the head chef position at The Castle Hotel in Somerset from Chris Oakes and got his first Michelin star at just 26 years of age.

During Rhodes'€™ time at The Castle, he developed a passion for British food and discovered his talent for taking traditional dishes and refining them into modern British classics.

With free rein to explore British cuisine, Rhodes has since embarked upon a gastronomic journey of reinventing and rejuvenating classic dishes to create new and incredibly exciting British food.

He then received acknowledgement as the ambassador for British cuisine and with the support of his government, he has been travelling the world introducing the best of his home country'€™s finest dishes.

Rhodes '€” who is still obsessed with making the perfect soup that he once tasted in a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Paris '€” said the power of British cuisine does not lie in just one or two signature dishes.

'€œOur signature is quiet simple. It is not about the dish. It is about the country as a whole,'€ Rhodes said.

'€œIf you went to the UK and you travelled for two weeks or three weeks maybe and you started in the south and you made your way to the north to Scotland and Wales, you would see what our signature is about. It is about quality. It is about each region of the UK having another different kind of quality to show off,'€ he added.

On the one side, being the ambassador for British cuisine has allowed Rhodes to travel the world and share his culinary knowledge and on the other, the experience has also opened his mind even further about the richness of cuisines from the other side of the globe.

'€œWhat I love about being a chef is that you never ever stop learning. You can never stop learning. That is what keeps me interested in this industry.'€

Rhodes said his journeys as an ambassador for British cuisine had given him so much new knowledge about how to make the perfect marriage between Western and Eastern cuisines. This is not something completely strange or new to him, however, and he still finds it to be fulfilling and enriching on both a personal and professional level.

'€œComing to the Far East is something that I find to be a great experience and that'€™s why I want to do a TV series from country to country because it shows off that every single country has its own identity,'€ Rhodes said.

As for Indonesia, Rhodes said he found the cuisine here has a lot to offer and it'€™s a real shame the local government did little to promote it further.

'€œYou have your own style. The government should be screaming as loud as they can to everybody that '€˜You can come here as long as you promise to yourself that you will eat in the local restaurants!'€™ I think it shows off really what Indonesia is all about,'€ he said.

'€œIndonesia is not a small country and you actually have different areas that will give you different styles of food.'€