Romance is Alive and Well: Chef John Villa’s Tattoo
February 22, 2022
Darren Carbone
May 8, 2022
Name
Gerard Van Staden
When I was a kid I wanted to be an Egyptologist
Website
When I was a kid I wanted to be an Egyptologist
When and where were you born?
Zimbabwe
What was your first job in food?
Chef trainee
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Egyptologist
What is your favorite thing about being a chef?
The freedom of being creative
Did you have an “aha” moment when you knew you wanted to be a chef?
Yes
Best advice you ever got?
Make sure you have visual flavour on all you food
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
Mompani worms
Your favorite ingredient.
Fish
The ingredient that turns you off the most.
Mompani worms
Your favorite tool.
Chefs knife
What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not cooking.
Fishing
What would you like to do before you get too old to do it.
I’d love to visit South America
Tell us a deep dark secret (doesn’t have to be food related).
I hate people
How do you deal with the stress?
Calmly
How did becoming a chef change your life, your direction.
I could travel and experience different cultures …..this allowed me to be a lot wiser
Who would you like to meet?
Marco Pierre White
Who would you like to cook for?
Michel Troisgross
What was the hardest thing for you to learn? Or is there something you just can’t get right?
Making Macaroons
Is there some little something you do for your family to make up for the time you’re not with them?
I cook comfort food for them
Please give us a cooking tip that people might not know like “adding a little bit of oil to butter so it doesn’t burn.
Add your visual flavor just before you serve it
Tell us a funny story from the kitchen
I used to put whipped cream or mayonnaise into the ear part of the telephone and watch the other chefs reaction when they picked it up
One of the chefs promptly smashed the ear part into the entire phone
