Mark Morris is here chatting this week. As a celebrated chef he travelled around the world. He is owner of The Staff Canteen, the much talked about social networking site that every chef or wannabe chef should know about. There’s an app that goes with that too. We were interested in what words Mark had for us to eat…you can follow him on Twitter too @CanteenTweets

The Staff Canteen community is huge and growing daily. Everyone’s downloading Chef Plus. We love it! Please tell us a bit more about how things are cooking and what you have planned for the future?

Our focus at The Staff Canteen now is very much about trying to improve the content we put out. We’ve always invested heavily in terms of video and we see that as a major factor in our success. If you look at our YouTube channel, you’ll see that it’s just passed 60,000 views in the last 30 days which just shows the audience our videos are getting. Chefs are time poor and while it’s important to have good editorial written content, the reality is that video is so easy to consume.

The opportunity is there now for a chef to watch another world-class chef creating a dish – like this month we have three star Michelin chef Jonnie Boer from Holland cooking two dishes for us. It’s one of the closest things you can get toactually being there with him in the kitchen.

So the main focus is to reach more chefs, to widen what we do, to reach into Europe and America – my biggest goal is to get into America – and overall to improve the quality of the content we put out.

It must be hard to pick favourites but who have you really enjoyed interviewing at The Staff Canteen and why?

I think I’ve enjoyed every single chef and I genuinely mean that. It’s impossible not to enjoy Raymond Blanc. The man is infectious; he’s just so passionate and genuine. It’s difficult to capture that passion and enthusiasm on a video but I hope we did it. The fact that such an incredibly busy man gave us his time was a complete honour. And it was the same with ReneRedzepi at Noma. He has the world’s media knocking on his door yet he invited The Staff Canteen in to do an interview. He doesn’t need our PR. He’s in the New York Times and all over the place but he did it because he knew that we are a website that chefs go to. El Celler de can Roca as well; all of these places have been a huge privilege to do and I’m grateful to all the chefs for their time. But I enjoy all of them. I’m like a kid in a sweet shop when I’m in there; it’s fantastic.

What is the best bit of advice you’d give someone wanting to become a Chef? And what was the best chef advice you ever received and from who?

I can’t remember who, but the best piece of advice I was ever given was: you’ve got two ears and one mouth, so listen before you speak.

I would say to anyone aspiring to be a chef: it’s a very hard industry but it’s a very rewarding industry. It can’t just be a job because the hours are too long and I think that’s why the industry has such a high drop out rate. It has to become a way of life and if you can’t make it a way of life, you’re not going to make it work.

I would also say: work at the highest possible level you can because once you’ve been to Manchester United or Man City you can play anywhere, whereas if you start at a lower league club, you might be lucky and go up, but it’s much more likely if you start at the top. Also just work very, very hard at what you do. It isn’t going to happen overnight. Raymond Blanc didn’t become successful overnight. It took him many, many years.

You have a huge membership already but who would be your dream member and what would you like them to do on the site?

I don’t really know. We have a lot of great chefs already who look at the site without being members. I like it when things happen like the other day when I saw Tom Kerridge. He said:“That was a fantastic chicken dish on your website, Mark.” And I realised he meant the recent Featured Chef video and I said: “Did you watch it?” And he said: “I watch all your videos.” I thought that was amazing.

Of course we’d like all these great chefs to post recipes and comment on our site but the reality is that they’re extremely busy. And I get as much satisfaction from a young student coming onto The Staff Canteen saying “this is a great site” as I do from Tom Kerridge watching my videos. I think it’s important you don’t become an elite club. You have to be accessible to all chefs and you don’t want people to be intimidated. I want everyone to use it and share their knowledge and collectively raise everyone up.

Which Chefs inspired you as you were growing up?

Loads. Raymond Blanc was hugely inspirational. Paul Gaylerwas a huge influence. At a time, in the eighties, when to be a top chef you either worked in London or in hotels, PaulGayler was one of the first British chefs who came out of a hotel and became a restaurant chef and he is one of the greatest British chefs, in my opinion, of a generation. AntonMosimann, who I worked for, was a phenomenal influence on me – a really traditional chef with a massive brigade at The Dorchester. Alan Hill at Gleneagles was a massive influenceas well.

And of course you can’t be of my era and not mention Marco Pierre White. I remember when his book, White Heat, came out. It was one of those jaw-dropping moments. The photos became iconic and Marco became iconic. Suddenly there was this bad boy with long hair chasing food critics out of his restaurant and almost seeming to not give a damn, and yet at the same time he was doing the most amazing food. He was like a rock and roll bad boy turned chef and suddenly all chefs wanted to be like him. So you can’t be from my generation and not be influenced by Marco.

Which chefs do you think we should keep an eye out for in 2013?

I think we’re really fortunate at the moment with some phenomenal chefs out there with great backgrounds. JamesKnappett is one, doing his own thing at Bubble Dogs; Paul Foster at Tuddenham Mill – again a brilliant chef;  MarkPoynton at Alimentum; Russell Bateman at The Grove; MattGillan at South Lodge; there’s a huge buzz around Tom Seller’s new opening. We’re at a really great time with some really great chefs coming through and I think it’s very exciting for the whole scene, I mean I could have listed 20 or 30 names in answer to that question.

Where was your last dining out experience? How was it?

Geranium in Copenhagen – we went over to film RasmusKofoed and he very nicely cooked us dinner. Although I must say that I’m very much against going to places to interview chefs and expecting them to cook you something. In fact I get very embarrassed and humbled when they do and I never want people to think: “Oh God, The Staff Canteen are here; we’ve got to cook them dinner.” These are immensely busy people and to give us their time is more than enough.

Anyway, the food at Geranium was absolutely fantastic. One of the things that really impressed me was there was very little cooking – lots of preparation but very little meat-in-a-pan style cooking. We had eight or nine courses and it was just a wonderful selection of Nordic cuisine. And you didn’t walk out feeling like you’d eaten half a cow. It was a lovely dining experience.

What’s your favourite local restaurant and favourite meal?

I don’t know; I like really simple things when I go out. I sometimes think that pubs try too hard. Why not just do a really good lasagne or a really good cottage pie or shepherd’s pie instead of trying to do pork belly or something like that and maybe not doing it right? So if I go out I like really simple things and really informal dining. I have children so it has to be accessible to kids. And I never mind paying for something. I would rather go and spend £15 on roast beef than £5.95 and wonder where the meat has come from. I don’t have a particular restaurant where I think, I must go there. I just like very simple, well-cooked food.

What is your favourite food related website? Favourite Foodie Tweeter?

Loads. I like The Critical Couple website. I like The British Larder blog. I like Elizabeth on Food; I’d love to have her lifestyle and I like her writing style, which is very objective.

In terms of tweeters, again Elizabeth on Food; I think her tweets are fantastic and her blogs are fantastic. She’s not there to create an audience with sensationalism. She writes what she honestly believes. There are loads of blogs and websites out there that are just vanity projects. For me to like it, I have to know it’s objective and like the writing style. The moment the writer becomes bigger than the blog I just forget about it.

Thanks Mark!

Posted By Mise En Place Hospitality Recruitment