Chef Manu Feildel

For those gourmets who travel in Australia, another attraction of Sydney would be the restaurant of French cuisine L′ETOILE. The restaurant’s chef and owner is the Australian star of culinary TV-shows Manu Feildel. Our audience knows Manu Feildel from the culinary TV series Boys Weekend and My Kitchen Rules.

This summer, in particular – on September 22nd, 2012, I also got a lucky chance to visit L′ETOILE restaurant, where I enjoyed dishes of the original cuisine, and chatted and took photographs with chef Manu Feildel.

After a pleasant conversation, Manu Feildel kindly signed his cookery books, and added that he has many fans from Russia in his blog. It is not that easy to get to the restaurant of chef Manu Feildel – we had to sign up two months in advance, but it was worth it. The restaurant is never empty, all the tables are always sold out; the dishes and drinks cooked and served at the restaurant are tasty and exquisite; it has a pleasant atmosphere, polite and well-trained personnel and waiters.

It seems that Manu Feildel was destined to become a great chef from the moment he was born. His great grandfather was a pastry chef, his grandfather and father were chefs, his cousin is a chef in the United States, and his mother is a great cook – but as a child Manu saw his future on the stage rather than in the kitchen. At 13 years old Manu joined an amateur circus school however, by the time he turned 15 he had decided that the road to becoming a professional clown was not for him. He started as an apprentice in his father’s restaurant.

In a year’s time he progressed to a fine dining restaurant to finish his apprenticeship.

But soon thereafter the travel bug bit Manu and he packed his knives and headed for London.

His first job with «Cafe Royal» was difficult, to say the least, because Manu did not speak English. But his persistency prevailed, and after working in such restaurants as «Les Associes» and «Cafe des Amis du Vin,» he took the office of Chef de Partie in a seafood restaurant «Livebait,» and that is when he really began to understand and love the profession he chose. Manu stayed with «Livebait» for a couple of years, where he advanced to become the Sous-Chef, and then – the great Chef; and the restaurant itself was nominated for the best seafood restaurant in the United Kingdom in 1998.

In 1999, Manu flew to Melbourne, where he worked at «Toofeys» for about six months before he headed for the north to Sydney. After six months in «Hugo’s» on the famous Bondi beach, he opened his kitchen at the new «Hugo’s Lounge» on Kings Cross. Manu ran this kitchen for about eighteen months, after than he transferred to «Restoraunt VII», which is famous for its synthesis of the French and Japanese cuisines (2 Chef’s hats from Sydney Morning Herald).

In 2004, Tony Bilston turned to Manu with a proposition to participate in the grand opening of his new restaurant «Bilston’s» at the Radisson Hotel. One year after the opening, this restaurant won two Chef’s hats, and in the third year its recognition increased to three Chef’s hats. In 2008, «Bilson’s» earned three Chef’s hats for the third year straight.

It seems that Manu’s career went through a full cycle, and he came back to his roots – to cook modern French cuisine. In March of 2009, Manu opened his first restaurant in Paddington, a district of Sydney, where he was able to discover his passion – to cook the food of the modern French bistro.

Manu spent a wonderful year in L′ETOILE and received his first reward – the Chef’s hat, in August, and won the contest «Shoot the Chef» during the month of good food in Sydney. In January of 2011, Manu opened his second restaurant «Aperitif» in Sydney’s district Potts Point with his co-star in Boys Weekend Miguel Maestre.

Manu made his first appearance on Australian TV in the Channel Ten’s TV show Ready Steady Cook and regularly participated in it at 9 am with David and Kim for two years. In 2010, he continued his success on TV. In the beginning of that year, Manu was a co-host and expert judge in the show of Channel Seven My Kitchen Rules which had enormous popularity during prime time on TV. In a few months, he began to shoot episodes of the second season, and he enjoys to have the opportunity to meet new cooks that he would have to judge. On the show Mothers day Boys Weekend Special Manu met with his friends Gary Mehigan, Adrian Richardson and Miguel Maestre. Now the episodes of the second season of this show are in the process of production. This TV series was sold to more than one hundred countries around the whole world. Boys Weekend is a TV series of thirteen episodes, which was first aired in Australia in he beginning of 2009 on Lifestyle Food Channel. Starting from December of 2009, it was also broadcast on Channel Ten on Sunday nights.

Besides working on TV, Manu has just published two cookery books. Manu is quite happy about his books – he shares in them his recipes with his readers. Apart from that, Manu Feildel regularly participates in the issues of Good Food Magazine of British Broadcasting Corporation BBC, and writes a weekly column in the New Idea.

This article uses some material from the web-resource: http://manufeildel.com.au