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Loving spoonfulLarger-than-life celebrity chef Miguel Maestre can’t help but bring energy,

charm and family values to any space he graces, as NICOLE BITTAR discovers

THE definition of success means different things to successful people. For Spanish chef Miguel Maestre, who followed his heart to Australia, it does not necessarily mean being awarded the Order of Merit by the king of Spain for his services to Spanish food in Australian media, nor working

from a tender age in the best restaurants with the world’s top chefs, including Tony Bilson and Manu Feildel.

It does not even mean opening the country’s biggest Spanish restaurant, El Toro Loco (the mad bull), on the Manly beachfront, nor starring in the multiple Logie-award-winning The Living Room on Channel 10, nor appearing alongside fellow chefs and kitchen comrades in the worldwide-syndicated TV series, Boys’ Weekend and Miguel’s Feasts. Nor does it mean writing two successful cookbooks, nor running a burgeoning food import company, presenting the cream of Spanish food to an ever-growing legion of Australian consumers, though these laudable achievements are not to be scoffed at.

Success to Maestre is returning after a long and often gruelling day to his hillside home on Sydney’s northern beaches to the waiting welcome of his two adoring young children, Claudia, almost five, and Morgan, 22 months, and wife Sascha, for whom he made the permanent move to Australia in 2004.

“That, for me, means I am the richest man in the world,” he beamed.

“Some people are so poor that all they have is money.”Since he arrived in Australia, this country has been richer

for Maestre’s injection of rustic charm, his culinary prowess and his infectious personality on our TV screens and in print. And it seems ‘successful is as successful does’.

Maestre said the network of celebrity chefs with whom he works is tight knit. These include Gary Mehigan, Adrian Richardson and Feildel, with whom he ran the tapas-style Aperitif restaurant in Potts Point.

“Any friend could call me tomorrow and ask for a favour and, in the blink of an eye, I would do it for them,” he enthused. “It’s a beautiful thing. I could call George Calombaris tomorrow and say ‘Hey, George, I need one of your kitchens, and within one second, he would organise that for me and then ensure that everything was in order after the event,” Maestre said, confirming the camaraderie and brotherly bond between these high-profile personalities in the Australian hospitality industry.

The Beautiful Game (football, or soccer to the uninitiated) also plays its part. With Calombaris being No.1 ticket holder at Melbourne Victory, he shares a friendly rivalry as Maestre has been appointed as the No.1 ticket holder at his beloved Brisbane Roar.

Working within the tight dynamic of the team on The Living Room (with host Amanda Keller and fellow co-hosts Chris Brown and Barry Du Bois) is also like a home away from home to the enamoured Spaniard.

“The public feedback is that they love The Living Room, and that makes me very happy,” he said.

Family it seems is not exclusive to blood ties. IMA

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Although he loves his homeland and misses it every day, Maestre always knew his love of cooking would lead him further afield. He hails from the stunning seaside town of Murcia in south-eastern Spain, renowned for its agriculture and abundant seafood, so it’s little wonder that he settled on Sydney’s beautiful northern beaches.

The beach is in Maestre’s lifeblood. Even his son’s name, Morgan, literally means “close to the sea”. Family is paramount to the 36-year-old middle son, whose mother is his inspiration in the pursuit of producing beautiful food.

“Love is the ingredient,” he said, but often a firm hand was necessary.

She challenged notions of food preferences and steered his tastes toward the finer, albeit simple, things in life. For example, he used to despise capsicum as a boy. Choice was not an option and he was forced to eat the vegetable to the point where it is now his favourite. He includes a recipe for roasted red capsicum in his book, Spanish Cooking. He thanks his mother for her perseverance and apologises for all the food-related headaches he caused.

Although Maestre says she was dismayed when he revealed his aspirations to be a chef (“15 or 20 years ago, becoming a chef was not a glamorous job”, he said). Nonetheless, she supported Maestre in his goals and for that he is eternally grateful. So much so that the dutiful son speaks to his parents on the phone daily.

Maestre moved to Edinburgh at 21, simultaneously learning to speak English and working his way up the ranks at Montpeliers group of restaurants, including the bustling Indigo Yard, which touts itself as being “comfortably chic” and “passionate about produce”, much like Maestre. He praised

the sophistication of Scottish clientele, who love to spend money on good food, beer and quality Scotch whisky.

The chef said he would return there in a heartbeat, which makes perfect sense considering he met his future wife in Edinburgh. She was a waitress at one of the Montpeliers restaurants where he worked. They married in Australia after moving to Sydney, Sascha’s home city.

Maestre has two successful brothers in the business and hospitality industry, Antonio, 39, is an engineer working in the UK, and Carlos, 31, is a freelance silver-service consultant and former restaurant manager for his brother in Australia.

“Carlos would be the only restaurant manager in Australia who is university qualified,” beamed Maestre, proudly. Carlos studied hospitality at university for six years (as is mandatory in Spain). His namesake predestines career dominance. In Australia, he worked in some of the country’s best kitchens, including The Bathers Pavilion, Minus 5 and Bilson’s Number One Wine Bar, before opening El Toro Loco, all before the age of 27.

To Maestre, which translates as master, the perfect kitchen should comprise excellent storage (“smart ways to access everything”) and kitchen appliances that are oriented towards the entertainment zone.

“There’s nothing worse than a chef always cooking with their back to people having a good time,” he said. “Normally, kitchens are designed the wrong way, with the appliances on the wall, which is where the cook is facing. There is nothing worse in the world,” he bemoaned.

Having worked in poky commercial kitchens for much of his professional life, Maestre also said that wide kitchen designs are paramount for manoeuvrability and easy cleaning.

Equipment: paella pan and burner, barbecue gas bottle, food processor (transparent top), chopping board

400ml chicken stock200g Bomba rice4 large king prawns 10 black mussels, live6 pippies4 large scallops150g baby calamari, cleaned and scored2 chorizo sausages, thinly sliced50g fresh/frozen peas1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve

Sofrito2 large ripe oxheart tomatoes, roughly chopped2 large roasted red capiscums from jar (piquillo)4 cloves garlic, peeled½ bunch parsley½ bunch chives25ml Moro Extra Virgin olive oil1 teaspoon saffron threads1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1) To make the sofrito, place all ingredients in a food processor and process until chunky. If you don’t have a food processor, then simply roughly chop the tomatoes and capsicums and finely chop the garlic and parsley and combine with other sofrito ingredients.

2) Heat a 30cm frypan or paella pan on high heat, add chorizo and cook until golden brown. Add sofrito and cook until tomatoes start to become juicy, 3-4 minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to the boil. Stir in rice and seafood bring to a simmer. Continue simmering for about 10 minutes.

3) When rice is tender and liquid has almost fully reduced (there should still be some liquid in the frypan), add peas and cook for a further 2 minutes to achieve ‘soccarrada’ (crust on the bottom of the pan).

4) Season to taste with salt and garnish with chives. Squeeze over lemon juice just before serving.

Family man Miguel with his Spain-based father Antonio and mother Florentina, both of whom he speaks to daily. Dad helps with the Maestre Family Food business, while Mum fostered his love of cooking and capsicum

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“I have spent most of my life in commercial kitchens and once I did an experiment and found that I walked 5km in one day in a tiny kitchen, up and down, up and down. So if you think about all the times you have to reach for something on the left, then on the right, and if access is not good, it is the worst thing in the world,” he said.

With two young children, Maestre particularly appreciates products that are safe to use around young hands, for example, “a wok can be placed inside the cookware, which is very smart, and it is also very easy to clean”.

Lighting is equally important in an appealing and workable kitchen. Maestre said the ideal space should be accented towards large windows to allow for copious natural light to pour in.

His favourite kitchen tools include a prized wooden spoon

he uses for stirring the pot, so to speak, a rare knife (one of 170) by Bob Kramer, which was a gift from Sascha, KitchenAid attachments for making pasta, and a gypsy knife from a dearly departed friend, which Maestre said he would “grab in a fire, along with my Logies”.

THE simple things are always the best to this loyal friend and family man. A traditionalist, Maestre routinely cooks paella at home and includes his guests in the preparation process.

“You should see my garage. I have the equipment to cook paella for five people, all the way up to 150 people,” he enthused. “Everyone gets involved. It’s something so visual when everybody gets to stir, and add the chicken and tomatoes. It’s pretty much the centre of the party.”

Suffice to say, Maestre is an advocate of low-stress entertaining. “When everybody arrives, I get the fire on. We have a huge paella pan in the backyard or front yard. I serve the drinks and everybody gets into it. It’s a way of starting a conversation and linking people to food,” he said.

“We don’t communicate that much any more, so when you’re cooking and everybody is excited, you cannot look at your mobile phones. So that’s great.”

It all boils down to family coming together, seated around the table and allowing their mouths – rather than fingers – to do the talking, and the eating.

Maestre’s recipe is of course passed down from his beloved mother. It comprises a lot of tomato, capsicum, garlic, paprika and saffron, which melds into a deeply flavoursome sofrito sauce (“it’s very, very rich”).

Fresh local seafood and chicken are also essential to the success of Maestre’s unique version of Spain’s national dish. For dessert, churros with chocolate dipping sauce are the sweet treat that the chef regularly prepares and craves. He has called the crispy, deep-fried doughnut treats a “sometimes” food, but admits that he could eat them “all day for breakfast, lunch and dinner”.

FOOD and family clearly mean the world to Maestre. So much so that he employs his father and family in Spain for his import company, Maestre Family Food, sourcing local produce for Australian clients and keeping the family literally in business.

Distinctly Spanish products are on offer, including a range of manchego cheeses made from 100 per cent sheep’s milk, Serrano jamon, olive oil, sangria and seven different paella products, such as chicken and chorizo and seafood. The items are stocked in Woolworths stores and independent grocers, including Sacca’s Fine Food in Victoria. Australians are taking to Maestre’s Spanish fare like churros to chocolate sauce.

“Love is the ingredient!”

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“My goal in life is that for every 10 meals an Australian cooks, one of those is paella,” Maestre said.

“And I will not stop until everyone at home has manchego, sangria, chorizo and jamon,” he laughed.

Maestre is an ambassador for Freixenet Australia, a major worldwide distributor of sparkling wine, and Stockland shopping centres. He also works closely with the Cancer Council Australia and Care Australia.

These days, television and food business commitments pretty much preclude his home-catering service, Miguel’s Experience, where the hungry diner who hankers for a taste of authentic Spanish food, hospitality and felicity can takes home a slice of Maestre to their kitchen.

URBAN Life experienced an exclusive smattering of Maestre’s infectious charm.

On the day of our photo shoot, in true Mediterranean fashion, the first thing he said upon entering the grey-veined marble kitchen was that “this is a kitchen; there should be fruit in it.” He added that there weren’t enough power points and he would remove the Insinkerator, with his young children around.

But he loved the kick-board vacuum cleaner to quickly inhale spills.

Ornamentation near the stovetop was also a no-no. “Do you know how dirty these would get from all the oil spills from wontons? A mother will tell you these things,” he said.

FOR someone who didn’t learn to speak English until he was 21, Maestre makes up for lost time with his engaging banter about food, family and living life to the full.

He was a barrel of laughs, horsing around with an equine statuette, making harmless jibes about landscape designer Jamie Durie always wearing black shirts, and gleefully pointing out the Melbourne media in attendance donning dark-coloured attire.

As sharp as the knives in his kitchen and just as effective, Maestre enthusiastically continues to spread the word about his love of Spanish cooking and does it with style.

A success story? No doubt, in every sense.

Maestre’s cooking demonstration of paella and churros, including samples and take-home recipe cards, is at Porter Davis World of Style at 11am on Saturday, August 20. Bookings and details at worldofstyle.com/event/2016/august/wos-miguel-maestre-masterclassComing events at World of Style also include interior stylist Julia Green (October 15).

with the Coco Republic Design SchoolNow enrolling for Interior Decoration Essentials 101, MelbourneMonday 12th September to Saturday 17th September

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Equipment: small saucepan, whisk, medium saucepan, wooden spoon, piping bag, 2cm star nozzle, deep fryer, absorbent paper, tea towels, serving plate & bowl for chocolate sauce

Serves: 4–6250ml milk 1 teaspoon caster sugar 50g unsalted butter, chopped 2 vanilla beans, split, seeds scraped out115g plain flour 3 egg yolks vegetable oil, for deep fryingcaster sugar, to dustchocolate sauce100ml condensed milk 200g dark eating chocolate, chopped splash milk splash rum

1) To make chocolate sauce, stir condensed milk in a small saucepan, over medium heat until hot. Add chocolate. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in milk and rum. Remove from heat. Cover to keep warm.

2) Bring milk, sugar, butter and vanilla beans and seeds to a boil in a medium saucepan.

3) Discard vanilla beans. Remove from heat.4) Sift in flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined and

dough comes away from side of pan. Remove from heat. Stand, covered with plastic wrap, for 10 minutes.

5) Beat in egg yolks with wooden spoon, one at a time. 6) Spoon dough into a piping bag fitted with a 2cm star nozzle.7) Heat oil to 180°C (when a cube of bread turns golden

brown, oil is hot enough). Pipe 5cm lengths into oil, cutting off the dough with a sharp knife.

8) Deep fry churros until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper.

Dust with caster sugar. Serve with chocolate sauce.