PEDIGREES

Like martial arts, the culinary arts take pride in 'pedigrees'. I may be a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu but I know Escoffier is a different and some may even say better, pedigree, even though they both have French roots. I was also a student of Shaolin Kung Fu but pedigree in that space is even more complicated.

The vintage picture on the kitchen wall of Chef Donovan Cooke at home shows him as Head Chef at Harveys, with his Boss & Mentor Marco Pierre White, and his partner the Patissier. Marco, hailed as doyen of modern British cooking since the 80s has luminous names under his tutelage, such as, Shannon Bennett at Vue de Monde, Heston Blumenthal at Fat Duck and Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity TV chef we all love to hate, but keep tuning in anyway. Pedigree in a vocation like cooking, especially during one's formidable years as an apprentice or Commis, is a good thing. We need mentors and role models, ideally tough ones who is good at handing down discipline. The best way for any junior to learn about pedigree, and to grow under pedigree, is in this sort of a settimg. Donovan fits the mode, he came from pedigree at a young age, notably Marco Pierre White & Michel Roux, and he is doing what he can to pass it on. I am convinced his 'reputation for fierce bollockings' is a definitive trait he inherited from Marco who, by the way, still does it with full flair in his own TV show, Hell's Kitchen UK.

There you have it, Kitchen Pedigree!