Good Food Guide Best Young chef Chris Malone heads for New York
Chris Malone, 2017 The West Australian Good Food Guide Young Chef of the Year is leaving Perth.
He has been recruited to join the world’s best restaurant in New York.
Malone, the sous chef at New Normal in Subiaco, is taking a 12-month commis chef job at three-Michelin-star restaurant Eleven Madison Park, which also holds the No. 1 spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Extraordinarily enough, he is only 22 years old.
A straight-A student at school, Malone always wanted to be a chef. This is why he decided to finish Year 10 and immediately find an apprenticeship.
“I handed my resume, which was pretty minimal, into a few places and I ended up going to Fraser’s and they offered me work experience starting the next day,” Malone told the West Australian.
“I spent two weeks working in the kitchen and they offered me a three-month trial leading into an apprenticeship. I haven’t looked back.”
He spent four years there and then moved on to Clarke’s of North Beach.
He worked with owner Stephen Clarke for a few months and then spent time at a couple of other restaurants before accepting a sous chef position at Clarke’s.
Despite his age, Malone is a veteran of international cooking competitions. He is ranked No. 1 in Australia and has come third in the world for under-28s.
So the job in New York will give him the chance to grow, develop more expertise and expand his wings.
“Throughout my career I’ve always had the one restaurant I’ve aspired to work at, and that’s always been like the go-to book for inspiration — if you want to look at some good food just open it up — and it was Eleven Madison Park,” he told the West Australian.
“I got in contact with Eleven Madison Park and I suppose offered myself to them and said this is what I’m looking for and gave a brief bio of myself and what I’ve achieved. They arranged a trial date so I flew over, spent two days in the kitchen and they offered me a job.”
by Leon Gettler, November 6th 2017
