Cuisine & Wine Asia — May-June 2017

If you don’t question

what you’re doing, you’ll

never progress. Think

of the bigger picture:

the more you put in, the

more you’ll get.

Tim Ross-Watson

Visit the Awards Of Excellence page at

http://www.wgsawards.com/aoe2017/main.php

to learn more about these

stalwart industry professionals!

The Meticulous

Contemplator

Of half English and half

Indian descent, Chef

Tim Ross-Watson, 33,

has heads turning. The

chef-owner of Pyxiemoss

started cooking at the age

of five. At 12, he cooked

his first ever function for his

football team for 30 people. “I

was sweating and anxious about

being able to make it. But, I did

make it and it was at that point where

I knew I wanted to be a chef – it was point

of no return,” he recalls.

He faced many struggles during his journey, but with

the support of his friends and family, he overcame

them. “During my apprenticeship, I remember

packing my locker every single day telling myself I’m

never going back but sure enough I’m there the next

morning. I am not going to over glamorise anything,

because it wasn’t easy – it was hard. Passion can only

take you so far in life. I needed to understand that I

needed to love every single dark part of the industry

and my family and friends reminded me of that.”

The most influential chef to leave his mark on Chef

Ross-Watson was Chef Phil Thompson. “He taught me

how to treat staff differently: more of a partnership

as opposed to dictatorship: earning respect as

opposed to commanding respect through fear. He

led by example.” The biggest turning point of Chef

Ross-Watson’s career was closing his first restaurant

• Garden Of Eden. “I made a lot of mistakes. I saw
  everything that I’ve dreamt about crumbling in front
  of me – it’s the most humbling process. You lose a part
  of you but you gain a whole lot more. I was twenty-
  five. I upset a lot of people and didn’t care. Coming
  from London, I was so arrogant. It’s different now.
  I’m happy with what I’ve achieved so far but I’m not
  content. I hope to be received instead of recognised.”
  Chef Ross-Watson is currently trying to make his own
  soy sauce from sweet corn and desires to emerge as
  an honest leader. DD

2017

*pork belly with smoked
potato mash &
puffed pork skin

061

*Recipes refer to page 79