Food for thought

I was born in Cameroon –where my mum was in training for finances. My parents are from Rwanda. When I was 12 years old we had to move due to the area being dangerous, so we moved to Tanzania and then onto Zambia. This is where I learnt my English. From there we wanted to go to South Africa but when we arrived in Mozambique we found there where many more opportunities.

Yes, it is really very beautiful. My sister still lives there. It still feels like my home. Moving around I learnt lots of languages. I love languages.

Five: English, Portuguese, French, Spanish and Catalan. I wish I could learn more! Although I have forgotten my mother tongue; I don't really speak it anymore

My mum changes her language with her mood. So if she starts in Portuguese you know it will be a normal conversation. If it is English, it will be more profound and deep. And in our mother tongue, then I need to pay attention, it means it is a serious conversation!

My father decided. I wanted to be a doctor and he found that I could study and stay here but it wasn't guaranteed that I would get a job straight after. There are many of us: eight brothers and sisters. He said I could go and if I didn't like it I could come back.

Yes, and I am still a chef!

I remember when I was 10, my mama said: “Right, you cannot just sit on the couch!” She said I needed to help her in the kitchen. The first time I tried to cook something it came out good. And my mum said: “You are the eldest, so you can feed your brothers and sisters!” After a while my dad said that if I liked it then I could try to make something of it.

It was a rice cake! Boiled rice, milk, eggs and little sugar. Not how you would imagine a rice cake to be, more like a rice pudding, perhaps?

At that time it was training in cookery and service. I liked the service side of things and became quite good at it. I had a teacher who I loved so much. I would work for him at the weekends at hotels and I loved it. You learn so fast like that. The first two years are cooking and service, and then you have to choose to study just cooking, just service, or you can carry on with both. I chose both as I loved them both and couldn't decide. After a while I decided to just concentrate on the cooking. I got fed up with appearing as someone I wasn't; you always have to smile, whatever the customer is like. At least in the kitchen you can shout and get angry! It is a tough job though; you have to really love what you do. The hours are long and late and you spend many hours on your feet. In the beginning, you don't care about the hours; you are learning and loving it.

Michelin stars are a whole different level. It is how you picture cooking. Some places you can cook fast and dirty and in others clean. A Michelin star means it is super clean, organised and fast, really fast.

They do take a long time but you have to be fast and each one is an exact copy. You cant miss an ingredient. In a normal kitchen, for example, I could miss out a tomato, if the tomatoes aren't good enough. That can't happen if there's a Michelin star.

Yes I am back to my thing now!

Simple. Good but simple.

Here is good, French is good. Ours is so different. In pastry I choose French. But for meat I chose here, Catalonia. Fish, I chose French again. Stews I would go back home!

La Barbacoa, I love burgers! To eat slowly, La Carmarga, where I work. For desserts, La Patisseria.

Patience. And know what you want. If you want to cook, just cook. Enjoy the experience and move. Don't stay in the same place all the time.