Steeven Gilles, Executive Chef at Masso and The Orangery Tearoom, on his early ambitions and rapid rise.

What or who first inspired your culinary ambitions?
I always used to be around my mum and dad in the kitchen. It was fascinating to me what one could make with simple ingredients. I wanted to learn more, so I started an apprenticeship at 14 years old.
Jean Coussau was the first chef that ignited a fire in me, his restaurant was the oldest two-Michelin-starred one in France. I was amazed by the quality and the diversity of the produce. We were a bunch of young apprentices, still green behind the ears, fighting over who was the fastest to open an oyster, everything was a competition. It was like a small military school, but it felt like family.

Throughout your career, you have worked at very high-end restaurants, even undertaking an apprenticeship at the twoMichelin-starred Le Relais, how did you start to make your mark so early in your career?
From the beginning on, I carefully chose the restaurants I wanted to work for: the reputation of the chef, the selection and the quality of the produce. I promised myself to go through each section of the kitchen, to make sure I learned absolutely everything there was to learn. I didn’t have any private life at that time, I was completely immersed in the kitchen. When I was a demi chef de partie, I started creating my own dishes and presented them to the chef. I was so excited and saw it as an opportunity to learn from one of the best Meilleur Ouvriers de France and have their advice. This gave me a lot of motivation to keep going and to never stop trying. As a chef de partie, I worked at Le Bristol Hotel Paris which holds three Michelin Stars. I worked for over three years, creating around 10 dishes between Mise-en-Place and service, until Eric Frechon finally put one of my dishes on the Menu, all my hard work had paid off.

Bahrain is quite a departure from your earlier career. What made you decide to come to the island?
Travelling, discovering new cultures and the food around them was always a passion of mine. I first left France with a strict idea of methods and recipes and moved to London. I barely spoke a word of English and worked for Chef Brett Graham at the Ledbury. He really thought outside the box in his style and methods. This opened up a whole new world that I wanted to discover. Fast forward five years and I was the Executive Head Chef of Celeste at the Lanesborough and had made my mark. It was time to move on for new ventures. Right at that time I got the job offer to come to Bahrain, a country in a region I have never been to, a cuisine I have known briefly, it just felt like it was meant to be. And, as it turns out, it was a true blessing, when a few months after moving here, the situation in the world around Covid started crumbling down including the hospitality business. Bahrain provided us a safe haven professionally and privately and I’m very grateful for it.

What is your signature dish and why?
I’m not sure I have a signature dish really; I love to reinvent myself and experiment. If there is one dish that I love serving at the restaurant it is Salt Crust Sea Bass with Sauce Vierge. I love the simplicity of this dish but the small details are so important in the execution to obtain the perfect texture and taste of the sea bass. Cooking meat or fish to perfection and finding the right seasoning is something I’m very passionate about, it’s one of the first things you learn at culinary school and should strive to master. ✤