Private chef Max Nevile
Max Nevile is a London-based private chef with dishes that consist of delicious, seasonal, and wild herbs and spices which he picks himself! Max trained at The Wyld Cookery School in London before moving on to work as a chalet chef and the kitchen of Bayley & Sage. He then worked as a head chef in a small mountain restaurant, in Thorsmork nature reserve in Iceland for over six years where he first discovered his love of foraging for fresh ingredients.
Max Nevile is a London-based private chef with dishes that consist of delicious, seasonal, and wild herbs and spices picked fresh by himself! Max trained at The Wyld Cookery School in London before moving on to work as a chalet chef and the kitchen of Bayley & Sage. He then worked as a head chef in a small mountain restaurant, in Thorsmork nature reserve in Iceland for over six years where he first discovered his love of foraging for fresh ingredients.
I got into cooking through necessity really! I was getting very bored of pesto pasta at university so it was then I started messing around and trying new things in the kitchen. But it was really whilst cooking in a chalet that I learned to love the craft, the different flavour profiles, the process, the rush of plating up, the stress and the relief, as well as the hosting element.
I spent a couple of years cooking in a mountain hut in a remote part of Iceland. On the whole it was great...apart from the huge vats of lamb soup the locals demanded every day. One day we ran out of gas so had to build a bonfire to heat this 40L pot of lamb soup. I'm still slightly traumatised by this experience but also proud to have got through it!
Mum was a fabulous homecook, and truly serene in the kitchen. I like to think I've inherited her calmness and ability to remain jovial and chatty whilst cooking.
What I love most about being a chef is also what I fear the most, it's that moment when everything's ready all at the same time, it's suddenly go go go and it all comes to a head after hours of calm preparation.
For me it is perhaps the biggest deterrent from working in a restaurant kitchen. It's why I moved to Iceland and it's why I prefer private chef work. The testosterone-heavy kitchen is not an environment I thrive in and I think the industry loses a lot of talented chefs because of it.
If I wasn't a chef I'd like to think I'd be writing reviews of the world's best hikes. Not sure if there's really a career in that though - good thing I have cooking!
Mint
Sara Cuevas, she worked in a pizzeria in the Amazon rainforest
Butter
