Ritz-Carlton chef on teaching kids to cook: ‘It’s a lot of work, but very rewarding’
- At 14, Peter Find apprenticed with a butcher. At 16, he was cooking for wedding banquets. Now, he is the executive chef of the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong
- He also runs the Ritz-Carlton Junior Masterchef Cooking classes for children ‘to show them cooking is fun’
How did you get into cooking? “I’m from a small village called Bersrod, near Frankfurt, Germany. Everybody in the family always helped with the farming: cutting grass, harvesting rows and rows of potatoes. When my mother was baking, I helped out, peeling the apples for crumble. Every family had their own pigs, and when they were killed, I helped make sausages, so I never had an issue with blood.”
What was your first culinary job? “My uncle and neighbour each had a butcher shop and I was really interested in that and thought it was what I wanted to do. It was my first job, at 14 years old. I apprenticed with a butcher for three years and it helped me later as a chef, as I can make sausages and ham. From an early age, I grew to understand meat texture and colour, how to cut it better. Meat for me is important, as every German loves pork, and local people here love it, too, though [the German] style is very different from that of Hong Kong.
“The butcher I apprenticed with, his son took over and offered catering and I helped him, and he suggested I become a chef. By the age of 16, I was already cooking for wedding banquets for 100 to 150 people. I had old aunties helping me make potatoes and dumplings and so on. Before, a German wedding was extremely classic, with traditional dishes like clear soup with bone marrow dumplings, smoked pork loin, pork schnitzel, braised beef, a vegetable platter with a whole cauliflower, beans, carrots and potatoes.
“With my experience as a butcher, I introduced pork Wellington using puff pastry, potato croquettes in a pear shape and different salads. I did five or six weddings, but friends and relatives kept asking me to cook for their wedding or daughter’s christening. You can’t say no.”
As executive chef, do you like teaching your staff? “I’m lucky. Some people have problems talking to other people. I’m OK with talking in front of people. I like teaching because I am sharing my experience. I teach my guys more classical dishes they may not be familiar with, like lentil stew or how to make a sauce, and let them taste. I like to do it if someone is interested, otherwise it is wasting time. But I like when people taste it and say, ‘Wow, this is good!’”
Tell us about the Ritz-Carlton’s children’s cooking classes. “We have the Ritz-Carlton Junior Masterchef Cooking classes, a series of 12 options, depending on age, and offering a mixture between savoury and sweet dishes, and two classes on healthy eating, vegetarian and vegan. We make dishes like soup, barley risotto and dessert. Our most popular class is Taste of Italy, where kids make pasta sauces: pesto, fresh tomato sauce and carbonara – both classic and Hong Kong style [cream sauce]. The kids don’t know carbonara is the authentic sauce.”
I let [the children] taste every step so they understand that when you add something, it changes the flavour
How do you decide what dishes to teach children? “All the classes are designed for Hong Kong kitchens. There’s no fancy equipment needed, you can buy all the ingredients in the market, you don’t have to buy expensive items and some dishes don’t take too much time to make. The main issue is to consider the different ages. Now we mainly do cooking classes one on one – families or friends – because of social-distancing restrictions.”
Are the children interested in learning to cook? “Occasionally there is a kid who isn’t interested, but most are very good. Some kids have taken four or five classes and I have a 12-year-old who has done 11 classes. His mum makes lots of videos. Sometimes you have genius kids, but they don’t know anything about real life. So, the mum wants to teach her son something.
“In the beginning he had two left hands, but he is interested and a fast learner. Another boy, 11 years old, he was super messy. We did a chocolate class and his apron had more chocolate than his workstation. The girls are good, especially in cake making. They are more patient and neater; the boys are usually faster at getting it over and done with.”
What do they learn in the classes? “It’s not just teaching them cooking, but also the ingredients. Nine out of 10 don’t know the different herbs, like parsley, basil, dill. I also bring out a big tomato, cherry tomatoes, cherry tomatoes on the vine for them to see, or I bring three onions: a red onion, a purple onion and shallots. I teach them how to chop, but with knives we have to be cautious and not give them a too-sharp knife. So instead, for pesto sauce, they will pick the basil leaves, maybe roast the pine nuts, but I put them in the blender. I let them taste every step so they understand that when you add something, it changes the flavour.”
Are the healthy cooking classes about nutrition? “We are not doctors, but we teach them how to use healthy ingredients or make them in a different way to how they usually eat them. I focus on flavour compositions and give them alternatives to use. If you are a strict vegan or vegetarian, you can substitute ingredients. For example, I do cauliflower couscous and I only use four ingredients, including bay leaf, toasted hazelnuts and almond milk for vegans or cream for vegetarians.
“I teach them how to make healthy salad dressings, bell pepper soup with a hint of ginger, or how to make mushroom stock. I give them ideas. I keep the class 1½ to two hours maximum and keep the kids busy so they have no time to play with electronics.”
Do the kids actually cook the dishes you teach them? “I’m very happy if they do it again. For me, it’s to show them cooking is fun. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding. We have some regular guests who come back because they like it. Some have helped their mum make eggs or pancakes.”
Do your kids know how to cook? “My sons are 15 and 13 years old. Last week, my younger one wanted to make cookies by himself, so I just watched him and gave him hints to make it better. The older one, I taught him how to cook a steak and he likes tomatoes so I showed him how to make tomato sauce, but he didn’t practise. He’s more interested in tasting and smelling. They have good palates, they can differentiate what is good, and now when we go out more, they realise sometimes at home it tastes better.”
