How dramatic weight-loss surgery helped roast-pork-loving chef go from fat to fit
- After apprenticeships with Luke Mangan and Pierre Gagnaire and an epiphany in South Carolina, Morgan McGlone opened Belles Hot Chicken in Australia
- The New Zealander, recently back in Hong Kong at Commissary, which he founded, saw his weight hit 196kg before surgery helped him shed 88kg
Did you always want to become a chef? “I actually wanted to play rugby but I was lazy [laughs]. I thought you didn’t have to train. Before I turned 18, I was naturally fit and sporty, so you think it’s going to last forever. My maternal grandfather was a farmer, my Irish paternal grandfather a fisherman and short-order cook. We had a lot of corned beef, cabbage, tripe and milk, colcannon, roasted meats and fish.
“My father was a chef in the New Zealand Army and we moved to Australia when I was five, and I started cooking. When my parents were at work, I made my brother and sister omelettes and toasted cheese sandwiches after school; when I was older, I helped my dad prepare vegetables and peel things.”
What was it like working for Australian chef and restaurateur Luke Mangan? “When I was 17, I started a four-year apprenticeship. By the time I finished I was a commis chef for Luke. I learned some important lessons, like how to make sauces, how to butcher, how to run a section, how to work in a team.”
How was your apprenticeship with French chef Pierre Gagnaire? “After a few years with Luke, I went to work for Pierre Gagnaire in France. We worked so hard – you get so dedicated to a particular chef and what he’s trying to do, even though we were paid the equivalent of US$200 a month. I didn’t touch a pot for the first six months; I was picking herbs, plucking birds, scaling fish, making staff meals.
“Gagnaire was very, very passionate. I didn’t learn any techniques or special sauces, but more about the craft. I went back to Sydney to work for Luke again and then became a private chef for a family in New York. They had homes in Sydney, St Barts, Bermuda and Southampton. I was in New York when 9/11 happened and thought I would lose my job. But my employer left for Palm Beach for a month and let me use their apartment in Paris.”
Tell us about your stint in the modelling industry. “In New York, I met an Australian photographer who asked me to cater for his photo shoots, and from there I became a junior booker at a modelling agency. I was 28 and wanted to stop cooking altogether. The fashion industry is so competitive and I never really liked the vibe of New York. It was very Sex and the City, hard to date girls. I went to Brazil for two years, until 2005, and hung out with chef Alex Atala [of D.O.M., in São Paulo].