Profile | Chef Mario Paecke on cooking for Barack Obama, moving to Asia to improve his English and introducing Hong Kong to refined German food at Margo
- Born in East Germany, chef Mario Paecke recalls his grandmother’s home-pickled vegetables, and eating his first McDonald’s meal after the Berlin Wall fell
- He cooked for global leaders at a G7 summit but wanted to see more of the world, and improve his English, and moved to Hong Kong, where he recently opened Margo
What was your childhood in East Germany like? “I lived in Weißwasser, a small city close to then-East Berlin. In East Germany, life was different, my childhood was simple and happy. Most weekends were spent with my grandparents. We ate simple food like konigsberger klopse [meatballs].
“We didn’t have many products in East Germany, everyone had their own garden. My grandma’s basement had a big shelf with a lot of jars of pickled and preserved vegetables and fruits. In the autumn, I helped my grandparents forage for mushrooms and then pickled them, as well as apples and pears.
“When I was eight years old, I knew I liked cooking – that and ice hockey. In 1990, Germany was united, I was eight years old. I ate my first French fries at McDonald’s in West Berlin, and I had never seen shopping malls before. It was incredible.”
Where did you do your apprenticeship? “In 1998, I was 16 and moved to northern Bavaria, where I started my apprenticeship at a small family hotel. The senior chef had his own pigs, so he did his own butchery and we made ham and sausages. At 16, you’re quite young and impressionable. The family treated me almost like their son so I learned a lot about personal growth, not just in my apprenticeship.
“During this time my parents moved to southern Bavaria and after my apprenticeship I moved back in with them and worked for seven months in a restaurant that had 14 Gault Millau points. This was my first experience in fine dining. Before, I learned traditional home cooking with Swiss influence but here was the first time I saw foie gras, truffles and artichokes. I was like a sponge wanting to learn more.”