International Chefs Day with Executive Chef Paul Borg
and dive deeper
In celebration of International Chef’s Day, we are excited to share an insightful interview with Chef Paul Borg of AX ODYCY. Prepare to discover a world of flavors and creativity through the eyes of this talented chef.
Briefly let us know your journey throughout your culinary years.
My culinary journey started as kitchen helper way back 35 years ago as a summer job to earn some pocket money, when I became passionate about cooking and decided to pursue the career professionally by reading courses at the Institute of Tourism Studies achieving an Advanced Diploma in Culinary Arts. Following that, I had the opportunity to work both locally and overseas and for the last 20 years leading kitchen brigades in various hotels and resorts.
What inspired you to become a Chef?
It was time to turn the passion into career, and also the sense of creativity in the job.
What is most satisfying about your job?
The daily sense of achievement – every single day has its own challenges, but overall, with the support of the team, we will always manage to deliver and keep our guests satisfied.
How do you describe your overall cooking philosophy?
Passion, clean and seasonal ingredients (passionate cooking using seasonal ingredients in a clean environment). My motto is to let the food inspire the dishes, rather the other way round.
Let us know about your signature dish.
There are so many, it is very difficult to choose. My signature dishes vary from Seafood, Game dishes and Asian.
Your favourite ingredient to cook with and why?
Olive oil. I love it. It’s such an incredible flavour, but I don’t think it gets as much love as it deserves. It is often just treated as a condiment and not necessarily an ingredient in its own right.
When designing a menu, what do you take into consideration mostly?
Before designing a menu, I take the time to understand the guest demographic, seasonality and also budget allocated.
Which period of the year is your most favourite for cooking?
I prefer the summer season, hands down, as love firing up the BBQ.
When you’re not in the kitchen, where can you be found?
When out of the kitchen, I spend time in open spaces getting my hands dirty with some gardening and caring for my pets.
Words of advice for the upcoming generation who wish to seek a future in the Culinary industry.
If you are passionate about the culinary industry, get the basic fundamentals of cooking right and this gives you a solid foundation to build upon. From there, you can progress. Always look at what’s going on in the food world but listen to yourself and your own taste and not go running after every new trend. Our culinary industry is a very demanding and exhausting career but also very rewarding seeing guests satisfied with the food offerings.
