YES!

We met Maz Cogo, Head Chef at The Union Rye, out in the beautiful fields of Rye Foreign, where we enjoyed her cooking over fire and smoke. 

How did you discover what you wanted to do as a career?
Maz. I grew up in Brazil, in São Paulo. I guess 15 is when you decide what you want to do as a career because school finishes when you’re 17. That feels relatively young to me. At that time, I loved mechanics, engineering, cars and aeroplanes. I wanted to be a Mechanical Engineer for the Air Force.

I learned you need to take a specific and intense test focused on maths. This career is a life choice; it’s not something you do in your free time; it’s a total commitment with no time to party.

Well, I tried, but I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t love studying. I did well; I was a massive geek. I was good at maths but didn’t enjoy language and literature. My mock test results were good, but you need to be extraordinary to build aeroplanes, as you would hope.

I was in the car one day with my sister, and we drove past a university advert for a new-ish course called Culinary Arts. My sister, who had studied hospitality, commented that this is one of the first universities here to offer a course in Culinary Arts. I said, Why do you mention this course? She talked about celebrity chefs on TV and in magazines. I got curious about it and decided to go for it.

Being a chef hadn’t even been a seed of an idea before that. My family eats very simple foods, and there are no fancy dinners. I grew up with my dad doing barbecues all the time. That was the most regular food at home, and people came around to eat. The beef ribs were the first thing in and the last thing out.

University was hard but fun. It was a fantastic uni, and my course was comprehensive. I decided to go to a very posh uni, which I didn’t realise I couldn’t afford. Well we couldn’t afford it. My dad is possibly still paying for it. I had to work at the same time; I didn’t have an option. Compared with my friends and the rest of the group, they didn’t have to work to pay their way.

As soon as class was over, I had to fly out the door to get to work; it was exhausting. I worked a full-time job while taking the two-year course, which took me three years to complete because I had to postpone subjects and other stuff.

“I got lucky. I found the discipline I was looking for from the Air Force with the social feeding aspects that come from cooking.”

The first kitchen I worked in was in a fantastic hotel called Hotel Emiliano in São Paulo. Every time I return to São Paulo, I take my photo in front of the hotel because that’s where everything started for me. They had such skilled people working there; they were fantastic chefs creating amazing food that could consistently bring you to tears. But I was the most junior member of the team back then, maybe cutting parsley all day. They were all such generous people as well.

Then, I worked for a couple of years at a Peruvian restaurant from Gaston Acurio. One day, the Kitchen Porter (KP) called in sick. So, I saw the head chef mopping the floor and doing the KP section. I thought oh, OK, it all made sense. You can follow the path to become famous, be on TV, and make books. However, the path that I was most interested in was being part of a team and cracking on. With the mentality, I’ll do it, I’ll sort it. If the floor needs cleaning, I’ll do it. No position or thing needs doing in the kitchen where you should be like, that’s not my job. At that moment, I could feel how much I liked the combination of tasks this job offers.

So you found the career for you. How did you progress?
Maz. At university, everybody was very international and well-travelled. I really wanted to go travelling and see the world. The only realistic way for me to do this was by working. I had no money, so I could offer my time working full-time somewhere abroad.

While working at the Peruvian restaurant, I realised I’d have to work to build up some money before I could travel. A friend told me about a business recruiting for a cruise ship; I considered it for a while and applied. It sounded amazing to me. I was just 22, and the cruise would visit many countries. The application required two things: experience as a chef and speaking English. I had both!

I got the job and embarked in Brazil, and when I went home, they paid for everything, including tickets. It was hard work every day. The pay was basic, but you were not paying for food, rent, bills, or anything. It was incredible. It was the first time that I had left South America.

The ship travelled down Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina and then back to the north of Brazil, and we did that for three months. Then, we did a crossover, which was fun. We went to Spain, Italy, the Greek islands, Croatia, Montenegro and Turkey, and it was amazing.

I got time off the ship; the criteria were that there always needed to be a group of staff on the ship in case of an emergency. So, they work on a rota, but I wasn’t part of that. So, whenever we were in a port, I could go out if I had time, which was great. I went out at every opportunity I could. It was high summer in Europe, and we went around the Adriatic Sea and visited Mykonos, Santorini, and then to Barcelona and other places.

I ate so much; at that stage, I was having the time of my life. It opened my mind a lot, seeing what and how people eat and drink. Plus, I saw art and architecture.

I remember the moment that we arrived in Venice. I was so emotional. It’s shocking when it enters the Grand Canal, and then you can see the houses so close to the ship. I was thinking to myself, is this OK? Is it right? Is it safe?

The cruise opened my mind even more. It was a culture shock; I now work with many other nationalities. Plus, I was away from home, learning to be careful with my money and time and thinking about everyday things like laundry. During this time, I learned how to become independent and developed my culinary skills.

When I returned from the cruise ship, I got an incredible job at a French bistro in São Paulo. Some friends that I had worked with at the Peruvian place were there. They were a fantastic group of skilled young chefs. The Head Chef, Julien Mercier, became my food mentor. We still talk. I spoke with him yesterday. He taught me a lot at this great restaurant, and we cooked proper food with excellent techniques.

Julien was very French. He might say, There’s the right way to do it, and there’s the wrong way to do it, and you’re doing the wrong way. I’m so grateful for that, and I sometimes hear myself saying some of his phrases in the kitchen today. He cared about the food and people’s progress in their jobs.

“I realised early in life, growing up with no money, that I would have to work for what I wanted. So, I better work hard because I want it all now.”

Then Julien taught me how to butcher meat. That started a passion for animal butchery, as well as for the grill and open fire. But building a fire and cooking meat was built into me from home and felt like second nature.

Around this time, I met a girl, Paula, and we started going out. I was a Junior Sous Chef at the bistro and had no money. I left home and moved in with her, so now I had to pay rent. I couldn’t save any money. She told me about when she lived in London and said she is probably going back. We talked about me going with her or ending our relationship. One day I got pissed off about my money problems and thought it couldn’t be worse than this. I said right, let’s go.

You are now in a completely different country, and London has many restaurants and cafésserving food from all over the world.
Maz. I had no plan for London; my only decision was not to be in Brazil and to make it up as I went along. After phoning around, I found a flat in Bethnal Green. Life was very different but great: a completely different culture. I didn’t know if I’d be in England for six months or two years; I would have possibly guessed at three years at that time. It’s been almost ten so far.

I was tired of being a poor chef and thought I’d do something else. I sent my CV around and got a job as a chef, because of my experience.

I went to work in Kings Cross in a beautiful boutique hotel called Great Northern Hotel. It’s just outside St Pancras Station. For the first time, I was cooking British food. After a while, I understood what that was.

From there, I worked at Padella in Borough Market, making pasta. There, I found such an incredible family of people working together. It feels like such a cliché to say, but it’s true. In terms of cheffing, everybody was so good and so disciplined.

“I am a massive geek for making pasta; I have a piece of fusilli pasta tattooed on my arm with the words, ‘you fusilli’.”

The Head Chef, Ray O’Connor, was brilliant. He had his entire team of 15 chefs behind him, a true captain. I worked there for almost three years making pasta, and I love making pasta. I learned so much there and matured as a chef. That restaurant had such a clear progression path for everyone working there.

I was the Senior Sous Chef at Padella and got to go on work trips to Italy. We stayed in Italy for four nights and cooked at a wine festival in the vineyards. I was lucky to do the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Course in Wine and Spirits as a Sous Chef, but I wasn’t even working on the floor. It was a generous business where you give, and you receive.

I split up with my girlfriend and moved to Clapton in east London. I gave myself a rule: From now on, I will say yes to most things, well, to everything I can. I had a lovely time, and I met incredible people.

After three years at Padella, it was time to try something new. I had a month away and went to Italy to get my Italian citizenship and passport because I’m half Italian on my mother’s side and half Brazilian.

When I returned to London, I started work at Legare, an incredible Italian restaurant in Shad Thames near Tower Bridge. They were amazing, but that job would always be temporary because I knew I wanted to work in a three-Michelin-Star restaurant.

I went to a few trials: Pétrus, Murano, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Then I went to work at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. But it was two weeks before the complete pandemic lockdown, so that was the extent of my time there. It had a fantastic kitchen; it was like a Ferrari.

The work was very intense; everybody would be there at 7:30 am. The Head Chef arrives at 9 am. So, from 8.45 am, you hear people shushing each other, so there is complete absolute silence for their arrival. It was not my style. But I had to experience that environment to realise something about myself, what I don’t like and love about cooking.

“The most important reason for cooking, before business, money, or whatever else, is to feed and nurture. We should appreciate how lucky we are to have such quality produce, which can be forgotten in social media criticism.”

The lockdown caused many people to hit the reset button on their careers. How did you find your way back to doing what you love?
Maz. When I moved to Clapton, I met a wonderful and beautiful woman named Melissa. We’ll be married by the time this issue of RyeZine is out there! I moved to Newington Green with her, where we were for lockdown.

I didn’t get furloughed in lockdown; the restaurant just let us all go after we’d spent six hours cleaning the place. By this stage, I had to stop saying yes to everything.

In the meantime, I found a job working for Natoora, a wholesale food supplier. They sell incredible seasonal produce. They did home deliveries through lockdown and started a new project with a production kitchen. Natoora needed someone to head that up, so that was me for a year. It served me well through that period, and I enjoyed it. But I need to get away from a laptop and back into the kitchen.

I got a job at Brat as a Sous Chef. They have a Michelin-starred restaurant in Shoreditch and a place in Climpson’s Arch near London Fields. It was just a five-minute cycle from my house, which was perfect. They also cook everything over fire. I had a great time there; it was awesome.

It was an interesting moment because people were allowed to go outdoors when the lockdown was over. Luckily, Brat was considered outdoors because we were in an old railway arch. So, it was safe and very busy. With the fire and smoke, I remember smelling of it all the time.

I was offered a job as the Head Chef at the Royal Academy of Arts restaurant, and I took the job. It had a Spanish menu and was daytime only, which is a bit of a guilty dream of chefs to work daytime only Monday to Friday. I would have Sunday and Monday off every week to have more time at home and a better quality of life.

The frustrating thing about working in a restaurant that is part of a gallery is that you can’t have smoke or strong cooking smells because of the art. So, everything was cooked downstairs, vac-packed, and finished upstairs in the restaurant. That became frustrating for me after a while, and after my time at Brat, cooking with fire and smoking, after four months or so, decided to move on.

I became Head Chef at Lardo in London Fields, a completely different challenge. Lardo is a beast; you open the doors, and the place is packed. It was in the perfect location; it was cool and relaxed. It was such a hard time to hire people, and we offered a decent wage and hours. It was a lovely, fantastic restaurant, but without the staff, it just didn’t work out and became too much.

So, again, I had to move on. I took on some agency work while I took time to identify what I wanted and what was next.

Did you find the answer to what you were looking for when you left London?
Maz. So, that summer, Melissa and I visited friends quite a few times at Pett Level and St Leonards, and we loved being by the sea. It was summertime; everyone was happy and smiling, and it was beautiful. We started flirting with the idea; imagine if we move by the sea. We both had a look at Rightmove and saw how many places there were. After ten years in London, the prices looked so cheap. We started showing what we found to each other.

I’d been working out what I wanted from work and Melissa was in between jobs, and the contract for our flat was about to end, so we said, why not? We missed being part of a community and knowing our neighbours which is rare in London.

When we were looking for a flat or house, it was straightforward to look at apps. But for jobs, I didn’t know where to start. I tried a few catering websites, but nothing was right. Then I messaged Home and Hospitality, which links to many restaurants I’d work for in London. I asked if they knew of any jobs in Sussex. They replied they were more London-based.

But within two weeks, they texted me about a job in Sussex that would go live the next day. It ticked many boxes: the style of food, the building, and it was close to St Leonards. I didn’t play it cool; I texted them straightaway. So, it was The Union in Rye, and we organised an interview with Rajh the next day. It was a perfect match, and I have been at The Union for over a year. It’s going great.

The Union in Rye is a very cosy restaurant, almost like a hunter’s house. So, even though Rye might be busy with tourists in the summer, we see many local and regular customers here year-round. The building attracts people, as does the winter open fire, as well as our food and drink.

“One day, the power went down, so I told Rajh I’d build a fire, barbecue style, and I cooked everything over it. I had roasting trays, so food would come off the fire, and then we would transfer it to the plates and serve it. It was fun and worked so well.”

Maz Cogo - Head Chef
@marianacogo

The Union Rye, 8 East Street TN31 7JY
www.theunionrye.co.uk
@theunionrye