Stamford chef has grand experience

Kym Morgan

19May08

PAUL Brown (pictured) knows for a fact that a chef's heaven exists only six months ago the new Stamford Grand executive chef was living there. 

As the head chef for the King of Bahrain Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa Abdullah for three-and-a-half years, Mr Brown had an army of 550 staff at his disposal, an unlimited budget and a licence to prepare some of the biggest feasts ever made.

``In Arabic countries people demonstrate their wealth through food,'' Mr Brown, 37, of Henley Beach, says.

``We would prepare up to 14 tonnes of food for a guest list of maybe 10 people.

``The fact that most of it was going to end up in the bin wasn't a consideration.''

Among the 25 heads of state, 25 kings, 30 presidents and 45 princes who Mr Brown cooked for during his time as King Abdullah's chef were British Princes Charles, William and Harry and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

His job was to spare no expense to ensure they were satisfied.

Mr Brown first dreamt at age five of becoming a chef and he broke into the industry in the late `80s.

By 2004, having worked in kitchens all around Australia, he was ``head hunted'' by King Abdullah's palace and decided the opportunity was too good to refuse.

``It's not every day you get the opportunity cook for a king, so I knew I had to take the role.''

In addition to a generous salary, Mr Brown lived in a three story villa, drove a Porsche and had servants tending to his every need.

If the king travelled overseas Mr Brown would accompany him, always aboard a luxury private plane and in the presence of hundreds, even thousands of security guards.

``My job was really to make that one man happy, to give him that wow factor.

``It was a pretty hard job in way, considering this man had already been around the world and experienced every luxury there is in life.''

The one downside was the pressure. ``You might be cooking for four kings  you don't want to stuff that meal up. Trust me, there were a lot of men walking around with guns at the king's palace.''

Among those with particular tastes in food was Prince Charles, who would not eat a meal unless he was certain it was 100 per cent organic and was satisfied no endangered animals were killed to make it.

``He was actually a very down-to-earth man, he had time for everyone.''

Mr Brown's time in chef's heaven was cut short last November when he received news that his sister was battling cancer and he decided to return to Adelaide with his wife Christine and 18-month-old son Jordan. He started at the Grand in January.