Spotlight on Chef Alex Morris
Interview by Renato Rizzuti
The spotlight is on Chef Alex Morris. Deemed in culinary circles as the “next Jamie Oliver” Chef Alex Morris is much more than that! Chef Alex Morris will be revealed as such during the course of this interview. The many hats that Chef Alex Morris has worn in the restaurant business will be explained. Chef Alex is full of youthful, high energy and has a fine sense of humour! Chef Alex’s vast experiences make him what he is today. While Chef Alex considers the comparison to Jamie Oliver a flattering one, he is trying to shake off the image somewhat. This is summed up by Chef Alex’s brilliant branding philosophy and strategy when he says, “I don’t want to be the next Jamie Oliver. I want to be the first Alex Morris.” There you have it! Introducing the “first Alex Morris” through this interview:
Renato: Chef Alex, you were born in Nottingham, England in 1991. You say that you loved cooking from an early age. Who was the person who inspired you to cook from your family?
Chef Alex Morris: I’m really lucky to have always had home-cooked food around - Dad was working 7 days a week when I was a kid, but Mum would always cook a proper meal in the evening. Even if it was very simple - pasta, Mac ’n’ cheese, chicken and potatoes. And when he was home, Dad would always make us pancakes on Sunday mornings and let us try to flip them. So there was definitely a seed planted from a young age, and I remember always playing with the spices when Mum was cooking. For some reason I always wanted to add paprika to everything!
Renato: At nine years old you were making Jamie Oliver’s bread recipe. What was it about Jamie Oliver that inspired you to try one of his recipes and inspired you to cook?
Chef Alex Morris: He’s the first guy who ever made cooking cool - we had his early cookbooks and they made food look so delicious and simple to make. I was a VERY hungry boy so always obsessed with food, especially anything Italian. When Jamie’s books came out, Mum bought them and I remember sitting flicking through them over and over, putting bookmarks in all the recipes I wanted to make. To this day I still follow everything he does - he’s had a massive impact on my life and I can’t wait to meet him one day!
Renato: At the age of eleven, you and your family moved to Sydney. You say that you were a good student academically but that you found school “uninteresting.” Can you please explain why that was the case?
Chef Alex Morris: I wish I could give a better reason than, “I preferred going skateboarding”… since I was very young, I’ve always been in trouble at school for ‘not applying myself.” I’ve since been told more than a few times that I should have been diagnosed with ADHD, but I think I’m just very high energy and could never apply that energy in a classroom environment. Funnily enough, I loved Ancient History and really enjoyed learning about Rome, but not much else.
Renato: What was the motivation or the reason that you decided to leave university and study to be a Chef?
Chef Alex Morris: My stint at Sydney University lasted a grand total of 8 weeks. I had never wanted to go to university, and was accepted way past the enrollment date due to my high exam marks and my total lack of direction at age 17…I had a very half-assed attempt at a degree studying English and Music, but spent most of my time sleeping under trees or hanging in the student bar. When I heard that one of my schoolmates was working as an apprentice chef - getting paid to learn and cook - I couldn’t see any reason why I would stick with university. I handed in my essays for the first semester and left before I got my marks back.
Renato: You then worked under Chef Giovanni Pilu who is one of Australia’s top chefs for four years in some of the best Italian restaurants in Sydney. What was the most important thing about Italian cooking that you learned from that experience?
Chef Alex Morris: Those were some of the hardest, most exciting years of my life - the 2 most important things I learnt in that time were hard work and passion. As stubborn as they can be, those Italians truly care about the quality of their food, and that’s what they imparted to me. At 17 years old, my first head Chef Andrea would keep me until well past midnight cleaning calamari, making tiramisu or rolling fresh gnocchi. We would make everything from scratch and I learnt the true beauty that can be created from 3 or 4 ingredients treated with respect.
Renato: What things did you learn during your three months travelling in Europe?
Chef Alex Morris: Don’t try to catch a 7 a.m. bus after drinking Jagermeister until 4 a.m. in a Viennese sports bar! But mostly, it was the appreciation for simplicity that exists in European food culture. In Australia we always want more, but in France, Italy, Germany, people will be very happy with a plate of great cured ham, some simple cheese with fresh bread, or linguine cacio e Pepe. I have always dreamed of opening up a really simple, Italian style aperitivo bar in Sydney, but I’m not sure if we have the market for it.
Renato: Please explain what you learned about the restaurant business and cooking when you opened a café and catering business called Two Hungry Bears at age 23?
Chef Alex Morris: I learnt an endless list of things during that time - the freedom to create our own menus was amazing. My business partner Clinton and I would spend hours playing with ingredients that were totally inappropriate for our small cafe; slow braised baby goat, smoked eel - we went a bit crazy at first. We gradually learnt what we were good at, and what our customers wanted, and from there we were able to build quite a successful small business which obviously comes with it’s own challenges, mostly behind the scenes. Customer service came easy to me, but maintenance, accounting, coffee skills and marketing…all of this was very exciting to be a part of at quite a young age.
Renato: Why did you decide to sell the business to your business partner after a couple of years?
Chef Alex Morris: To be honest, my restlessness probably played a big part. I think I was a little immature as well. I had big dreams, and wanted to get there too fast. I loved my day to day work - cooking, making coffee, building relationships with our customers, but I think I started to fidget; then I started to feel a bit stagnant. It started to affect my mood, which started to affect my health. I would start the day with a double espresso, barely eat, and finish with a bottle of wine and some headache pills. I stopped exercising, put on close to 20 kgs and turned into a bit of a prick. My partner was a few years older than me, and he was able to handle the business with a lot more maturity - I let it get to me, and I let myself down because of it. Selling my half of the business was hard, but also one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and Clinton and I are better mates now than ever.
Renato: For the next 18 months you went to work as a waiter and train in wine skills at Aqua Dining next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. How were those experiences valuable in learning different aspects of the restaurant business?
Chef Alex Morris: I had done a bit of front-of-house work before I started the cafe, and above all, I was excited to be learning again from people who knew a lot more than me - something you miss out on as a business owner. Aqua is truly one of the most amazing restaurants in Sydney, and I was lucky to learn so much about a level of dining I hadn’t previously been a part of. I cooked high quality food for Pilu, but seeing the customer’s experience, and helping to craft that, gave me a new appreciation for the brilliant job that waiters do every night. For me personally, I gained a lot of confidence in my own skin as I built rapport with high-paying customers, and was fortunate to be learning about wine from one of the top sommeliers in Sydney…it felt like being an apprentice back in Chef Andrea’s kitchen, and it brought the spark back to my work.
Renato: Then you say that you pursued your dream to become a Health Coach. How have your previous experiences come together to make you fully qualified as a Health Coach?
Chef Alex Morris: I’ll throw this out there - I am not officially qualified as a Health Coach - I haven’t been through any courses, programs or certifications. But the reason I’m doing this, and the reason I know I can change a lot of lives, is that I have been through a journey of transformation myself. Since leaving Two Hungry Bears, I’ve grown into a whole new version of myself. I’ve lost 19 kg and I’m in the best shape of my life, and it’s taught me that we don’t all have to struggle through restrictive diet plans and give up what we love just to lose weight and be healthy. I’m here to promote a lifestyle of pleasure, balance and constant improvement - that’s how I changed my life, and I know I can help others to do the same.
Renato: You have been called the “next Jamie Oliver” in that you are creating videos, recipes and online programs to teach people about cooking and basic nutrition to help with health, fitness and weight loss. Like Jamie, you are also developing your first TV show and cookbook. In what other ways are you similar to Jamie Oliver in terms of your philosophy of food and your philosophy of cooking?
Chef Alex Morris: I’m English, I’ve got big lips and I talk too much! While it’s a really flattering comparison, and he’s certainly one of my heroes, I’m trying to shed that image a little bit. I definitely have a similar philosophy on food and cooking - as long as you’re cooking and eating wholesome, homemade food most of the time, you’re going to put yourself on the right track. I believe in adding more flavour and making food generous and exciting and in teaching people that a few basic skills in the kitchen can create a whole new life for you and your family. Right now, I’m thrilled to be compared to him, but really, I don’t want to be the next Jamie Oliver. I want to be the first Alex Morris.
Renato: You spend most of your time working online and have created great results for your clients. Can you give us a few examples of client “success stories?”
Chef Alex Morris: Sure - all of my clients get different results, and that’s because all of my clients are very different people. We try not to measure results in terms of kilograms lost, although that’s definitely a by-product of people taking action in the program. The most important thing is that my clients break bad habits and form new ones, in food, exercise or life in general. For example, one of my recent clients came from a place where she would drink over 2L of soft drink a day and live mostly on chocolate bars - she hadn’t eaten a salad in years. Over the course of a few weeks, we were able to reduce the sugars, replace them with real, healthy foods she made herself, and eventually she left the program having completely eliminated soft drinks and refined sugars from her diet. One of the most amazing things about this lady was that the more she worked on her health, the more confident she became, and throughout the course of my program she was also able to cut her dosage of anti-depressants in half, because she simply didn’t need them anymore.
I’d like to make it clear that, although they do it with me, it’s the girls and guys in my group who deserve the credit. I give them the knowledge and make sure they take action, but it’s them putting in the work. Everybody out there has it in them; it just often takes somebody in their corner to let them know that they have it in them.
Renato: If people are interested in your services as a Health Coach, where can you reach you at?
Chef Alex Morris: I run my business mostly through Facebook, which we’ll link below* - that’s where I upload daily tips, pictures, videos and cooking demos. If anybody ever needs to reach out for a bit of advice, or is interested in getting some free E-books or even joining me for coaching, they can message me through there. I also have a lot of fun on Instagram - my profile is @alexs_appetite . Come say hello!
*www.facebook.com/alexmorriscoach
Renato: Thank you very much for your time Chef Alex!
Chef Alex Morris: Thanks for having me! Always a pleasure to share the love!
