– only to realise that it tasted horrible – and trying out combinations that may only work at molecular precision – like pigeon and coffee.
Only when they opened a restaurant in Cheltenham – aged 18 and 20, respectively, using their own money - did they truly learn the lessons they needed to learn.
“We made it work man, it was a really good restaurant, it was our first introduction into like Michelin world.”
“It was hard. We used to do stupid things. Things where I was like, if only I knew now, it would make such a big difference. We really make our lives complicated. Just by everything we did. We just wanted to make everything from complete scratch.”
“That’s what made us great chefs but at the time made our lives complicated. Even when we had two or four people booked in the restaurant, our lives were hell. We were just so tired and demoralised, everyone thought we were just pissing it up the wall. People thought we were crazy."
The young men went back, asking their parents if they’d let them return to Casamia, with four years of debt on their shoulders.
“Dude, it was the best learning curve ever. To go through shit and pain and just to see things from a completely different perspective.”
“You can’t just open a restaurant and expect it to be busy, it doesn’t work that way.”
Finally, thanks to their hard work, in 2009, Casamia was awarded a Michelin star.
Pete describes the event as “a big pat on the back going ‘we’re not insane.’ Because we thought we were insane. We were like, ‘why are we doing this to ourselves, what’s the matter with us.’”
“Until the Michelin star, everyone thought we were nuts, everyone thought we were proper crazy. Family didn’t believe us, they were just like: ‘nah, they must be doing something.’ Because we were naughty boys when we were younger. Particularly Jonray, he was the naughtiest of them all.”
Pete’s brother and business partner Jonray sadly passed away in 2015 after battling with melanoma for four years. Days later, Casamia was named fourth best restaurant in the UK by The Sunday Times.
