He's the superb Southampton steakhouse head chef who has fed royalty and cooked alongside James Martin.
Edmond Veizaj talks his family farm, tomahawk steak and expansion in our meet the chef column.
What first inspired you to become a chef?
"I started cooking at 14 years old watching my grandma. Family revolves around food and fish and meat dishes were the centre points cooking over charcoal for the smokey taste. We had a farm with fifty cows and learning how to cook steak was a rite of passage in our family. Being the person to cook the steak was seen as the ultimate reward."
What was the first meal you cooked for someone else?
"Cooking the family meal would be seen as the most respectful position. So cooking for my family, which was for just a few people, has now gone onto cooking at the busiest steak restaurant in Hampshire at Carnicero for over 1,000 customers a week."
What is your proudest career moment to date?
"Opening Carnicero in 2017 alongside my uncle, and still alongside my auntie after nine years as a family run kitchen. We’re known as the go to steak restaurant in Southampton and Hampshire and get visited by lots of celebrities, local footballers and even the owners of Southampton Football Club.
"I’ve also cooked for Princess Anne at a charity dinner in Bournemouth, which was a great honour. The hard work is what’s got us here and you will never see our kitchen without one of our family members in. This is the same at our sister restaurant too The Olive Tree, there is always a family member to make sure everything is right."
What's your favourite meal to cook at home?
"The tomahawk steak is something we cook for special occasions and my children love this. It’s actually a difficult dish to cook because the cut of steak is so big and a lot of restaurants struggle to cook it properly. But one tomahawk steak can feed a group and the kids love taking photos with it. Making a Sunday Roast has also become a bit of an obsession because people in Southampton love the Sunday roast so much. It took a long time practising this at home to make it one of our best dishes in the restaurant as well."
What is your culinary guilty pleasure?
"I don’t have any, but perhaps I eat too much steak!"
Which key ingredient is always in your fridge?
"Beef! We have fresh steak we’re charcoal cooking all day and beef dripping to cook our Sunday roast potatoes in. So beef js our key ingredient at Carnicero."
Which chef do you most admire?
"I used to cook at a lot of food festivals with James Martin and he was always great to cook alongside and was very professional."
What’s your career ambition?
"We get lots of customers form Bournemouth, Salisbury, Romsey, Winchester and Portsmouth asking us to open a restaurant closer to them. So maybe we’ll open another Carnicero steakhouse in one of these towns."
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