Dan Borza – The Gastronight Chef

Chef Borza left Romania at a young age to experience world flavours and challenge himself. After spending two years in Miami, USA ( a massive junction of world flavours), in 2005 he moved to the UK, Manchester.
He has worked in some great venues such as: The Hilton, Luso and The Grill on the Alley to name just a few.
He is currently training chefs across the region, involved in high profile and charity events and started his own venture of pop up restaurant, The Gastronight.
The Gastronight is a concept aiming to create one off dinning experiences in venues associated with good drinks.
Dan says, “I figured that gourmands should not have to choose between great food and amazing drinks, and they should be rewarded with seasonal inspired menus in their proffered cocktail/wine bar and also some purpose built locations where food is the base reason for an out of the box experience.”
The last two events, at the Electric bar in Chorlton and the well known Epernay in City Centre Manchester have been massive successes.
Much to Dan’s delight his work has attracted the support and attention of his hero Marco Pierre White
For updates follow him on twitter @GastronightChef.
We caught up with Dan for a quick chat this week, enjoy!
Which is the last restaurant you visited and what were your thoughts?
I have managed to book some time off over the Fathers Day Weekend ( Missus birthday too coincidently ) and fancied a quick dinner to soak up the cocktails that were to follow. We returned to an old favourite that we failed to visit for at least 3 years, Croma Restaurant, tucked away on a side street close to the Town Hall in City Centre Manchester. We were pleasantly surprise with the consistency of the food ( both big fans of the much under rated tomato and basil garlic bread staple) and the effortless attentive service we received. To our surprise , their cocktail menu has improved and we kicked off the night with two perfectly balanced Margaritas.  All in all it was the perfect casual yet slick and stylish start to what ended up a heavy night indulging into some great cocktails in Australasia and Epernay.
Which is your favourite local restaurant?
My personal favourite for a number of years now, it has to be the stylish Nutters in Norden, Rochdale. Andrew Nutter managed to create an maintain a high standard that spilled out of the kitchen and flows though all the areas of the newly refurbished Country Manor. Nutters is a family business, and although a very talented chef, Andrew relies a lot on the support he gets from his mum ( running the administrative side) and dad ( a great Somelier and overall connoisseur ). A Nutters meal is always an experience, a meal of interesting flavours and unusual combinations, but above all it’s a meal to be enjoyed. Always my first choice venue when treating my other half to a customary dining venture.
What is the most difficult part of your job?
As a Chef Consultant and Hospitality Training Advisor I get huge rewards from inspiring new talent and seeing their interest an confidence grow; so in contrast to that I suppose my biggest disappointment is being hit by a lack of passion wall in some new chefs. Being a Chef is not a job, it’s a vocation that requires a certain amount of raw talent and a massive amount of hard work and commitment. Its a way of life that you have to be dedicated to. You really have to be inspired by food and then put your print on it in order to inspire others.
What annoys you in the hospitality industry at the moment?
I spend a big chunk of my time training Chefs throughout the North West and I come across (too often) branded establishments. Although I think they have a place in this very fast paced society, it feels like they dilute some of the staple virtues of the trade; most importantly they limit a chef’s creativity and ability of having fun with food.
What personal attributes do you think make a good chef?
Marco Pierre White said in a recent twit that “Cooking is a philosophy not a recipe”. Therefore being a chef requires talent, discipline , belief in yourself and above all a great deal of determination and commitment as ‘philosophies’ take a life times dedication and belief. You have to be inspired my the greats but have your own identity and only aim to be the best that you can be.
If you had to give one piece of advice to an up and coming chef, what would it be?
I do it on daily basis, and it’s always these three points that I try to get across:
1.  do it for you, not for anyone else
2.  give it your all and you’ll get great rewards
3.  have fun, cooking is an art form
What should a chef working for you, never do?
That requires a simple answer : Never become complacent, it stops you progressing.
Which Chef (Chefs) do you most admire?
I am inspired by a few greats and I have also been honoured to meet my hero’s Marco Pierre White and Michel Roux Jr. I think they are great ambassadors for the trade as they proved time and time again how rewarding this industry is if you are fully committed to it. They are true gentlemen and any new chef should be inspired by their achievements. They are legends that used old fashioned values and virtues to get to the very top of their trade and will leave their mark for future generations.
People always ask chefs what their last meal on earth would be… Instead, if you had to cook one last meal (the last dish ever!) what would it be and why?
I think that the closer you feel to the end, the more you think about the beginning; and so, the flavours that I grew up ( staples of Mediterranean cooking ) will definitely be part of that last creation. It would have to be simple Mediterranean picnic ( ideally set in a sun kissed bay), a symphony of salads, cured meats, marinated artichokes, peppers and olives, the smell of fresh baked focaccia also springs to mind and the unmissable jug of Sangria. It’s not a culinary creation as such, but if you can visualise the full picture, there are not many more inspiring array of flavours and settings to compete with it.
There you have it, last chance to inspire won’t be an intricate fine dinning one , but my heart on a plate ( spread) ; you have to love ingredients before you want to learn methods.
Posted by Mise En Place Hospitality Recruitment