CSB EXCERPTS: AN INTERVIEW WITH ACRE GOURMET’S CHEF CAMERON JUDGE
On December 5, 2018, Former PA President Yvonne Blaxter interviewed the School’s chef, Cameron Judge. What resulted was a lively conversation about food, kids, and why kids should eat curry. The following is an excerpt from their conversation.
About picky eaters and worried parents… As a kid, I was a very picky eater. I would only eat three things— chicken, apples, and macaroni & cheese. We ate a lot of the same things over and over again. What’s great for the kindergarten parents is that they come in and see all of the older kids—even the second and third graders—eating all of the food. With the kindergarten and first grade boys, it can be a lot of sandwiches and soup, but after that, beginning in second grade, I don’t see them again because they start eating the main entrée. Sometimes one kid will try something new, like goat cheese, and then their friends will try it! For some it sticks, for some it doesn’t. Parents come in now, and are shocked that the kids eat curry. When I started making curry, I thought, “Well, this will be a good day for the parents and the teachers, and the kids will eat a lot of sandwiches.” But now the kids love it and we never have any leftover curry! About his love for cooking… I like a lot of Italian food. So, I wanted to learn how to make it. I learned to cook in Italy when I was in my early 20s. I was living in a rooming house and this older woman would cook for us. She called me “Carlo” for four months. I have strong feelings about how to cook Italian food. This love morphed into an interest in cooking other cultures’ foods, too. When I moved back to New York (I grew up in Queens, New York), I would be walking down the street past the fishmongers in my neighborhood and I would think, “I really wish I knew how to cook that,” because I love fish. That’s why I became a cook is to learn how to cook fish. About his early successes and failures… I learned to cook fish by reading Mark Bittman’s book, FISH . His style of cooking is different than that of the teaching of culinary school. There’s no technique involved—just follow
this step-by-step guide and voilà. So, I followed his recipe and guess what? It was really good. I was worried I would kill myself if I cooked fish the wrong way! But I didn’t. He helped me take the mystery and fear out of cooking fish. I think that first fish dish was Red Snapper with chickpeas. I remember it being really good!
Cathedral School for Boys• 1275 Sacramento Street • San Francisco, CA 94108 • www.cathedralschool.net
FALL 2019 • RED & GOLD | 73
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