2 weeks Ago
Three years on from opening his restaurant, London’s Cafe Cecilia, much has changed for the Dubliner. With his debut cookbook hitting shelves, the 32-year-old opens up about the demands of running your own business, being in recovery and why he never wants to become a celebrity chef Max Rocha. Photo: Aaron J Hurley Almost three years ago, I interviewed Max Rocha in his new restaurant near Borough Market in East London.
He’d opened Cafe Cecilia on his 32nd birthday in August 2021 and the first few months had been a whirlwind. Rocha (His parents are John and Odette, who ran a successful fashion business for many years. One of his sisters is celebrated fashion designer Simone) came to cooking in his mid-20s, after a first career in music management left him depressed and burnt out.
A bread-making course with his mum was the prelude to working in restaurants from Skye Gyngell’s Spring and Fergus Henderson’s St John to Ruthie Rogers’s River Cafe. Furloughed during the pandemic, he ran a takeaway picnic business from his apartment with a couple of friends and started to form the idea he might like to open a place of his own. Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel Stay up to date with all the latest news.
