Meet the chefs behind some of the capital’s best-loved restaurants

Pablo Melillo has only recently become head chef of this Italian-inspired restaurant but he’s had a long journey to get to Cardiff.

The 36-year-old first started out as a cleaner, scrubbing the kitchen floors of a restaurant in his home country of Argentina.

From there he got he his first promotion, reading the checks for the restaurant’s 87-year-old chef.

“He was so old he couldn’t read the orders – he used to do all the cooking over an open fire,” Pablo said.

The Argentinian’s original passion for food can also be traced back to his family.

“Food is a very very important part of life in Argentina, it’s in the culture,” he said.

Now Pablo’s love of food is so big that on his days off he can be found growing and cooking fruit and veg from his allotment.

“You’ve got to be crazy to be a chef but the fact that I can make someone happy with my food really drives me on,” he added.

“I know I can make someone’s day with a good plate of food.” For this chef, working in Madame Fromage is a family affair.

“I’ve been working here since I was 14 years old, it started as a Saturday job and it turned into a full time career,” said art history graduate Polly Cunningham.

The cafe was originally started by Polly’s mother as a tea shop before expanding into the cheese shop and restaurant you see today.

Now the 26-year-old and older sister Sarah cook the food along with their mother while Sarah’s husband works on the cheese counter.

According to Polly her obsession with food stems back to idyllic family holidays spent in France.

“It was how we were brought up when we were taken to France on family holidays,” she said.

“We just want to bring a bit of that back to Wales. It’s nice to share that experience with other people.”

But working with family is not always smooth sailing.

“Now and again it’s like Hell’s Kitchen but it’s nice to work with family,” she said.

“It’s good getting nice feedback from customers and you get to know people quite personally.” For the owner and head chef of this popular Catalan restaurant, her journey into cooking is more unconventional.

Head chef Montserrat Part studied classics and worked in education before deciding to open her own restaurant.

“I’ve always had a passion for food despite being from a very different background,” she said.

Now the 51-year-old wants to recreate a taste of home by using produce from small farms in Spain.

“There is much more to food than just the country and the type of cuisine, it’s about the origins and the culture of the food,” she said.

“I come from a very small farm in the countryside of Catalonia and I know what small economies need to survive.”

Now for Montserrat her restaurant is her new home, especially with the help of sous chef Samir Boughlid.

“It’s a lovely feeling. It feels like a family and we have a lot of fun and work hard together,” she said.

However life as a chef can have its downsides, Montserrat warns.

“It’s a great job if you take out the long hours and the little income. You don’t go into this business for money, you really go into this business for love,” she said.