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My name is Krimo Bouabda.

I have lived in the UK since 1976, having come from Algeria at the age of 22 to study Naval Architecture.

I got into restaurants and cooking totally by chance and, although I have never had a cookery lesson in my life, I was drawn to food from a very young age.

While I was growing up, I enjoyed watching my mother prepare lunch and dinner on a daily basis. From being 10 years old, I often went shopping for her at the local market in the morning before school. She gave me a shopping list and quite often warned me: “Make sure that the butcher doesn’t give you goat instead of lamb!” As if I could really tell the difference at that age. Sending me out to buy mandarins was a big mistake because, by the time I got back home, I would have usually eaten a quarter of them on the way.

I watched her make fresh flat breads at least three times a week. As soon as the first one came off the terracotta tray, I used to smother a slice of it with real butter from the local milkman to accompany a ripe tomato with only a pinch of salt for dressing.

Later, whenever I went back home from boarding school one weekend a month, I was always sure that my favourite dish would be waiting for me. A mouth-watering lamb tagine with meatballs, chickpeas and cumin. I served this dish for many years at Krimo’s. When the restaurant closed down in 2014 after nearly thirty years, Noel, our Portofino head-chef insisted on having it on his menu.

Having dropped out after two years into a Naval Architecture course at Sunderland Polytechnic, I worked on a ship for a few months.
When I came back, I took a porter’s job at a Newcastle pizzeria, while hoping to enrol for a computer course. As I watched with total admiration the Italian chefs prepare pizzas, pastas and various other delicacies, I realised that I had found my calling and began dreaming of opening my own café or restaurant. A few catering jobs later, ranging from washer-up to waiter, cook to restaurant manager, my wife Karen and I opened our first restaurant, Krimo’s in Seaton Carew on May 4th 1985.