Adventurous Cooking with Chef Ben Ford
Chef Ben Ford has had a three-decade-long career working alongside several of the biggest culinary names at some of the most established restaurants in the United States and has performed diplomatic missions for the U.S. Department of State. As a volunteer for the L.A. Mission, the renowned chef feeds 5,000 homeless on Christmas Eve each year. His restaurant, Ford’s Filling Station, located in the Delta Terminal at Los Angeles Airport and in the JW Marriott at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles, is based on the fundamentals of teaching, cooking and foraging, and was awarded the prestigious Cochon555 prize. All of this without relying on the Hollywood fame of his father Harrison Ford. Tokyo Journal Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke to Ben Ford about his career and projects.
Adventurous Cooking with Chef Ben Ford
TJ: How did you first get interested in work- ing with food?
FORD: When I was a young child I enjoyed being in the kitchen with my mother. I had to suppress my passion for food for years because I was trying to play baseball professionally. When I was about 20 years old, I had to figure out a second career. I had no formal training, so in 1987, I grabbed a couple of my mom’s kitchen knives, drove up to San Francisco, and got a job in North Beach. Pretty soon after that I was working in Chez Panisse.
TJ: Did you want to become an actor?
FORD: No, acting was never an option. I was fairly adverse to nepotism in my family. I wanted to know what my own achievements in life were. I was a late bloomer and didn’t know myself well enough to even con- sider playing other people. I did the reshoots for my dad and some voiceover work in the new Blade Runner, but it’s not my chosen profession.
TJ: Have you been to Japan?
FORD: I lived there for two brief periods. My dad was doing beer commercials and other things. When I was about 16, we lived in traditional inns in Kyoto and Tokyo. This is when I lost my inhibitions for food and that helped me towards becoming a chef. In Kyoto, our breakfast usually consisted of a fish head soup. My brother and I decided against eating it for the first three days. By the fourth day, we were very hungry, decided to try it and were rewarded! At that time, I decided to become more explorative as far as food is concerned.
The complete article can be found in Issue #276 of the Tokyo Journal. Click here to order from Amazon.
Photo by Frank Ockenfels 3