To become a good chef you need to be a certain type of person because your job is more than just cooking food and one person who totally demonstrates this is chef Max Buller – a 20-year-old who is making his mark in the culinary scene in Northern Ireland.
Max is a farmer’s son from Loughbrickland in Co Down so he totally appreciates cooking food which celebrates the produce from our land. At the age of 16 he entered into catering college and his desire and ambition to become a great chef has been driving him forwards since then.
Max has made his way up through the ranks gaining experience in restaurants and patisseries. When he was in college he came fourth in the IFEX Junior Duck and in 2018 he has been part of the team which picked up the IFEX ‘Best Kitchen Team in Ireland’ award and he was placed as Second Best Junior Chef in Northern Ireland. In October 2018 he will find out if he is successful in the Yes Chef Best Junior Chef in Ireland category.
Max fell into cooking in a roundabout way but it’s a career path he loves and he has never looked back. When he first started out he got a job at Linen Hill with Chef Sean Hanna before leaving to work at what was known then as Weaver’s Lodge.
After that he went back to college to complete his Level 3 in catering and then went to Valencia in Spain to study in a five star pastry college. He worked then in a patisserie where he was able to learn management skills and new cooking techniques.
Max also worked in MacCartneys of Moira but he missed the pressure of the weekend kitchens so moved on to the Banville Hotel in Banbridge where he worked as a Senior Chef de Partie. During his stint here Max got the opportunity to work with the Masterchef 2016 winner, Gary Maclean, to cook a Michelin Star dinner at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Edinburgh. He hit the headlines in 2017 for his role in this challenge which was to help prepare dinner for 60 guests attending the Hospitality Industry Trust Scotland (HIT) fundraising dinner.
Max then continued rising through the ranks to become a Sous Chef in The Coach in Banbridge before starting his current job at Molly’s Mill where fellow Live It Experience It member Dean Coppard is Head Chef.
Max is very keen to connect with tourism businesses especially self catering establishments where guests want to relax and don’t have to worry about cooking. He is available for cooking for private guests be that for major events such as The Open or indeed private gatherings – both corporate and non corporate.
Max spends a lot of his free time touring Northern Ireland tasting food from different counties and meeting new people in the catering industry.
Live It Experience It’ is a group of tourism businesses working together to promote our region through water, air and land based activities, food and drink and great places to stay. If you would like to become a member business in our ‘Live It Experience It’ cluster please submit your information through our online form – Sign Up Here. Pitch your business and meet like minded tourism businesses who you could cluster with. #liveitexperienceit
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