When he was five years old, Massimo Pasquarelli, now executive chef of The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, had a daily milk run in his hometown of Pizzoferato in the Arruzzo region in Italy. But that did not stop him from catching the World Cup final in 1982, where Italy beat West Germany.
The Italian chef, now 37, recalls: "I ended up watching the match by stopping for a while at each house I went to. The milk was from our family's two cows that my late grandmother would milk daily to give our neighbours.
"Milk, as well as our farm's chickens and rabbits, would serve as payment too, for example, if we had to go to the doctor."
His parents are still surprised that he ended up a chef, as his elder brother was the one who cooked.
The chatty chef says: "I was the dreamer in the family. I read a lot of books and watched French movies. I was always amazed by the chefs and wanted to be like them."
He joined culinary school at the age of 12 but quit three months before graduating after an argument with his teacher. He says: "My teacher and school did not share my vision of being a chef in France. So at that point, I knew I really wanted to be a chef, to prove them wrong."
With his sights set on France, he worked for two years in Imola, Italy, at the two-Michelin-starred San Domenico Restaurant, as well as in Venice and London.
His biggest goal then was to work for acclaimed chef Alain Ducasse, whom he says he is "willing to die for". At the age of 24, when Pasquarelli was working at Le Cirque in New York, he got to meet the chef at the restaurant. Chef Ducasse is a friend of Le Cirque owner Sirio Maccioni.
After that, Pasquarelli embarked on his decade- long career with various branches of Ducasse's restaurant group in Paris, Tokyo and Monaco.
He then worked at The Aberdeen Marina Club in Hong Kong in 2010, prior to joining The Ritz-Carlton four months ago. He has three children with his Japanese painter wife Akira, 32.
So what's the ambitious chef's next goal? "Something for the ladies," he says, "I would have a shoe shop with a connecting restaurant. After their meal, they can pick beautiful shoes."
What are your childhood memories of food?
We grew our own herbs and fruit, and ate a lot of root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots. Even if I go to Michelin-starred restaurants, the flavour of an egg with olive oil and chopped parsley is still the best.
Does your family still practise any food traditions?
Yes, the annual slaughtering of a pig in winter. The throat is slit and the blood is collected. We add Marsala wine, lemon zest and cinnamon to the blood. It is cooked until it coagulates and we spread it on bread for breakfast. For lunch, we would eat the pork ribs. The meat will be kept for making sausages. My favourite part is the crispy pig ears.
He says he has moved to Mumbai at a time when the number of foreign restaurants have increased and there has been an "explosion" in the interest in food.
Which is your all-time favourite restaurant?
Three-Michelin-starred French restaurant Le Louis XV in Monaco. The best dish is a combination of 20 kinds of vegetables which are cooked separately and served with red vinegar and shaved truffles.
What is your favourite dessert?
Whenever I'm in an Italian restaurant, I order tiramisu. Most don't taste the same as those in Italy though, it's all about the Italian eggs.
What's the most unusual food you've tried?
In Cairns, Australia, 10 years ago, I hiked for two hours into the rainforest to try exotic fruits. What's fascinating is that they do plant-grafting.
For example, part of a cherry plant is connected to a lemon tree, so the fruit produced looks like a cherry but tastes like a lemon. There was also a grapefruit-sized fruit, which had a chestnut-like skin, but inside it, the flesh looked and tasted like chocolate mousse.
In Japan, I've had a shot of sake with small live fish inside. One day, I would like to go to Africa.
What's always in your fridge?
Tahitian noni juice, pasta and cheese such as brie and parmesan.
What's your tip for a good risotto?
Chop 50 big onions and caramelise them in a pan. Then switch off the fire and cover for 20 minutes. The juices will seep out again. Repeat this three times and you will get a flavourful paste. Just add a teaspoon of the paste to the risotto and it will be simple and tasty.
You have a collection of more than 600 cookbooks.
What's your most precious possession?
L'Art de la Cuisine Francaise by one of the earliest chefs, Marie-Antoine Careme. It is a huge collection of recipes, almost like an encyclopaedia. The next book I'm looking to get is an old French book from 1980 which teaches techniques of cooking huge cuts of meat.
If you could invite someone (dead or alive) for a meal with you, who would you pick?
I'll have a pizza with God, as I want to congratulate him for what he's done for the global culinary scene. I would also ask him about the level of food in 200 years' time.
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