Miguel left Spain when he was 19, moving to Scotland to pursue his dreams of becoming a chef. He never expected to end up where he is today

When chatting with Miguel Maestre, it doesn't take long to realise how much he loves cooking.

Looking back through the early days of his career, it turns out that the celebrity chef's beginning wasn't as simple as it might seem, but it was his passion for being in the kitchen that got him to where he is today.

It's also put him in the driver's seat of some incredible campaigns, including his latest collaboration with CUPRA as an ambassador for the Spanish car brand's latest venture into Australia.

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For Maestre, the journey began when he was just a boy growing up in Spain, watching his grandma cook for his extended family.

"I come from a huge family, my mum was one of 20 kids," he tells nine.com.au.

"On Sunday, we used to cook for so many people, I mean, my blood family, at one stage, there were like 40 or 50 cousins in there.

"I was around that kind of loud food environment, and I think that's what inspired me."

When he finished high school, he almost found himself enrolling at university. But since he'd always struggled with studying, unable to "sit in the chair for more than 10 seconds," he instead decided to take a chance and pursue his dream.

To many, Spain might seem like the perfect place to work towards becoming a chef, but Maestre was ready to do something bold.

"I wanted to become a chef on my own. I wanted a really big adventure. [So], I went to Scotland," he explains.

At the time, he'd never left Spain, and he doesn't shy away from acknowledging that Scotland might not seem like the clearest choice if his dream was to become a chef.

If an adventure was what he was after, why not move to London? At the time, the food scene there was booming with Michelin-starred restaurants and chefs such as Marco Pierre White.

But there was a small issue with that idea; Maestre didn't speak a word of English when he was 19, so he needed to have someone in his corner wherever he ended end up.

"Edinburgh was the only place. My friend had a cousin who was studying there, and she got a little apartment," he recalls.

It should come as no shock to anyone familiar with the ever-cheery chef that Maestre immediately flung himself into life in Edinburgh, eager to learn the language and start working towards becoming a chef.

He quickly learnt that "necessity is the best teacher in the world", and, despite the language barrier, Maestre found himself landing jobs.

"I used to go to interviews where I didn't even know what the person was saying, and I still got the job," he laughs.

During the week, he worked some simpler gigs in schools and cafes to earn some money to pay his bills. But on the weekends, he would offer his time for free in exchange for the opportunity to spend his time in restaurant kitchens.

He started out washing dishes, before moving on up in the world, soon chopping onions and peeling prawns. But in true Maestre fashion, he never made any of it seem like a chore.

"I washed so many dishes, and you know what is crazy? All the really shitty jobs I had in the beginning, I love them," he recalls.

"All the jobs that were so hardcore and so full-on and sweaty and hot, I loved it!

"The kitchen and I had the most amazing relationship. I knew I belonged in a kitchen from the first day I stepped in it.

"I love the environment, love the stress, love the screaming, love the rush, love the flow.

"I learnt from such basic, rough, non-language. I mean, I couldn't even understand what people were telling me, but the language of the kitchen is quite universal. So I just knew I belonged in the kitchen and I loved it, ever since I can remember."

He quickly climbed the ladder, and after three years in Edinburgh, he was at the level of a Chef de Partie. An achievement which Maestre credits, in part, to sheer enthusiasm.

"When you are one guy that is not getting paid, and he just wants to work in this place to learn, and this person is showing interest, the head chef's attitude towards you is so different from if it's one guy who's getting paid and he's whinging about everything," he explains.

"If you're working with someone who's positive and wants to learn, you want to teach them more ... And because I've always been a quick learner when food was around, I just survived the process.

"I'm not going to say it wasn't challenging, but I mean, I always love a challenge. That's what I wanted out of cooking: I wanted to do it all on my own."

Following his time in Edinburgh, he returned to Spain to visit family, before travelling to Australia with his now wife, Sascha - an Aussie expat he met working in Edinburgh - for a wedding.

Maestre laughs as he explains that the funny thing about his first trip to Australia is that the wedding actually never went ahead, but as soon as he landed in Sydney, he knew he never wanted to leave.

He soon started working at The Newport Arms, now known simply as The Newport, a job which saw him making upwards of 1000 steaks during the Sunday rush.

"I worked on the grill ...  And I love the steam, I love being in the grill because it's really hot and it's such a good adrenaline rush, I love it," he says.

He thrived in the chaos of a commercial kitchen, the stress that forces most to quickly leave the industry, only fuelling Maestre's love for it.

"I get up in the morning and I'm 100,000 miles an hour, like a CUPRA car, really fast," he laughs.

Eventually, it was his love for what he does that would land him a gig on TV, a direction in which he never once considered his career might go.

He found himself working at Cru Dining, an "amazing" restaurant that had recently opened at the Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal, under a chef known to fans as Fast Eddie (Ed Hamalgyi).

"It was a very posh place with the most amazing food. And I was very lucky because he [Hamalgyi] was on TV, so everybody looked at him like he was this famous chef," Maestre recalls.

"He was on Better Homes and Gardens, and they used to film the show in the restaurant every Monday."

One day, a producer of the show told Maestre that he would be good on TV. He thought nothing of it until he was later asked to help Hamalgyi during a segment.

"I remember this like yesterday," he says.

"I said, 'I'm very busy, I have to do my chocolates, my ice cream, I'm so busy, and I don't have time for this TV thing'.

"And [Hamalgyi] said, 'No, no Miguel, I think you'd like it ... somebody else can do that, come here, do the TV stuff'."

So, simply following orders, Maestre joined Hamalgyi to film the segment, and it was a hit with the producers. So much so that they asked him back the next week, and the week after, then the next week, they offered him a contract.

"I think the secret for me was just goodwill and loving what I do ... when you are a chef, and you love what you do, that shines in a kitchen," he says.

"I was really lucky to always work with amazing people who taught me a lot ... When you are close to people who are excellent and exceptional, that's contagious."

From there, it was a world of opportunity for Maestre, appearing on shows such as The Living Room, Ready, Steady, Cook, Masterchef, Dancing With The Stars, and even going on to win I'm A Celebrity Out of Here.

He now owns one of the biggest free-range Australian pork smallgoods companies in the country, he's cooked at the Formula 1 Grand Prix, he's cooked for Enrique Englesias, and he's appeared at the Good Food and Wine Show more than 120 times.

But no matter how prestigious a gig he lands might be, Maestre says it's all the same to him.

"I still feel the same I did when washing the dishes," he explains. "It's the same feeling, that love for cooking."

Next in Maestre's calendar is the launch of the brand new CUPRA Formentor range here in Australia.

The celebrity chef will be catering the event, giving the Aussie public a chance to taste the food that made him famous.

Set to take place on June 18, the event will take over Sydney's Machine Hall. Nine.com.au is the media partner for the launch.

Along with catering by Maestre, the event will be headlined by internationally renowned artists Anna Lunoe and Memphis LK. Tickets are available for purchase here.

This article was produced in association with CUPRA as part of a nine.com.au partnership.