FINLAY Meets: Dom Goring
Head Chef at Café Cecilia
FINLAY Meets: Dom Goring
Head Chef at Café Cecilia
Tucked just off the Hackney Riviera, you’ll usually find Dom in the kitchen at Café Cecilia mid-service, focused on the rhythm of lunch or dinner. We catch up with him to talk about how his journey into cooking began and the moments that have shaped it along the way.
From starting out at Spring with Skye Gyngell to joining Café Cecilia in 2021, his path into the kitchen wasn’t overly planned. He shares what continues to inspire him, what a post-service meal looks like, and the FINLAY frames he'd love to add to his collection.
What first drew you to cooking?
Our Mum is a great cook and would always get us helping out in the kitchen at home. We’d bake all the time and always help prepare things for the family. She’s South African so we’d often visit our grandparents out there and that would mean lots of Braais which is where my love of cooking on fire comes from.
Was there a moment you knew this was what you wanted to do?
Not really. I slightly fell into it. My sister had done a cooking course and a friend was about to open a new restaurant called Spring, with Skye Gyngell, and the friend asked if my sister would be interested to join. I said I’d ask and as I didn’t have a job at the time, could I join too. So I started at Spring in 2014 and haven’t looked back.
