My Background

Everyone has to start somewhere. I went to university rather than catering school, but after a year or so of History and Politics I dropped out to do something more practical, and went to work as a short order chef in a burger chain. At least I was working with food (of a sort).

My first break came when I worked as an assistant chef in a seaside hotel in Cornwall. The chef there recognised my willingness to learn and became my mentor. He taught me much of what he knew. When he retired, he gave me his most prized possessions, his set of knives.

I moved north, to Huddersfield, and for a time worked at with young offenders, teaching them cooking skills as a way to rehabilitate. That was a rewarding experience, in that quite a few of them found that with the skills they'd learned, they could get a job and gain a degree of respect they hadn't known before. The odd thing about the catering profession is that it always has been a home for transients and misfits who, if they can graft and show some level of skill, will be accepted and valued. Anyone who has read Anthony Bourdain's work will know what I mean

My next challenge was to help relaunch a cafe/restaurant in Huddersfield. It had been a vegetarian restaurant for many years and had a steady clientele, but the new owner wanted to widen its scope to provide fish and meat dishes as well, and so The Oak Rooms was launched and this was my first experience of managing a kitchen. The Oak Rooms played another significant role in my life since it was there that I met my partner Elle, who had a part-time job as a waitress.

I wanted a bigger challenge, so took on the head chef job at 1535. That was another valuable stepping stone, and it was there I realised that in order to up my game, I needed to know how a real fine dining restaurant operated, so I moved to become a chef de partie at The Black Horse at Midgley. That was a different world for me and I learned a great deal.

Then came a spell as head chef of the Head of Steam, during which we catered for the visit of Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip to Huddersfield.

Elle and I had talked about moving out of Huddersfield, and the opportunity came when I was offered the job as head chef of The Dusty Miller, a gastropub with a good reputation in Mytholmroyd. We rented a cottage there and settled down to family life (or as near as a chef ever gets to it) and along came daughter Lily.

The Dusty Miller was a great restaurant and was going from strength to strength, and restaurant profits were good, but as a tied house it was being squeezed as the pub trade was hit by the new smoking legislation. I could see that the Dusty Miller was no longer secure and I needed to look elsewhere.

Elle and I wanted somewhere out in the country, at a hotel with a restaurant, with the promise of career development and longer term security. I was pleased when all this came together and I was offered my present job at the Falcon Manor Hotel.

The Falcon Manor is in the village of Settle, in North Yorkshire, and is fortunate to be surrounded by farmland, so that meat and cheese of the highest quality can be sourced locally. The hotel had its own herb garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While at 1535 and again at Head of Steam, I took part in the Huddersfield Food Festival where there is an annual Ready Steady Cook-style competition. I love these opportunities to perform on a stage, to educate and demonstrate culinary skills at the same time - OK, and to show off a bit - and have continued to do so as the Falcon Manor's chef, with participation in the Settle Festival.