inability to form a concise, direct sentence. It was fun and relaxed, with Phil making the whole process both comfortable and informative. Hopefully, I get the opportunity to put the training to good effect in the future, and if not a mandate with Phil Vickery was something special.
Only one thing to do after a day like that really, board a train to Sheffield (or “chef-field”) to attend the 25th Anniversary Skills for Chefs conference. While in Sheffield I participated in a pop-up style evening in Rafters restaurant run by Tom Lawson and Alistair Myers. It’s quite a daunting prospect entering a strange kitchen with a new team of chefs and I was a little nervous going in. I needn’t have been. It was a wonderful day, the chefs where all top guys and very welcoming. It’s a really well-run kitchen, with a great team and loads of bright shiny “stars” ahead. I now look forward to welcoming Tom and Alistair to Belfast for the return leg.
Following a night’s hard work I’d been promised lunch in Joro, a relatively new Nordic style restaurant to the Sheffield area, ran by Luke French, a great chef and a complete gentleman. Hands down the best meal I’ve had in recent memory. Perhaps the experience was helped by my surprise guest Paul Cunningham of Henna Restaurant in Denmark fame. An absolute legend of the industry, I was actually in awe through lunch and had to try to remember not to stir or say anything stupid. We had such a great lunch, almost twelve plates later, Paul reckoned he had enough and was sufficiently full. I agreed as I didn’t want to mark my first encounter with a chef of his calibre with a disagreement. However, I think I could have eaten 4 more plates easy.
After lunch, I needed some brief downtime as the Skills for Chefs Conference kicked off with an Indian Banquet feast cooked by my new bestie Cyrus Todiwala. Even though this was only a few hours after my epic three hour lunch I still managed to find room for a banquet. It was food of which I’ve never had the like of before, tasty, fresh and full of flavour
The second day of proceedings involved demos from Paul Cunningham, Clare Clarke, Francesco Mazzei and Gennaro Contaldo. All the chef demos were great but Paul Cunningham’s no-nonsense, zero bullshit approach was something that I’ll never quite forget. Very motivating, very humbling and simply just genuinely interesting. The conference concluded with another feat of epic proportions, held in Sheffield University in the grand hall. It was just like Hogwarts, a breath-taking location. It was a great few days and I’d like to thank the Craft Guild and Wendy Preston for making it possible for me to be there.
I managed to work a couple of shifts this last month also between all the adventures. I should take this opportunity to say thank you to Pearson and Saul from Noble restaurant, Holywood, as they have been very supportive this past year and incredibly accommodating when it comes to my loose interpretation of the working week. The guys are doing wonderful things at Noble and it's wonderful they’re getting the recognition they deserve. I’d also like to congratulate Pearson and his wife Sally on the birth of baby Claudia. A wonderful new addition to the Noble restaurant family and I speak for all her restaurant aunties and uncles when I say the world is now a better place having another Morris in it.
Too often I’m guilty of not appreciating when life’s good, I’m currently very fortunate to be in such a privileged position, thank you to everyone along the way that’s helped make it all possible and here’s to many more stories, adventures and man-dates.
James is the National Chef of the Year 2017, having won the competition at the Restaurant Show at Olympia London in October. Until earlier this year he was sous chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant, EIPIC based in Belfast and is now a chef at Noble, Holywood in Northern Ireland. James previously worked as a kitchen porter at a local restaurant and later became head chef at the Black Cat Restaurant and Deli on the Green in Dungannon as well as working part-time as a college lecturer.
