in London but it was never the plan, I have always liked cooking and at school did cooking competitions and my parents love to cook; so cooking was always there but it wasn’t something that I had considered as a career.
When you did realise you wanted to be a chef where was your first position?
My first restaurant in London was Hush in Mayfair which I’d say was my first big job but the first more influential job I had was The Glasshouse in Kew Gardens and I’d heard of Chez Bruce and I knew of their background and their link with The Square and
The Ledbury. That was where I realised that actually this was the career I wanted to do and that you had a respect for this style of cooking and for all the chefs that you met through the company.
When were you at Medlar?
About two years ago, I was at The Sands End after that as head chef. I started about three/four months before they got their star and then worked for them for just over a year and then left to go to The Sands End which then led onto here at The Cross Keys.
How do you view you time at Medlar?
I went as junior sous, it was a really good time for expanding what I’d learnt from The Glasshouse and Chez Bruce. Even though it was similar food the head chef there had travelled around a bit and had been in Australia for about three years so had different ways of doing things.
It was
Medlar where I took my basic menu ideas and the ingredients that I’d put together but tweaked and expanded it a bit more. It was a good time and a nice place to work but it was difficult going from a restaurant to a pub, it was a big decision maker which a lot of people were trying to talk me out of but I wanted to give it a go.
As The Cross Keys is steeped in history do you think there was a pressure for it to do well?
Yes, I think it’s the most pressure I’ve ever been under in my life. There is an expectation that it’s going to be busy and it’s in such a prime location that you’re going to have some big names come in as well as the locals who want to spend their money on nice food. So actually I thought the first few weeks would be more relaxed but there was actually no real soft week, we just went straight in and had all the locals in and a lot of people coming in to talk to me. I think it’s going well and I hope that I meet expectations.
Who would you say has taught you the most?
I think it’s a combination of a few people. Oliver, the executive chef here, I’ve known him for quite a long time so overall he’s been my biggest support and a good influence on me. Also my two head chefs from The Glasshouse, Anthony Boyd and Daniel Murtle, both were supportive and it was Daniel that said now is the time to leave as you need to go and spread your wings and learn something else. So it’s the humble ones that have been my biggest influence.
What would you say is your favourite type of food to cook?
Any type of game, when I was younger I used to shoot quite a lot and it’s something that even before I was a chef was my favourite thing was to pluck all the birds and then make a casserole; so game is probably my one true love.
How many are there in your team?
Not many at the moment but we’re looking to have about ten in the kitchen so we run a service with about five chefs. So it’s quite a small team so very much a big family rather than a brigade kitchen, it’s nice to keep it quite small and personal.
There is the notion that this is a male dominated industry have you noticed this and have you worked with many women previously?
Not that many, I think there was one other girl at The Glasshouse and that’s pretty much been it. I actually now have three girls employed in my kitchen of which one is my sous chef. It has been quite strange as I’ve only really worked with men and having grown up with men I do find it hard being around a large group of girls now.
I think it is starting to change, there are more females going into being a chef, I think it will be a lot easier as there’s a lot of support around and you have some big female names that you can look up to. I think it’s more accessible now and I don’t think men bat an eyelid now when they see a girl in the kitchen where as before I think they did.
So future plans…
I think I’m very much open for suggestion at the moment, I do have a five year plan where I would like to own somewhere, whether it be in London or outside, as I’m from the country I do prefer it.
But I think the ideas of where I want to be in the next five years has changed dramatically so I wouldn’t be able to put a dot on where I’m going to be in five years’ time. But I would think owning somewhere or running a group, not just being head chef but an executive chef of a group of four or five places. We’ll just see what happens.
