Member of the month April 2025: Santosh Gurung

Here at The Staff Canteen, we feature a different member every month who we think deserves to be celebrated – this month’s winner is Santosh Gurung.

As thanks for being a regular contributor to The Staff Canteen, Santosh will receive a TSC mug, an item of merchandise from our online store, and be entered into our member of the year 2025 competition.

Santosh, who works as head chef of The Pheasant Inn in Hungerford, Berkshire, has been a member of The Staff Canteen since October 2016.

>>> Find out more about Santosh and follow him <<<

We spoke with Santosh to discuss his culinary journey to this point, which spanned across various countries before joining his family in England little over a decade ago.

“I'm originally from Nepal,” he began.

“I did a three-month internship in Malaysia, then I went back home to Nepal and did more internship there at a five-star hotel.

“I did six months there, then had the opportunity to work in Iraq, as a commis chef in contract catering. I worked there for two-and-a-half years. That was my first actual job.

“After that I got an opportunity in Dubai, working for a small restaurant chain group, then in 2014 I came to the UK.”

He continued: “The first job I got here was at a hotel in Oxford. I worked there for nine months. And then after that I moved to Reading, where I had the chance to work with the Metropolitan Pub Company.

“I worked in Pangbourne at a pub called The Swan for five or six years. I learned some bits and bobs, all the British food there.

“I’ve been over so many places and then finally I got the chance working at The Pot Kiln in Thatcham. I got the head chef position there for a year, then I got offered the chance at The Pheasant Inn. I’ve been there just over two years.”

Asked what led him to take up a career in hospitality, Santosh explained: “I was first inspired by my mum. She was always cooking when I was a kid, so I wanted to cook with her. The first thing I cooked was cauliflower curry for my family when I eight years old.

“I got into it and my parents pushed me to do it. I studied in hotel management as well, so all my background is in cooking.

"My mind has just gone into cooking and I am just passionate about cooking. When I'm free I cook for my family. In celebration times I always cook for my family.”

He added: “I love to cook fish dishes especially. I love eating fish and I love fishing as well, so that's why I like to cook different kinds of fish.

“And I like to experiment myself as well as a chef.”

Describing his culinary style, Santosh said: “Especially before I was more mixed, Eastern European and British or American. But later when I moved to the UK, my food became modern British food, with a little bit of French influence.

“All my menu I have done a twist on modern British, you could call it.”

To get to know a bit more about Santosh, we asked him some quick-fire questions to finish.

Name a comfort food that isn’t considered ‘cheffy’ but that you love to eat

I like to eat a kebab. It’s not a cheffy thing, but people still love to eat kebabs, or sometimes KFC!

What do you like about being a part of The Staff Canteen?

Why I joined The Staff Canteen was for networking, to see what people are doing, not only from the UK. It is international and people can go there, see what chefs or other people are doing.

Everybody can share their way of what they are doing and you can watch them. It’s very helpful for networking, all the chefs, it's a very good site to know each other and also show yourself.

The Staff Canteen is good when you need some help, like a recipe or if you want to see something. There are lots of things you can do with The Staff Canteen.

What is your proudest career achievement?

It's not really an achievement in hospitality, the main thing is myself, which is that I didn’t learn from any other chefs. I just do it myself, I create myself. I’ve done it, I practice myself, experiment myself.

These kind of things have schooled myself now to be a bit more cheffy, so I can now do like lot more than the old days.

When I did study time or internship time, there are skills I need which I learnt from there, but later I just developed myself slowly. That is my achievement I guess. 

What is the most important lesson you’ve learnt as a chef?

Management I think is the most important thing. If you don’t have management skills as a chef, just cooking skills are not going to help you out.

You need to have the management to be a pretty strong chef, then your team will stay with you, love you and support you as well. They won’t want to leave you alone. If you don’t manage your team, they will leave and nowadays it is very hard to get chefs, so they will leave and get a different job.

So team management and if you organise everything, I think that is the best thing you need as a head chef.

What are your hopes and plans for the future in hospitality?

I am a bit lacking on the pudding side, so I want to learn a little bit more on the dessert side nowadays. I try to create and understand what they are doing. That’s the plan.

Being a chef is never going to end, you always need to learn.