The Staff Canteen

Mark Satterthwaite, head chef at Base in Ulverston, Cumbria, is The Staff Canteen's Member of the Month for October 2026.

Mark has been a TSC member since June 2019 and as thanks for being a regular contributor, will receive a TSC mug, an item of merchandise from our online store, and be entered into the member of the year 2027 competition.

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

When the pandemic wiped out his private chef work almost overnight, Mark started ringing round kitchens looking for somewhere to cook. He ended up taking on a whole venue in a Cumbrian park, built a following through takeaways and dine at home boxes, and earned an AA rosette within six months of opening to diners.

From Kendal to private dining

Mark's route into kitchens started a little earlier than planned.

He said: "I've never really done anything else. I left school slightly earlier than I should have done. I wasn't very academic, as in, got kicked out. I did my GCSEs and then straight to Kendal College.

"I did three years at Kendal and then basically worked in any of the top kitchens that would have me, if I'm honest. I did a couple of stages and just kind of gained as much experience as I could, just tried to act like a sponge."

From there, he moved into private dining, and in 2018 came a stint on TV.

Mark said: "I worked up the kitchens and then ended up being a private chef, basically, doing wedding catering and all sorts of stuff. And then I had a residency at the Blacksmiths Arms, and it was then that I went on MasterChef: The Professionals, even though it was only a short-lived experience."

Taking on Base

Then the pandemic arrived.

"I was self-employed, so it hit us really hard,” he explained.

“We went from five grand a month down to 500 quid, because my wife was on an apprenticeship at the time.

"So we were ringing around kitchens just to see if anybody was closing their kitchen but still able to rent it out, just to get us through COVID. And the restaurant where it is now, originally they said no, it wasn't for them. So I carried on ringing around."

Ten days later, the venue in Ford Park, at the foot of Hoad Hill, came back to him. It was run by volunteers, so its staff couldn't be put on furlough, and they asked whether he wanted to take over the whole thing.

Mark said: "We were like, well, we're not doing anything else. And realistically, we were whipping through savings, just being at home with two small kids. So we were like, yeah, we'll take the whole thing and start from there."

Base spent 12 to 18 months doing takeaways and dine at home boxes, and by the time restrictions lifted it already had a following.

He said: "We'd kind of built up a customer base doing the dishes that we wanted to do, but in a dine at home form. When we opened, it was like we'd been there quite a while, and we were kind of straight into the swing of things, really.

"We got our first rosette six months after opening. We've held it since and we're still pushing for more. We've never really chased any accolades, which I think has been a bit of a godsend, to be honest. So we've literally just done the food that I want to do."

what type of food is on the menu at base?

At the heart of Base is a seven-course tasting menu that changes so often Mark keeps a month's worth of menus on the website at any one time.

He said: "The main thing is that we do a weekly changing tasting menu, but that is changing to fortnightly. It's a seven-course tasting menu: super local, hyper seasonal, just rolling around constantly. I don't want to be this venue that just churns out the same stuff constantly.

"We really like doing wild food. So it's not necessarily foraged, but more kind of grey squirrel, rabbit, wood pigeon: things that are easy to get hold of but not necessarily common on a menu."

Mark runs the kitchen with a chef de partie and a junior pastry chef, and the restaurant seats 40.

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Sweet on chocolate

Lockdown also turned one of Mark's longstanding skills into a business of its own.

He said: "I'd always done chocolates, but I'd never really sold them until lockdown. And then we did loads and loads of bonbons and I was making different bars, and I ended up getting to the stage where we were selling chocolate bars to the trade."

Commissions soon followed, growing into large chocolate sculptures, though he makes fewer now.

Mark said: "I used to make big chocolate sculptures that we'd then do commissions for. So we've done big chocolate geese. It's a little bit more chilled than a normal kind of kitchen pace when you're doing stuff like that. It's got to be a bit more precise."

Food at Base

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

Name a comfort food that isn't considered "cheffy", but that you love to eat

"Ramen. Anything Japanese: ramen, gyoza, anything like that. Obviously you can make it as fancy as you like, but the spicier the better."

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

"I really like having peers, people that you can kind of bounce ideas off and just get inspiration from. This job can be a lonely job if you're not doing it right. Every day is a school day. Someone is always doing something different and new, and pulling ideas from all the people is a great kind of networking thing, really."

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a chef?

"Never stop learning. Making your menus interesting has to come from learning, and if you stop learning, I think you can give up quite quickly.

"My junior pastry chef is absolutely ace, and the stuff that he does, I've never even thought to do it that way. It's not necessarily that the outcome's any different, but the way that you get there might not necessarily be the French way that I was taught. Just never stop learning, and never take a bollocking personally."

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

"I think you can disappoint yourself quite quickly. Obviously the main task for anybody in this business at the moment is keeping your head above the water, making sure that we stay open, changing things so that you don't get forgotten about. But in general, just be happy. Be happy in what we're doing. That's our main goal.

"There was once upon a time where I was writing menus where that's what I thought the customers wanted. But once you kind of go past that, knowing your worth and going, 'Oh, do you know what? I'm just going to cook the food that I want, and if people want to come, they'll come.' Just remain as happy as we can, and if awards come, then happy days."