How Sat Bains changed after his heart attack

Five years have passed since a day which changed Sat Bains forever.

During his routine workout, Sat felt a pain in his chest. A few hours later, he was being rushed into surgery after it was discovered he had suffered a significant heart attack.

Now, his outlook on life has changed, but his commitment, drive and enjoyment of cooking remains as he continues to run one of the best restaurants in the UK.

Restaurant Sat Bains (RSB) has been operated for more than 25 years on Lenton Lane in Nottingham and, since October 2011, has held two Michelin stars.

Sat Bains on suffering a heart attack at 50

“The last five years have been a bit of a whirlwind,” Sat admitted.

“With Covid, the whole world shut down. It was wild out there. We were all in survival mode.

“In March 2021, I was training in the garden with my trainer, Nick, who I’ve had forever.

“I was doing some lunges and felt a deep pain in my chest. It was quite big. I thought it was muscular, so I carried on like a typical bloke. I said to Nick, ‘it’s a hard one today’. He said ‘yes, the weights are quite heavy’. I carried on training.

“I went to get a shower, came downstairs and then went to Wollaton Park, which is not far from here. Over a period of time, I felt pain in my jaw and eye socket. I had never had that before. It was very strange. I felt agitated, breathless and restless.

“I went back home. (My wife) Amanda asked, ‘are you feeling all right?’ I said, ‘no, not really.’

“I went to Sainsbury’s, still feeling restless, then went home and rang 111. This was about four or five hours later. We told them the symptoms and they sent a paramedic straight away. They knew I had had a heart attack.

“It was a shock. I had just turned 50 and this was a few weeks later. A massive blood clot had clogged at least one artery.

“We went to City Hospital, which was brilliant. I went straight in for an angiogram. They put dye into your veins to see where the blockage is and realised it was quite severe.

“I had had a massive heart attack. I then had to undergo surgery. Talk about a shock to the system. I was fit and I ate well, although I had had high cholesterol for a long time. I think those were all components of what happened.”

He added: “I was stuck in a hospital bed for 10 to 15 days. I came back weak after having a triple heart bypass. It was a shock to the system.

“You are used to chaos all the time, especially in a kitchen, you tend to think, ‘okay, next, next, next.’ Amanda was on autopilot.

“She was like the Duracell Bunny, trying to juggle everything. She had shifts of family and friends looking after me at home, because I could not be left alone.

“The surgeon said that every two hours I should get up and walk, but I had no energy. My mind was saying, ‘get up,’ but my body was saying, ‘you’re not going anywhere.’

“It took five or six months to get physically back into shape, go back to the gym and do my normal things.”

How John Freeman and the Restaurant Sat Bains team responded

With Sat recovering, business continued for the rest of the team.

John Freeman, long-term head chef at RSB, recalled: “I found out Sat had had a heart attack and was going into surgery.

“We were closed because of Covid at the time, but we were doing (homestyle food range) Momma Bains. We were using the restaurant facilities to make some of the products and send them out to people.

“I remember driving to work one morning. The whole team was coming in to make samosas and Sat was going into surgery that morning.

“We had not told the team at that point. We kept it quiet for Sat’s privacy. It was a really tough day because you were keeping it to yourself. I was upset and nervous about how it was going to go. It was a very strange feeling.

“In the back of my head, I knew he would be okay because I know what he is like.

“He is resilient and he is 100 miles an hour. If anyone was going to recover from this, it was going to be him. He would have challenged himself to recover as fast as possible.”

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Learning to trust the team around him

As John suspected, Sat did indeed recover. But following that experience, over time, he has tweaked his approach.

“I remember the first soft opening (after Covid), sometime in May,” Sat said.

“I was so tired and weak, but I was here and it opened. Slowly, we got to where we are now.

“John stepped up, Amanda stepped up and the whole team stepped up. When circumstances go wrong, you ask who is going to step up to the plate. They all did, and they nailed it.

“All my trust was in John. He has been with me for 25 years now. He is like a second hand to me.

“It was a brilliant realisation that you have a team and cannot do everything yourself. We are not a solo mountain. We need a support mechanism behind us, and I had that.

“I am forever thankful. Looking back five years later, I think, thank God all that effort, training, discipline and all those little nuances were in place to allow us to cope with a chaotic time.”

Sat Bains in the kitchen and Restaurant Sat Bains sign

‘The biggest gift we have is our time’

Sat added: “I told Amanda something that upset her.

“I have lived a brilliant, full life. I have travelled, worked in my own restaurant for so many years and had a business with my wife. We have no children, so there is no legacy in that sense.

“But if I had died, I was at peace. I was absolutely okay with it.

“That took me by surprise and definitely took Amanda by surprise, because I had no panic that I had not done something. I have done loads. I was comfortable. It would have been shit to leave Amanda, John and the restaurant, but life is life. I cannot dictate what is going to happen tomorrow.

“One thing we realised, and say a lot, is that the biggest gift we have is our time. It is not about money or gifts. Your time is enough, so be careful where you spend it.

“The key thing I took away was to be precious with your time. Forget the money, forget the cars, all that bullshit. None of it matters. Time spent with loved ones is really valuable.”

Food at Restaurant Sat Bains

Why Sat Bains reduced the size of his restaurant

That outlook fed into how Sat approached his restaurant.

“A year or two after Covid, everyone was busy,” he recalled.

“The restaurant was full, but I had lost the love for it. The noise was too much.

“We were doing 250-270 covers a week. I said to Amanda, ‘I’m just not enjoying it. If I’m going to do this, I really want to enjoy it again.’

“I wanted to walk in while it was quiet, build to a nice crescendo of covers and not kill ourselves. We now open at 5.30pm and the last order is at 7-7.30pm. Eating habits have changed and people are eating earlier.

“By making the restaurant smaller, the kitchen and front-of-house teams work fewer hours.

“We now do 32 covers; we used to do 48.

“It allowed me to fall back in love with running a restaurant and cooking, two things I love. We now do around 125 covers across four and a half services a week.”

Food at Restaurant Sat Bains

Why Sat Bains believes RSB is better than ever

Reflecting on what the restaurant is now, Sat said: “For me, it is a passion to keep pushing against the odds to deliver something world-class.

“I used to change dishes and develop a lot, which I still love. But now, at 55, I have learnt if it is good or near perfect, stop fucking touching it.

“That took me a long time to learn.

“We now have iconic dishes that have been with us for a while – like smoked eel or scallops. They are our signatures and belong to RSB.”

He added: “In 2026, this is the best iteration of RSB that I have known.

“It is the result of never giving up, never settling and continuing to evolve, but also learning to let things be. That comes with maturity.

“I have been a chef for 38 years and run a business for nearly 25 years.

“You have to trust the process and the team, and believe that what we are doing is on a par with a world-class restaurant.”

FAQs

When did Sat Bains have a heart attack?

Sat Bains suffered a major heart attack in March 2021, shortly after his 50th birthday. He later underwent a triple heart bypass.

How did Sat Bains’ heart attack change Restaurant Sat Bains?

Sat reduced the restaurant from 48 to 32 covers and cut weekly service levels from approximately 250–270 covers to around 125. He says the changes reduced working hours and helped him fall back in love with cooking and running the restaurant.

Who is the head chef at Restaurant Sat Bains?

John Freeman is the long-serving head chef at Restaurant Sat Bains. He has worked with Sat for approximately 25 years and took on greater responsibility while Sat recovered.