Simon Hulstone is chef patron of The Elephant in Torquay, one of the best fine dining restaurants Devon has to offer.
Simon is the Chef/Proprietor of the Michelin Starred, 3 AA Rosette Elephant Restaurant in Torquay. Simon is a past winner of the Roux Scholarship and to date is the only British chef to win gold at the World Chef Championships in France.
Simon, tell us a little bit about your current operation - The Elephant?
Ok, the Elephant is a two tier operation. We have a 60 cover Brasserie on the ground floor and a 24 cover fine dining restaurant on the first floor with a Champagne and Cocktail Bar.
OK. And how many kitchens do you have?
One kitchen and there are six of us in the Brigade, including myself. Wow! The fine dining is only open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday. The Brasserie is open six days a week but closed on a Sunday night.
OK, and you've had great success in the fine dining restaurant - a star and three rosettes.
Yes, unexpected but we are happy to have it. And we've kept it now for three years. Fantastic. I don't know whether Torquay needed a Michelin star but we've got it and we'd like to keep it.
Does it bring you more business?
It does, but it also scares some people away because they think we're a bit too posh - we are doing exactly the same food as we were doing before but initially it scared people. Friday and Saturday it's a celebration restaurant; Tuesday to Thursday it tends to be people who are foodies that eat here.
OK and what made you want to become a Chef?
My father's a Chef.
That's two interviews we have completed recently who have fathers who are chefs.
Yeah, it was the initial "have you got any work, dad? Where can I work?" - wash up, yes I'll do that. It was easy to get a job and then it was the camaraderie of watching the lads doing it.
Ok, and did you go to college or start off as an apprentice - how did you train?
I did an apprenticeship at Selsdon Park in Croydon under Freddy Jones. Freddy's son was an apprentice with my father so they swapped sons and I went to Westminster College on a day release but didn't enjoy it. It was my day off I thought it was a waste of time.
OK,
Chef actually paid me more to caddie for him on my college days, so I did that! (Laughter). I failed all my exams, so I've got no qualifications
But you know what iron to use if you got a 20 foot shot to a Green, do you?
No, I got a Bollocking for missing college from the Chef even though I was caddying for him!!! (Laughter)
And if you were 17/18 years old again and you were embarking on a career as a Chef, what would you do - would you do an apprenticeship or would you go to college?
We only take on day release students. I personally don't agree with what they are training them at college - I don't believe they are benefiting from college. A lot of them are using it as an excuse not to work for another three years. We want to get chefs in that are willing to work and that are straight from school. I think 16 to 19 is a crunch time for them - loosing their friends; loosing their weekends - I think if they can cope with that, they will stay at it for life.
Fair comment! When a CV arrives on your desk - what are you looking for?
I don't really look at the CV's to be honest, mainly because CV's are a piece of paper and you can write what ever you want on them; you can big yourself up. We get the guys into work and I actually speak to the rest of the chefs about them and see how they gelled with the team and not just what I thought of them, because 90% of the time they are working with them. We look at what can they bring to the team; if they have concerns that we can iron out and we go from there.
OK, and Simon, when you started being a chef was a Michelin star part of your plan?
It's not something I have looked at every year. Obviously, we've been aware when we have had the inspections but I have never been down the route of working in Michelin starred restaurants. The real interest in Michelin came at a restaurant I was working at after I'd won the Roux Scholarship; it sort of took me up to the next level.
Who got you involved in the Roux Scholarship?
That was my own entry.
And where were you working at the time?
Originally I was at the Bacchanalian in Cheltenham and I reached the final there and I got a bit of a bug for it, so I did it again when I was at Cotswold House and won it at the second attempt.
And is that when your whole competition bug started?
No, no. My father was a big competition chef - he competed against Freddy Jones, they were the two main competition chefs of their era. And when I started doing competitions it was through Freddy Jones when I was 16. As I moved on I met different chefs through the competitions and made more contacts. I moved away from it for a couple of years when I moved into the Country House scene but people dragged me back into it. Even though the chef there didn't do competitions I was invited to do the European Championship - under 20's. And then the Swallow Royal in Bristol took me forward from that and I moved into the bigger competitions with Mickey Kitts.
Mickey Kitts was always a big competition man, wasn't he?
Yes, he had 5 guys who were pretty much the team of British Chefs. They pushed me forwards and there was no jealousy in the kitchen because everyone was doing equally as well. At that point Mick Kitts was in the final of the Chef of the Year; Paul Bates was in the final of the Roux Scholarship; John Savage in the Final of Pierre Tattinger; Stan Baxter was in the Young Chef/ Young Waiter and I was going out to the Olympics in few months.
Fantastic - but it was all good publicity for the hotel and the team. It raises every ones profile.
Yes, as long as it doesn't take it away from what's going on in the kitchen. No, sure. We treat it as a hobby; we have to do a lot of it in our own time. The hotel/restaurant has always provided the ingredients (within reason) as long as you aren't taking the mickey!
And the rest you do on your days off, you know the practice etc.
Yes. The competitions are always set up on days off. We only do Olympia on a Monday, which is our day off. We are not there Tuesday or Wednesday because otherwise the business will suffer. We pay our own petrol and the guys keep what ever they win. As long as they stick the trophies in the restaurant for a while - it's up to them.
Yes, I mean I can remember when Hotelympia used to be at Olympia, then Earls Court and now it's at the Excel, isn't it?
Yes and a pain to get to.
Years ago at Hotelympia you used to have the likes of the Savoy, Dorchester - they would all have a team.
The Ritz?
Yes, why do you think now it's not so big? Is it work restraints; time?
A bit of both I think. It's also money. I think a lot of chefs that are interested in competitions are also contract caterers - they have a lot of money to throw at it because it's good PR for them, they are all fighting against each other: Sodexho, Compass etc.
Yes, that's what I was going to say. You tend to see Sodexho, Compass "
Yes, but they do tend to only do the static side of it, where as in the hot live kitchen a lot of it is own personal pride; people from the larger/ more prestigious operations are often scarred to enter as they are embarrassed at the thought of being beaten by someone from a supposedly inferior operation.
That's a fair point, yes. Where as it shouldn't be looked at like that. Surely, that's all part and parcel of competition work, isn't it?
Exactly.
Not everyone can win.
That's right, Man United get beaten by Bolton every now and again! (Laughter)
Yeah, there is a big cheer when that happens! OK, let's talk about your early career, you were at Selsdon Park, where did you go after that?
From Selsdon I moved to Hanbury Manor, I was only there for about 8 months.
OK, why was that?
It was very expensive to live where I was. My rent was £5 less than my wages and that was it!! More than anything I was struggling to survive. I enjoyed it, it was a different set up; it was a golf club, it was banqueting - but it wasn't the sort of route I wanted to go. I wanted to move away from hotels. I was more interested in the restaurant side of it; I hated the kid's food, the afternoon teas and sandwiches.
OK
But I still had to do all that to learn to be a Head Chef.
Do you find that there are two different types of chef: the restaurant chef and the hotel chef?
Yes, I think so but I think it is good to actually know both sides, as well as pastry. You can't be a good Head Chef without knowing about Pastry. You can't tell the guys what to do if you can't do it yourself. It's about getting respect in the kitchen.
So after Hanbury, where did you go?
I went to Ston Easton Park which was my first Country House set up.
Oh, yes. Who was the Head Chef there at the time?
It was Mark Harrington. He was there for about 12 years. Ston Easton was a Relais Chateau property with 3 rosettes, individual plating using quality ingredients - I'd never seen food like it. We did 30 to 40 covers in the fine dining. It was very very good but in the middle of nowhere. I was a young lad with no car, living in staff accommodation and a million miles from anywhere! That was it, it was pretty boring on days off.
Yes, unfortunately a lot of these Country House Hotels suffer because of that - even today.
Yes, you know, it was 2.5 miles to the nearest garage just to go and get a packet of crisps. There were no shops in the village. You rely on other people, then tensions start because you want a lift everywhere.
Yes, if it hasn't got a pub in the village - chefs are not going to survive!!
No, that's right - it's always a problem. I competed in the European Championships while I was there and Peter Griffiths contacted me and he said you have got the chance of going into the Youth Skill Olympics in France but you need to have someone to back you and that's where Kittsy came in with the Swallow. I competed against a small Salon Culinaire in Bristol; I approached him and he accepted me as a Chef de Partie in the Fine Dining Restaurant. I only wanted to be in the Fine Dining, I didn't want to do Banqueting or anything like that and he gave me the backing, we did the practising and the training and I went out to France with new skills.
OK
Yes, and it all went on from there really. I got a bit of a boost from Nigel Marriage, I think Nigel helped my career a little bit. The week before I won the Youth Skill Olympics he was on the TV kicking the sh*t out of young chefs - one week it was doom and gloom for young chefs and the next week I won the competition and the Caterer got on my side and basically said this is what young chefs are about so Nigel Marriage is credited for part of my PR.
Giving you a foot up on the PR ladder! Why not? I think at the time there was a huge thing about trying to promote the industry and it's not all about kicking your own chefs.
Yes, that was all well and good but all of a sudden there was a massive pressure on me - I was getting offered jobs left, right and centre; Head Chef jobs, money that was obscene, you can choose your own terms etc etc etc...
And how old were you at this stage?
I was just 21.
Right, that was quite a young age.
Yes. I was on the cover of the Caterer on my 21st birthday, and I got a little bit of jealousy from work for the first time. They put me then onto the Brasserie section which didn't go down too well because I didn't want to do that, but in some aspects it was also to knock me down a peg or two and also to give other people a chance to work on other sections - I understood why, but that wasn't what I was about at the time. So I was getting a lot of PR. I was getting asked to do demos - I wasn't ready for that either; I didn't have a bloody clue. Also doing other competitions meant that you had that added pressure that you had to win "¦ so I went off to New Zealand for a year.
OK.
Which turned out to be a good move. I worked at the Regent which changed hands the day I arrived and turned into the Stamford Plaza. Michael James was Exec Chef, a Welsh boy from Celtic Manor. Different food again, the emphasis was more on presentation than taste which was my only problem with it, and it still is. I went out there last year - they still have the height and the colour, but they don't really know how to match flavours. It's trendy food, it's trendy food to look at rather than eat.
Yes, But that's a bit
