Simon Jenkins is the Executive pastry chef at Marcus Wareing Restaurants.
*Please note Simon has since left Marcus Wareing and is now Director at SNJ - Patisserie
He has worked as a pastry chef at some of the most prestigious restaurants and hotels in the UK, including L’ortolan, The Waterside Inn, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons , hotel openings Coworth Park, and Café Royal, and as the Executive pastry chef for Gordon Ramsay Holdings before moving back this year to once again work with Marcus Wareing.
Was it always pastry or did you start out in the kitchen?
I’ve never cooked professionally on the savoury side. I left college having done everything from front of house to main kitchen. We did very little pastry but I really enjoyed it and decided to take that as my career path. I love the technical side of pastry, the detail, creativity and finesse. There are always so many elements to think about and I love pulling it all together.
Was L’Ortolan your first job after college?
Yes – and it was a baptism of fire!
Is that the job where you learned most of your groundwork in pastry?
I’d say the thing I most took away from L’Ortolan, apart from it being a completely crazy place to work, was creativity. Obviously you learn the basics of the job which you expect to and how to execute them consistently at that level but it really laid down the foundations for thinking out of the box and being truly creative. Back then John Burton Race was a real stickler for changing dishes, changing the menu, keeping it fresh, so you always had to be thinking one step ahead. You had to always be prepared for what the next dish was that you would look to bring onto the menu and in order to do that you had to be inspired and creative – or the boss would be on your back day and night!
Can you pick out some of the different chefs you’ve worked with and how they’ve inspired you?
I went from L’Ortolan to The Waterside with Michel Roux Snr, the main things that I started to learn and understand were on the tourier side – the doughs, croissants, that sort of thing. After that I went back to L’Ortolan I was asked to run the pastry, which had a huge influence on myself, my style and techniques today – it was my first role which saw me taking the first big step up in responsibility.
After that it was Le Manoir working under Benoit Blin which was very different for me, Le Manoir as a large team, there were 12 of us. There was so much to see and learn, but what was really new and fresh was the tight organisation, man-management and how to formulate recipes properly from a managerial side.
How did the move to Marcus Wareing Restaurants come about?
After opening two consecutive five star hotels in my two previous roles, I was looking for something a little different. I’d worked with Marcus quite closely when he was with Gordon Ramsay Holdings in 2005-2007 and he was great to work with. Marcus is very focused as a chef and his passion and dedicated for getting the very best flavours out of every ingredient is hugely inspiring. 7 years down the line, I heard through a mutual contact that Marcus
