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Michael Caines
Michael Caines is one of Britain's most
acclaimed chefs. AA Chef's Chef of the
Year in 2007 and awarded an MBE in 2006
for services to the hospitality
industry, Michael is an Operational
Partner and Director of ABode Hotels and
Michael Caines, in overall charge of all
food and beverage operations throughout
the fast-growing group. He's also
Executive Chef at Gidleigh Park, the
acclaimed and prestigious country house
hotel on the edge of Dartmoor at
Chagford, Devon where he's earned his
reputation - as well as two Michelin
stars - serving distinctive modern
European cuisine utilising the finest
local and regional produce and
ingredients. Since February 2009, he's
also Executive Chef at The Bath Priory,
Bath, Gidleigh Park's sister
establishment.
In 2000, he founded Michael Caines
Restaurants and took over food and
beverage operations at The Royal
Clarence, Exeter, Britain's first hotel.
A chance encounter with Andrew
Brownsword led to the creation of ABode
Hotels. Amongst numerous other recent
accolades, Michael has cooked in 10
Downing Street for the Prime Minister,
and he took part in ‘The Great British
Menu' chef's competition broadcast on
BBC2 television for the honour of
cooking for the Queen's 80th birthday.
Mitch Tonks
Mitch Tonks, voted Tatler's restaurateur
of the year, and labelled by The
Independent as 'a fishmonger for the
21st Century' has been driven by an
honest passion to enthuse, cook for and
inspire others to enjoy seafood.
His list of awards and recognitions is
testament to Mitch's hard work and
inspiration. 'Best Fishmonger', 'Best
London seafood restaurant', 'Best Fish
Book in the World Gourmand Awards',
nominated as Ernst & Young's
'Entrepreneur of the Year', listed as
one of the top 100 'most influential
foodies' by Hotel and Caterer are just a
selection. A favourite on BBC Saturday
Kitchen and UKTV's Market Kitchen,
Mitch's good humour and constant relish
for good food and the good life tend to
be infectious.
The Seahorse restaurant in Dartmouth
opened in April 2008. Located on the
banks of the River Dart, it specialises
in local fish and meat cooked over a
charcoal fire. The restaurant also has
its own private launch, the Pearlfisher,
which can collect and return customers
across the river and from their boats.
They regularly host guest chef nights
there with many of Mitch's friends
joining him in the kitchen such as Mark
Hix, Fergus Henderson, Gregg Wallace,
Joyce Molyneaux, Matt Dawson and Rick
Stein.
John Burton-Race
John Burton Race is a top chef and
highly successful restaurateur with a
larger-than-life personality. His career
as a chef progressed rapidly, and
following a stint at Les Manoir aux
Quat’Saisons, he became head chef of Le
Petit Blanc. He opened his own
restaurant L’Ortolan in 1986 and then
moved to John Burton-Race at the
Landmark Hotel in 2000 and was awarded
two Michelin stars at both restaurants.
John became a television star, firstly
in French Leave, which charted the
progress of John and his family over a
year in rural France and then in Return
of the Chef when the family came back to
England and settled in Dartmouth where
John opened The New Angel which was
awarded a Michelin star and the AA
Restaurant of the Year award in its
first year.
John continued his TV success in 2007 as
co-star of BBC2’s Kitchen Criminals and
was co-author of the accompanying book
First Crack Your Egg. He has also
extended his fame through the ITV1
Series ‘I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of
Here.’
Serin Aubrey
Festival Executive Chef, Serin Aubrey,
trained and worked at Sir Terence
Conran's La Pont de la Tour restaurant
in London before returning to the family
farm in Blackawton, South Devon. Along
with his wife, Alison, he runs the Anzac
Street Bistro in Dartmouth and takes
real pleasure in cooking great local
produce that always reflects the season.
Joyce Molineux
Joyce is most known for her time at the
Carved Angel restaurant in Dartmouth
which she ran for over 25 years. Cooking
since she was 18, her experience has
straddled more fads, fashions and
culinary revolutions than most. She left
school at 16, knowing she wanted to be a
cook. After a two-year course she
emerged, as she puts it ' ignorant of
most of the basics of a restaurant
kitchen'. So she set out to acquire the
culinary training that she has now been
practising for 50+ years.
The most famous of George Perry-Smith's
pupils, she still describes her
apprenticeship under his incomparable
tutelage at the Hole In The Wall in Bath
as a revelation. "I had been working at
a very hierarchical restaurant in
Stratford, then with George everyone was
expected to have an opinion, although he
knew everything anyway. His menus were
extraordinary for the 1950s. Food from
the Mediterranean, Greece, Italy, was a
great thing in our lives, a discovery. I
learnt about new ingredients and basic
principles. He was interested in doing
everything genuinely."
Fergus Henderson
The son of two architects - father a
keen diner, mother a keen cook, Fergus
originally studied architecture before
his thoughts turned to cooking.
Occasional stints at The Globe in
Notting Hill under his belt, Fergus
along with his wife, Margot, took over
the dining room at The French House pub
in Soho where they quickly earned a
loyal following and critical praise.
Fergus was introduced to Trevor Gulliver
over supper and, along with the French
House Dining Room's manager, Jon Spiteri,
the trio opened St John in an abandoned
smoke house on the edge of London's city
district. Critical acclaim for Fergus'
brand of simple, pared down cooking set
in an architecturally though simple
setting followed and St. John has won
more that its fair share of awards and
high rankings in national and
international listings.
His London restaurants became the
'hangouts' for the Young British Art
scene and also the unofficial London
clubhouse for gatherings of the world's
great chefs. His stoic approach to
Parkinson's Disease which was diagnosed
in 1996 increased the regard in which he
was held and he was awarded an MBE by HM
The Queen in 2005. The same year he
underwent innovative deep brain
stimulation which vastly improved his
mobility and he has since become a
symbol of hope to other sufferers. He
now uses his considerable influence on
the now affluent British Art Scene to
raise money for Parkinson's charities.
If you'd like to try some of Fergus'
recipes then buy Nose to Tail Eating - A
Kind of British Cooking or Beyond Nose
to Tail Eating, both available via the
St John website. |
Michael Caines
Mitch Tonks
John Burton-Race
Serin Aubrey
Joyce Molineux
Fergus Henderson
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