Member Info
Meet Tim Bouget, Chef-Proprietor at ODE True Food.
Devon born award-winning chef Tim Bouget is passionate about sustainability. He cooks with a conscience, working in tune with nature to produce organic, affordable food using the South West region’s finest ingredients from sea and land.
Training with the very best – an insight into an impressive hospitality career spanning over 35 years.
Tim trained with internationally acclaimed chef Michel Roux at his 3 star Michelin-starred restaurant, The Waterside Inn at Bray. He has worked at some of the world’s top eateries including 90 Park Lane at The Grosvenor House Hotel and The Halkin in London; Sandy Lane Hotel and Golf Club, Barbados, Saxon and Westcliff hotels in South Africa and The Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh, Egypt and COMO Shambhala Estate in Bali. He has created first class dishes for guests such as Luciano Pavarotti, Nelson Mandela, Donna Karen and Fidel Castro to name a few.
Returning to Devon in 2007, Tim and his wife Clare set up ODE Dining in the picturesque village of Shaldon, receiving the Taste of the West South West Restaurant of the Year award in 2008 and 2009, Michelin Red knife and fork, 2AA rosettes and Waitrose Good food guide 6/10, Top 100 National restaurants awards.
The ethos behind Café-ODE.
‘Being a chef in Devon gives unrivalled access to the finest of fresh fish, shellfish, organic dairy, meat and wild game plus some of the best organic producers who farm in the region’
In 2012 Café-ODE emerged as a relaxed, family-friendly cafe and take away, adopting eco-friendly practices such as installing solar thermal and renewable energy systems, and use of compostable plant-based packaging and bio-plastic food containers, cutlery and drinkware. Community is at the core of the café’s operations and a cooperative with other local businesses was developed to share suppliers and to reduce the impact of carbon footprint.
Tim’s culinary expertise and sustainability ethos has received industry recognition in the form of listings in National Restaurant Awards’ UK’s top 100 restaurants, National Organics Awards, Sustainable Restaurant Association’s 3 Star Award 2012 -2020, Sustainable Restaurant of the year Award 2012/13/14 and a CATEY the hospitality Oscars for Sustainable Business in 2014. Most recently ODE-true food won the Sustainable restaurant of the year at the National restaurant awards and The Times critics choice top 100 best places to eat in 2018
Tim uses this ethos to source sustainable, fresh and delicious seafood to help conserve fish stocks and to protect the local marine environment. His speciality dishes include South Devon crab with crème fraiche, lemon and dill served on sour dough toast, and Crab mac’n’cheese bake, packed with sustainable shellfish.
