Member Info
I fell in love with food & produce at an early age helping my mum cook, and my grandparents grew all their own vegetables on an allotment, my grandfather was a baker in the army.
I participated in work experience at the Royal Bath Hotel in Bournemouth for two weeks whilst still in school.
Then between 1996-1999 I attended Bournemouth & Poole College and gained NVQ levels 1,2 &3 in Professional Catering.
Whilst I was at college I worked part time at The Ship In Distress in Christchurch which won many awards for fish & seafood, when I left college I accepted a full time position.
In 2001 I moved to America to work at one of Marriott’s flagship hotels JW Marriott Atlanta, GA, here I had an amazing experience and gained a wealth of knowledge, in 2003 I returned to the U.K. to work at Hanbury Manor country house hotel & golf course in Hertfordshire, which had a two & three Rosette restaurant, after I moved back to Bournemouth and worked in various restaurants, Pebble Beach in Barton on sea, Barings restaurant in Winton and a little stint back at the Ship in Distress. I then went to Megeve a ski resort in France as Head Chef.
I flew out to Hua Hin in Thailand to cook and manage a restaurant that was owned by the owner of the hotel in France.
On returning to England I found a job as a Sous Chef in Romsey at the Dukes Head working under my old head chef that I worked with at the Ship in Distress.
In 2008 I started at the Sandbanks Hotel as Senior Sous Chef and aspired to Head chef in 2012.
I try to use as much locally sourced produce as possible, and love to forage for mushrooms in my spare time we are so lucky to have sea and forest so close together, a lot of knowledge of where produce originates from is lost on young chefs coming in to the industry, I take my chefs mushroom picking E.T.C so they have a better knowledge of where stuff comes from, not just picking up a phone and ordering it!!
Silver medal best in class, Alaskan Seafood Challenge, Wessex Salon Culiniare.
