Gardener at Hampton Court Palace. In between dreaming, quietly contemplating, smiling, wondering

Gardening Supervisor in a small local firm.

The Table is a long, complex narrative which began when I was interviewed for the position of Chef/ Manager by Paul Appleton, who’s vision was to make the restaurant as much a part of a regenerated neighbourhoods landscape as new buildings and gardens. I was seduced by this vision of an ancient neighbourhood rising once more from the ashes of it’s past, and I was excited that I too could make a mark, no matter how small.I began where I had left off, deepening local, British supplier relationships, and introducing new ones via networking opportunities I built with Sustain and the Sustainable Restaurant Association. I created a long-lasting narrative with St Mungo’s Charity via their Putting Down Roots scheme and developed an apprenticeship scheme which we trialled with several clients to get them into our kitchen, and onto an NVQ scheme. I created, project-managed and developed the 40 cover outdoor terrace space, which I filled with mulberry trees, and populated it with English willow and grasses to create a mini Urban Garden. The Table was my constant.My principle was to hand-make everything, we were to be judged by the integrity of each day’s labour, and we nurtured the neighbourhood as our home. Fourteen years leading one of London’s most iconic, independent restaurants didn’t come easy, and certainly didn’t get done alone. My proudest moments were through the team; from the Head Chef who over 11 years I mentored from kitchen porter, to the current Operations Manager who started out as Supervisor, but each person, no matter position, was a lesson.It's easy to think that after all those years I was moulded, indeed, made by The Table, that I was The Table, however I always believed that a business must never rely on a cult of personality, instead it must stand on the merits of all of those that work on and in it. So, for that, I am grateful for all The Table gave me, and of all the chances I gave it to shine brightly among the many restaurant stars in London.

Executive Chef: Steve Everett WattsKeen to cut my teeth on a bigger project, I took the Head Chef position at Villandry on Great Portland Street (virtually opposite the BBC), while Executive Chef Steve Everett-Watts, of The River Café, oversaw the project on a broader scale. (To be clear, it was a really big project: 24-hour bakery, 40-seater charcutier bar, deli the size of the Selfridges food hall…) It was owned and run by the utterly magnificent Martha Greene, who was a doyenne of New Labour. Villandry was one of the first large-scale and thoroughly modern incarnations of restaurant-cum-delicatessen, successfully copied by the likes of Conran’s Bluebird. I often describe those days as working in a chocolate box of delights. Villandry saw me fall in love with independent British suppliers, who often would be seen walking their produce, hoiked over their shoulders, right through the restaurant. There was no one we weren’t prepared to try; no one we weren’t prepared to take seriously and offer a way into the London food market. Sadly, Villandry was sold a year after I joined, and I left soon after the sale.

My first head chef position was at The Wallace Collection’s restaurant, the coral-pink, palm tree-encircled, light-flooded Café Bagatelle, now called The Wallace Restaurant. I worked with GM Marcello Soares (ex Club Gascon), who gave me free reign over the event and lunch menus. Appropriate to the collection, I naturally chose French classics as inspiration.

Head Chef: Tomislav MartinovicIn the last year of my degree I worked with Tomislav at The Greyhound. He was a brilliant, perfectionist chef of the Heston Blumenthal and Eric Chavot stables, and we were often visited by the cheffing worlds illuminati. Little did Tom know that my final-year degree project was on staff retention in the restaurant industry, which is why he must have wondered how I managed to tolerate his utterly volcanic and violent mood swings for so long. It must also be said that the wine list, most of it owned privately by Mark van der Goot, was a thing of such comprehensive wonder that it always threatened to outshine the food.

Head Chef: Manjula SachdevMy time in Sydney was not without mischief, and I crawled back to London having lost my marriage. I began my recovery at the British Museum as Sous Chef at The Court Restaurant (while also running the cocktail bar at the back of Cantaloupe in Shoreditch by night). Something had to give, and Manjula, who’d been given the herculean task of bringing the vast kitchens of the British Museum to order, was the first to notice all was not well. She took me under her wing and saved me from myself. I lived in her house for three months, eating Goan curries and watching Bollywood movies for hours. Two years later, and it was Manjula who encouraged me to enrol on the fledgling International Culinary Arts Bsc degree, run by what was then Ealing College (now the University of West London). When I graduated, she bought me pair of shoes which, to this day, I faithfully polish and keep in good order.

Head chef: David ThompsonAfter spending a few months touring Australia with my then wife, we settled in Sydney. Darley Street Thai in Kings Cross was the first restaurant we ate in. So overwhelmed was I by what I experienced that night I ate the meal in complete silence. When we’d finished, I quietly got up, walked over to the pass, and told David I would do anything to work with him. As luck would have it, he’d just fired his Sous chef for changing an ingredient on a dish and asked if I’d like to start the next day. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. If I thought Loubert or Gaume were exacting, I had yet to learn of razor-sharp knives and julienning lemongrass into angels-hair strands. Yet those three years changed my entire outlook not only on cooking, but on the art and pleasure of eating. I learnt of the sensual experience of dining. I learnt what it was to be not just a chef, but a cook. He showed me what it took to be a restaurateur. He is brilliant, continues to astound and I am so proud to say, remains my mentor, guide and very dear friend.

Head Chef: Bernard GaumeFrom the frying into the fire. Bernard Gaume was one of the founders of nouvelle cuisine and was a merciless and demanding chef who would settle for nothing short of perfection. His five-star, Michelin-starred hotel kitchen had a fully equipped and staffed butchery and full-time fishmonger. In my time there I won a memorable trip to Morocco – to celebrate Burns Night. Butchering 40 sheep carcasses in the 40C dessert heat is something I will never forget, although the many single malts helped me get through it.

Executive Chef: Bruno Loubet. Head Chef: Anthony DemetreThe first restaurant I worked in was the 270-seater behemoth L’Odéon, right in the heart of London on Oxford Street. With Chef Bruno Loubet and his protégée Anthony Demetre firing on all guns, this was my baptism of fire. Working weeks of 60 hours+, 55 chefs and a prep kitchen the size of a football field deep underground: it was utterly unrelenting work and totally immersive. Chefs dropped like flies on a daily basis, but the beast kept rolling. I loved every single burnt, scared, cut, bruised second of it. My career in cooking had begun.