In at the deep end
Hotel du Vin & Bistro has just completed its first six months in business and custom is above projections. As a result, executive directors Robin Hutson and Gerard Basset are considering expansion. Basset is preparing for his Master of Wine exam theory.
AGED only 22, James Martin has been catapulted from second pastry chef at Chewton Glen to head of the kitchen at Hotel du Vin, running a team of five.
As well as proving his cooking skills, Martin has had to take on the administration of a kitchen for the first time, organising ordering, stock control and cleaning rotas. And while he had expected to be learning in the relative comfort of the 35 covers a day projected, the kitchen team instead found itself producing an average 96 covers daily, reaching more than 120 on function days.
When Robin Hutson and Gerard Basset were first formulating the Hotel du Vin & Bistro concept, they offered Martin the position of second chef. They wanted someone with more experience to head the kitchen- but finding the person they had in mind was not straightforward. After testing a number of applicants they decided to investigate the talent they had at hand.
They asked Martin to cook a special meal for them while they were both still at Chewton Glen, but didn't tell him they were considering him for the head chef job. "They told me they knew I was good at pastry but wanted to see what else I could do - when they tasted the meal they were amazed I could cook like that and knew I just needed a push in the right direction," Martin recollects.
For the two months before he started at Hotel du Vin, Hutson and Basset sent Martin to London to do stints at restaurants such as Stephen Bull, Chez Max, and Quaglino's. That gave him the chance to see first hand what was happening around the capital's successful establishments, something that he maintains is an essential part of his job. "I regularly visit friends who are head chefs at top London bistros to get new ideas," he says.
For Martin, the long hours and the hard work required in the first few months at Hotel du Vin really paid off when he received his first national newspaper revue giving handsome praise of his cooking. "The Jonathan Meades article in the Sunday Times was my high point," he says. That was followed by visits from The Observer and London's Evening Standard, and You magazine is to visit soon.
But running a kitchen in a new establishment is not all about building visibility. To ensure food costs are measured, a purchasing control system has been introduced that enables Martin to see how much he is spending and how much revenue is coming in from customers.
The target to reach is 35% food cost, although to date it has been about 46%. One reason for this is the amount of food that has been given away to room sponsors as part of the original package. The offer ends after the first six months, so food costs should see a significant improvement this month.
