Teachersat work
AT FIRST glance, 22 Chesterton Road, Cambridge, is a restaurant like many others: a town house converted to serve modern, eclectic cuisine in a setting luxurious enough to match the average bill of about £60 for two.
Since November 1992, however, 22 Chesterton Road has been owned by two lecturers at the nearby Cambridge Regional College, and staffed by students and ex-students of the samecollege.
Five times a week, after teaching cookery students all day, David Carter and Louise Crompton head for the restaurant and work a full evening session. For anyone who believes catering education and the hospitality industry are still miles apart, it's a sight for sore eyes.
The two lecturers' involvement in 22 Chesterton Road offers several benefits to the college. It has picked up some of the publicity enjoyed by the restaurant on local radio and in local newspapers. And there has been tangible, practical help in arranging placements for students.
Harder to quantify, but at least as important, says Carter, is the bridge-building effect, closing the gap between education and industry: "Here you have two people with their fingers on the pulse of catering, and that has to have a spin-off for the students. You have two teachers who are 100% up to date - contrary to the image of education!"
Carter spent nearly ten years as a working chef before training as a teacher in the mid 1970s. Throughout that time he nursed an ambition to buy his own restaurant.
The opportunity arose in 1991, when one of Louise Crompton's students, Ian Reinhardt, was on placement at 22 Chesterton Road - then called Restaurant 22. Carter asked Crompton to reconnoitre the business when she visited Reinhardt.
Following a favourable report, Carter expressed an interest to buy. Crompton came in as a partner and eventually the owner agreed to sell.
The hunt for finance was difficult, with most of the traditional sources proving completely unhelpful. Then Carter enlisted the help of David Rham, a financial adviser with General Portfolio. "He put the package together and we raised the money through the Bank of Scotland," says Carter.
"It took us a year. Buying a business was the most amazing learning experience - and no one else knew what we were doing until we had signed."
Carter began talking with the previous owner in the summer of 1991, and finally completed the purchase of 22 Chesterton Road on 12 November 1992.
"Then we went to Peter Hurrell, principal at the college, and told him our intentions. He fully supported us, as long as we didn't neglect our jobs. He saw its advantages."
The partners quickly knew who they wanted to employ: Carter had known Chris Gorham as a student, helped him with placements and got him his first full-time job when he left college. He was hired originally to work alongside Carter in the kitchen, with Crompton looking after front of house. But when Gorham arrived it was soon clear that he was capable of looking after his own team as head chef, and Carter now works front of house too.
Ian Reinhardt, now 21, joined as sous chef straight from college. Gorham is now 23, and with other regular help coming from current third- year students Sharon Robinson and Tony Fleming, it's definitely a youthful team.
The restaurant is as good as it is because of the support it gets from the college. Carter has been able to use contacts made through his involvement at college, and hotels and restaurants often phone him to ask about possible recruits among his students.
"All catering teachers are in part employment agents - some do it more than others. I've kept up work in kitchens throughout my career, but now there's even greater respect from owners, because I'm one of them."
Carter went for a set-price menu, with a small choice on each course: four starters; a fish course (no choice, and charged extra if taken); salad; four mains; and four desserts.
"As a team we spend a lot of time planning the menus so that they are balanced for the customer and the chefs in the kitchen can cook them in the right conditions. "I believe in a classic background and modern treatment. Thirty years ago, there was only one way to prepare any dish, and that was the right way. Now chefs can be adventurous."
Gorham offers plenty of examples: one main course on the May menu was a roulade of monkfish, each piece wrapped in spinach leaves, sitting on a little mound of spaztle noodles, and dramatically set off by a black sauce made from squid - inc luding the ink.
The vegetarian option was a ring of tortellini stuffed with spinach and potato, a sweet potato mousse in the centre, and a clear golden sauce - effectively a hot vinaigrette.
Home-made crisps are a feature - and not just potato crisps: Gorham shreds and dries a wide range of vegetables and quickly deep-fries them in hot sunflower oil, to make a topping for salads and cooked dishes.
Carter's brother Colin, who has twice reached the finals of the Daily Telegraph wine tasting competition, and whose wine knowledge David Carter rates as "second to none," writes the wine list for 22 Chesterton Road, and buys the wine for the restaurant.
special events
22 Chesterton Road is normally closed on Monday evenings, but will open for special events, such as specialised wine evenings, when Colin Carter acts as sommelier and lecturer.
Another Monday night activity is to hold a six-week course of cookery demonstrations, when up to 10 people will pay £45 to watch and taste as the food is prepared, hear about and taste wines to go with the food and finish the evening with a two-course meal.
Preparation of the packs for course members - which include an apron for everyone as well as literature - is done by the 22 Chesterton Road team, and Carter sees it as a good opportunity for people to learn business skills.
Not everything has gone smoothly, and the teacher/restaurateurs have learnt from mistakes. Carter admits: "It's not just about being restaurateurs: it's about maintaining the property, too. The stamina you need is amazing but it becomes a way of life."
The partners have ploughed back all the profits into the business, and have not taken a salary so far. "Eventually we will reap a reward - when we've put the kitchen and the restaurant into the best condition," says Carter. o
