Acorn Awards 2025: Marina Brook, Coworth Park
Brook is a mentor and role model, training and guiding colleagues across departments
Age 26
Position Restaurant manager, Coworth Park
Nominator Jonathan Ellson, director of food and beverage, Coworth Park
Marina Brook is setting the bar for luxury restaurant leadership – and doing it with purpose, polish and people at the core. As restaurant manager at Woven by Adam Smith at Coworth Park in Ascot, Brook leads a 22-strong team and oversees a significant operation that’s winning guests, awards and headlines.
Brook’s career began at Coworth Park in 2016 while still a student. After university, she joined the Dorchester Collection’s prestigious Ultimate Leaders Programme and gained experience by working across all aspects of F&B spanning six departments as well as project management. She was later named the group’s inaugural Graduate of the Year. Since then, she’s risen swiftly through three promotions, taking over Coworth Park’s destination restaurant in 2023.
In the past year alone, Woven earned five AA rosettes, a spot in Harden’s Top 5 UK restaurants, and 10th place in SquareMeal’s UK Top 100. Brook helped secure two Michelin Keys for Coworth Park and led the team through its most profitable year yet, achieving a front-of-house engagement score of 87% – a hotel record.
Beyond service, Brook is a mentor and role model. She trains and guides colleagues across departments, runs team-building initiatives like ‘Woven Inside Out’, and regularly represents the industry at open days and charity events. She also coaches applicants for major awards, including tutoring four of her team to apply for Gold Service Scholarship, three of whom were semi-finalists.
Known for her blend of calm authority, creativity and empathy, Brook is elevating the guest experience and shaping a modern vision for fine dining leadership.
What does an Acorn Award mean to you?
“Having grown up travelling the world due to my parents being in the hospitality industry, then working and studying in the industry since I was 17 years old, I’ve grown up with huge admiration for those who have been awarded an Acorn and it has certainly always been an aspiration of mine. I feel very lucky to have worked with three former Acorn winners throughout my time at Coworth Park and to be the fourth gives me incredible pride to be recognised as part of a special group of people. Bearing in mind the industry is so large, full of such amazing talent, many of whom are under 30, to be highlighted as one is the proudest moment thus far of my career.”
Who has been your biggest industry champion?
“At the age of 17 I was introduced to Zoe Jenkins, general manager at Coworth Park, duly joining her team a week later. A true icon and industry legend, forging a pathway for herself as a woman in F&B, at a time when it was very male dominated. She has been an inspiration for me as I have grown up and developed along the way, getting to where I am now, never shy to provide a listening ear when needed. That being said, as a mentor, ‘Miss J’ will always tell me how it is and when I’m in the wrong, which is needed from time to time.”
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