Kirkbymoorside Fine Dining | Our Team

Meet The Team

My food memories are about the dishes that sustained us as a family! My life was a rural one, my family were farm workers working in the fields and so food was about providing comfort after a hard day...as well as being tasty it needed to be plentiful.

My nan was the central figure in our family when it came to food, she would always make sure grandad had supper after a hard days work and I have memories of roast potatoes, baked beans and warming tomato soup awaiting me (and my friends) after school. For me, food doesn't always need to be sophisticated, as long as it's wholesome, flavoursome and sets you up for the day! These are my food roots...Sunday roasts, carb loaded heaven and the after glow of hard days graft food!

Growing up in the 70's I found freedom to explore different food through the "take aways" popping up in our area, nan would look aghast at my "plate full of worms" from the local Chinese restaurant! My working life gave me the opportunity to experience classic French food and I'm happy to try everything at least once but I've never lost that connection to my roots that food in its simplest form is as good as it gets.

Ian - Managing Partner

My first memories of food revolve around family, my mother and father loved to host our family gatherings attended by aunties and uncles, cousins and grandparents they always involved those simply delightful activities of podding peas, shelling broad beans, peeling potatoes whilst listening to my aunties chatter and infectious laughter.

My father was originally a self employed carpenter and I would love to accompany him on his jobs in the holidays, we'd sneak into some of the restaurants he knew and have a cosmopolitan lunch, he'd say shhh don't tell your mother as we tucked into Peking duck, moules, lobster, tournedos rossini all quite common place now days!

and... through this conspiratorial activity and his eventual involvement in refurbing some of the most well known London hotel restaurants in the 70's which included the Savoy, I also witnessed the dawn of the chain food establishments. Remember Berni Inn, the Texas Pancake Houses, Pizza Land and Wimpy? It's fair to say my appreciation for food is not limited to fine dining!

My love for food grew with me, consuming endless cookery programmes, books, articles whilst my contemporaries read Vogue, Red and She I opted for Delicious, Good Food and Olive! I have dabbled in professional cookery but I am more comfortable photographing and eating food than producing it. I would say that all of my food experiences up to now have given me great knowledge...

Karen - Managing Partner

“There’s a saying that chefs never plan to be chefs — they just fall into it. That’s pretty much what happened to me. I was 16, thought I’d end up in construction, but that didn’t work out. I got a job as a pot wash in a hotel kitchen instead, and it wasn’t the food that hooked me at first. It was the buzz of the place — the atmosphere, the graft, the team. The people I looked up to just happened to be chefs.

I’m always impressed by people in the industry who stick to their principles. Anthony Bourdain, for example — a proper humble rockstar. He’d sit in a puddle eating with anyone, anywhere, and celebrate whatever was put in front of him. Then there’s Marco Pierre White — not a rebel, just someone totally confident in what he does. And chefs like Tom Brown, whose passion for fish I really relate to. He gets that you can’t treat everything the same — you wouldn’t cook chicken like steak, so why cook all fish the same?

For me, food’s always been about bringing people together. Whether it’s chatting recipes with your best mate, cooking something special for the people you love, or smashing out a new dish you hope will blow your customers away — there’s just something about it that makes moments stick. That’s what keeps me doing what I do.

Oliver - Head Chef