Chef talk: John
We caught up with one of our chefs, John Brimicombe.
From an early age if you asked me what I wanted to be when I was older I would say “a chef”. I took inspiration from well-known chefs such as Gordon Ramsey, the Roux brothers and Michael Caines and I knew this was an industry that I wanted to be a part of. After spending three years at Michael Caines Academy, learning the basics of professional cookery, I joined the team for work experience at Àclèaf, formerly The Gallery Restaurant. During this time I worked in all areas of the hotel in different kitchens, I knew that fine dining was the area of cooking I most enjoyed so after graduating from the Academy I joined the team full time.
Although I initially joined the team on larder, I moved across to cover the pastry section which initially wasn’t something I enjoyed. Pastry was never something I enjoyed at college; I’d actively go out of my way to avoid anything to do with pastry. After a few months of covering this section, I was pleased to move back across to larder. However, after only being back for a couple of weeks, I realised that pastry was actually my passion so I moved back to head up the pastry section and I haven’t looked back since.
During the busy Spring/Summer seasons, myself and the team will produce over 300 afternoon tea stands per week for guests to enjoy at Boringdon Hall. You need to be in a different head space to bulk make that many tiny elements and bring them all together, but I really enjoy that. Especially when you can change tiny details each season such as the shape and flavour of the macaron, for example. It gives you some creativity to embrace special occasions.
If there is one thing that I love to work with and experiment with, it’s chocolate. There’s a lot of skill needed to perfect chocolate. You can develop new styles and flavours, and we are always experimenting. Sometimes chocolate has it’s own mind and just decides it’s not going to play ball on certain days due to the temperature in the kitchen. But that’s just part of the fun of chocolate.
We are always experimenting with chocolate– from playing with cocoa butter to decorating silicone moulds. We really didn’t expect these chocolates to turn out like they did as they were just a first prototype batch, but we produced some beautiful cherry bakewell chocolates which had the moulds sprayed and they turned out incredible. That’s the beauty of chocolate, it always surprises you.
We love to use this element of surprise in our dishes; as the last dish on the menu it’s important to leave a lasting impression and leave guests with a sense of amazement. Dishes where you expect a certain flavour or texture and they turn out to be completely different is really exciting and guests attach an emotion of shock and excitement to the dining experience which creates that lasting memory. That’s what I live for.
Find out more about our team of chefs on our Meet The Team page.