Island Life Magazine Ltd April/May 2010 | Page 133

food

Island Life - April/May 2010

Winteringham Fields – A media frenzy after achieving 1 Michelin star at 23 years old

Trip number two to Gordon Ramsay’s with big brother Patrick

Robert looks back on his Swiss mentor

Robert and Diana celebrating on another food trip

been down for the day, met the owner,

can’t be cost effective.”

with great affection, particularly

saw the beach with everyone crammed

applauding the way he would take him

on it.” Most important for him, after

are not generally big moneymakers – the

to the dining room to receive the plaudits

his Winteringham Fields and Cliveden

sheer cost of ingredients sees to that. Yet,

from satisfied customers in person.

experience, was to ensure management

over the course of his first year he had

However, the new owner had big ideas,

kept out his kitchen. “I had to be allowed

broken even. “Which was my plan,” he

and ended up spending hugely on a

to put my own stamp on it. I had to have

says, in his quiet, confident way.

showpiece restaurant in which Robert felt

them say ‘there’s your stage, off you go.”

like a goldfish in a bowl.
So he took a job at the palatial Cliveden
House Hotel, owned jointly by English
Heritage and National Trust, taking some
of his Winteringham Fields people with
him. But although he loved the house he
was let down by the company who ran
the restaurant. “They didn’t pay their

So this is his stage. Perhaps what we

Being bawled out day in
day out took its toll. ‘In the
end I couldn’t be bothered
with cooking anymore. I’d
had knocked every bit of
confidence out of me’

suppliers, so often we just ran out of
sugar! I had to go.”
At which point his attention was drawn

He admits Michelin starred restaurants

Surely, though, if he’d gone to London
rather than the Isle of Wight, he could
have all this but with double his salary?
“In London you’re a tiny fish in a huge
pond. I want to create a venue people
will travel to, come and stay spend two
or three days, eat and talk about it. In
London your reputation’s London. I want
to have a reputation in London, but be
known for being here.”

don’t pick up when we see the ferry

He points to Rick Stein and to what he’s

videos of Robert in the kitchen is that he

done to the fishing village of Padstow

to the Hambrough Hotel on the Isle

is responsible for the whole hotel, not just

in Cornwall. “He’s transformed it, it’s

of Wight. You might wonder why he

the kitchen. So if a bed isn’t comfortable

prosperous, look at the amount of TV

considered the move for more than a

or the hairdryer doesn’t work, residents

coverage it’s had.”

second. After all, he was going from a

come to him. “I get unbelievably cross

huge palace to a private hotel which had

when I see one of my staff has left a light

surprisingly measured in his answer.

had its ups and downs, which had just 23

on in a room,” he grins. “I don’t throw

“I’d like to use TV to enhance what I’m

seats and a handful of rooms.

my weight around in the kitchen but I get

doing here, not be written off because I

picky over money being chucked away for

appeared for a bit and then never again.

no reason. I have to run a tight ship or it

The worst thing would be to have this

“Yeah, it was the biggest risk – but
I made the decision in 10 minutes. I’d
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So does television beckon? Robert is

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