Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 112

life

FOOD & DRINK

Success? For the St Helen’s Restaurant
it’s just the way the rhubarb crumbles
July 12th was a good day
for Mark Young at the
St Helen’s Restaurant.
At 11o’clock he was
told he’d become a
regional finalist in the
UKTV Food Hero Awards.
Then at 12 o’clock the
restaurant was awarded
its first AA Rosette. He’s
feeling pretty lucky.
But then you somehow feel
Mark makes his own luck. He’s
a man who has always known
what he wants. At the age of
five his dream was not to drive
a fire engine but to be a chef
on the QE2. At 16 he went to
study catering at the Isle of
Wight College, but as he says,
“the minute you first hold a
chef’s knife in your hand you
want your own restaurant”.
“Life’s about ticking

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the boxes. I got my own
restaurant two years ago,
but the minute it opens, you
want to get a Rosette!”
So while he rides on his
burgeoning success he
is effusive in thanking his
customers and readers of
Island Life magazine for voting
for him in the Local Hero
Awards, and his staff for taking
time during serving to hand
out details of how to do so.
The achievement of becoming
one of five finalists in the South
East region is staggering, and
Mark is bowled over by the
support he has received.
“Over 5,000 businesses had
been nominated, and effectively
we finished in the top 50 out
of 5000. There were great
reviews on the UKTV website –
submitted by customers – and
from the top 20 in each region
five finalists were chosen.”
But great reviews don’t

come from nowhere. “Even
people who haven’t been to
the restaurant have voted for
us. We are known for using
local produce, and people
like that. It’s good for farmers,
its good for the environment
and its good to eat.”
Knowing what people like
is the absolute crux of Mark’s
success. While we talk, a
succession of smart cars pull
up and their passengers pop
out to peer at the restaurant
they’re hearing so much
about. The restaurant is
furnished with wooden tables
and kitchen chairs, and the
décor is seaside blue. Logical,
given its seaside location.
Marks approach generally
is, why would you want to
eat vegetables which have
languished in a sealed plastic
bag or fish which travelled
down from the north of England
when you can eat fish that

had been swimming off the
island just hours before you
sat down? Mark even has a
blackboard on display listing
his suppliers so his customers
can shop where he does.
“We have no set menu, it
changes all the time and is
absolutely seasonal. So I might
get all my asparagus during
the season from a multi-acre
farmer, and then I get 3lb of
loganberries from Gerry Hillier,
who is 88 and has half an acre
of garden down the road.”
Right on queue Gerry appears
at the door of the restaurant,
offering Mark a plastic bag full
of rhubarb. By the evening it
will be a crumble, perhaps with
some of Gerry’s loganberries
and a touch of ginger. “People
still like crumble even in the
summer months” says Mark.
Gerry ends up staying for a
good half hour, and they chat
about his nurturing techniques.

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