Three is the magic number for the team at Gilpin Hotel & Lake House who have grand plans to become the foodie destination of the north. Emma Mayoh sits down with owners Barney and Zoë Cunliffe and the trio of chefs leading the charge
Christine Cunliffe spent her last moments finding out the future of the business she founded. Her son Barney, who now runs Gilpin Hotel & Lake House with wife Zoë, was driving back from Scotland when he received the news his mother may not make it until he arrived home.
‘Zoe had warned me this might be the last time I would get to talk to my dear mum,’ says Barney. ‘It was a really emotional thing, as you would expect, and I was in a taxi on my way home. All she wanted to know was if we had got the right chefs, the people who we wanted. She was happy we had. Those were the last words I said to her. Driving home in that taxi I had tears streaming down my face. She knew how her beloved Gilpin would go into the future.’
Barney and Zoe are sitting in the house where Christine and husband, John – Barney's parents - once lived. It is another poignant moment for them to be sharing that same space with the next generation of chefs who will no doubt catapult this renowned hotel to even greater heights.
And whatever the weather outside, they are surrounded by warmth from the Gilpin team who are buzzing around, thrusting tea into our hands, while they busy for that day’s prep.
Because despite the deep sadness of Christine’s death, Barney and Zoe are confident in pushing the Gilpin Barney's parents founded into a new era, just as they would have wanted.
The couple, along with their stellar team, have already created a world-renowned hotel and dining experience. With the help of outgoing chef, Hrishikesh Desai, Gilpin gained a Michelin star with its restaurant HRiSHi. Now, they have recruited some of the best in the business to take the next step.
Ollie Bridgwater, the former Fat Duck sous chef who worked along Heston Blumenthal for 14 years, will oversee Source, Gilpin’s new fine dining restaurant; former HRiSHi chef Aakash Ohol will take the reins at the much beloved Gilpin Spice and former Lucknam Park chef Tom Westerland, who prefers to be known as Westy, will run Knipe Grill at Gilpin Lake House, where he will cook over fire, creating innovative dishes for guests while they soak up panoramic views of the lake. Tom’s will be the first restaurant to launch.
Barney says: ‘Rather than try to emulate what we had with Hrishikesh, Zoë and I felt it was time to try something new and with the opening of our new restaurant, it felt like the ideal time to begin to diversify our culinary offering.
‘We took this opportunity to appoint a new chef, to run each restaurant independently. Ultimately, our aim is for our guests to be spoilt for choice and for Gilpin to be a complete foodie destination, one that’s built on a sustainable ethos.’
Sustainability will be one of the main ingredients on the menu. Although the hotel already does much to counteract their impact on the environment – hot tubs in every room have focussed their attention on the issue – they are now introducing ground-breaking measures to make a bigger difference. This includes a nose to tail ethos across the restaurants where the different menus will mean as much of an animal can be used as possible. They are also in the beginning stages of establishing a vertical farm – a new facility they have been testing for around a year – where they can use three different methods to grow upwards of 1,300 plants to supply flavour-packed ingredients and consistency for the three restaurants.
Under Barney’s guidance, the property will also introduce its strategy for sustainability. This will include new procedures and techniques for procurement, scrutinising the supply chain and developing a new Culinary Centre, complete with its own on-site butchery, and working with local farms and specific herds.
‘I want to talk to farmers so we can work with a farm and start to look at having our own Gilpin herd,’ says Barney. ‘We won't become farmers; we will leave that to the experts, but we will have more knowledge and control over the food in our restaurants.
‘With the vertical farm, we’ll be able to produce flavours that no-one else can experience. It will be picked and put on the plate immediately. There will be no wastage. Sustainability will be at the top of the agenda, with all three restaurants collaborating when it comes to, say, using the whole animal. We want the least carbon for the most flavour on the plate, and we'll be able to measure that.
‘Ten to 12 years ago, knowing a hotel’s carbon footprint wasn’t at the front of guests’ minds in the way it is now. But it’s become as important an issue as food traceability. It’s also something each venue will be rated for on Google before long. When we have rooms that have their own hot tubs, as an example, we have to do our best to try and mitigate that usage.
‘It’s really exciting. Not only will we create an experience for our guests where they have three incredible places to eat, but we will be doing it in a way that will help reduce our impact.’
MEET THE CHEFS
Ollie Bridgwater, executive chef at Source
Ollie will take on the mantle of Gilpin’s one Michelin starred, 4 AA Rosette restaurant, which has been renamed Source. He spent 14 years at The Fat Duck, one of the country’s most innovative kitchens, as well as working on Heston Blumenthal’s Sydney restaurant.
He left the Fat Duck a year ago and has been waiting for the right opportunity to come along. Bringing new techniques, skills, creativity and imagination honed in one of the most competitive, demanding and pressurised roles in the industry, Ollie’s appointment is a real coup for the region’s burgeoning fine dining scene.
He wants Source to be a restaurant where sourcing, local produce and sustainability are at the top of the agenda: ‘I’m very grateful for the opportunity here with Barney and Zoë. There is a lot of history here, a lot of family; I want to respect that and protect the legacy. It does mean a lot to be chosen for this role. I visited before I knew I was coming to work here and I always thought it was a very special place, so I’m excited to get started.
‘Style-wise, I’m not going to try and replicate what I’ve been doing at The Fat Duck, but of course there will be strong influences. I do have some particular dishes in mind but I’m keeping them under wraps for now.’
Aakash Ohol, head chef at Gilpin Spice
Aakash has worked as sous chef at HRiSHi and as a long established, five-star head chef of Asian cuisine in Goa, India. Now taking on the top job at Gilpin Spice he has exciting plans to transform the menus which is renowned locally for its inspired fusion of Asian-influenced cuisine.
‘I’m very ambitious to take Gilpin Spice even further from the great foundations laid already,’ he says. ‘My recent experience in HRiSHi served to refine and develop my culinary abilities and ideas. I want to present ‘a country in a bowl’, not the exact cuisine but a sense of it at least. I have a lot of ideas and I’m looking forward to creating them. India has a lot of different spices, every city it is different. The same with the Philippines, China, Japan, Vietnam; finding the exciting dishes and bringing them here, that is the main idea right now.
‘The thing I’m most looking forward to is seeing my guests’ reaction to the food. The kitchen at Spice is open so diners are right in front of me and the team, we can see them, we can ask them what they think – especially along the chefs’ table which surrounds the kitchen. If they keep coming back again and again, I know they enjoy the food.’
Tom ‘Westy’ Westerland, head chef at Knipe Grill at Gilpin Lake House
The Welsh chef trained at Restaurant Hywel Jones, the well-revered fine dining offering at Relais & Châteaux Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, which has held a Michelin star since 2006.
He was also head chef at Lucknam Park, where he discovered and refined his passion for grill cooking, especially on coal, combining this with Michelin techniques to enhance the quality. His vision for Knipe Grill is to create a menu that is fun, entertaining, nostalgic playful – dishes to get guests talking.
Westy, who is the reigning National Chef of the Year for Wales and will also feature on the Great British Menu, says: ‘I’ve never seen anything like the Lake District before, it’s a fantastic region. To see some of the views, you can’t help but be inspired by what’s out there. It also has some of the best produce in the country thanks to the environment it is being grown in and reared in.
‘I plan on bringing my own style to the restaurant. My food is very fun, there’s always a bit of a story behind it. So, I’ll be focusing in on storytelling and communicating that to the guests so they know the background of the dish and what the inspiration was behind it.
‘My inspiration comes from my love of food. I’ve always loved going out and eating and playing around on barbecues. My food is based around cooking with charcoal and different woods. Some of my ideas come from driving around an area – I have a notebook with me all the time and I’ll jot down things I see that could transfer into my cooking, like the pine trees surrounding the Lake House for example. Being somewhere like this, where you have so much inspiration around you, it’s a fantastic tool to work with.’
