Having travelled the world and cooked for celebrities and royalty, chef ‘Gamey Jaimie’ Haselock has come home to champion all that is Somerset and open a 'secret' supper club.
Leaving behind the glitz and glamour of the London cheffing scene to return to his beloved roots, Jaimie Haselock is game for anything — especially if it's Somerset-grown.
Flamboyant and energetic, this successful young cook who trades under the pseudonym Gamey Jaimie is delighted to have ‘come home’ to the West Country, which can only benefit from his experience and infectious enthusiasm.
Although born in Belfast during The Troubles of 1984, Jaimie Haselock describes himself as ‘a Somerset lad through and through’ after his former Royal Marines father brought the family to Norton Manor Camp, near Norton Fitzwarren, when Jaimie was just 18 months old.
‘My mother now considers herself as a Northern Irish lady but with a Somerset heart,’ says the former pupil of Kings Hall School, Taunton.
Gordonstoun School in Scotland, where HRH Prince Philip was famously educated, was Jaimie’s next stop which he describes as giving him ‘a massive diversity of the whole of the country’.
Being brought up in Halse, near Taunton, where his family moved to in 1987, Jaimie describes himself as being ‘ground-rooted in Somerset’ and his ambition and principles stem from his ‘home’ and his family.
He explains: ’My passion for food and cooking came from my mother — she’s an absolute inspiration to me. Being brought up in Halse, we had some great neighbours where we would share dinner parties all the time.
‘I always had a sense of excitement, tasting wonderful new dishes my mother would cook in her country kitchen on her Aga. And just seeing her entertain and seeing how much happiness and joy it brought to her and other people, as well as trying delicious food and the importance of her teaching me about buying local, free-range and, if possible, organic food.
‘Another influence is a well-known Somerset lad from Wiveliscombe who went to school in Wellington, my food hero Keith Floyd — he is another big inspiration to why I got into food. The fun, the flamboyance, the ambience, the drinking, the tastes — when he talks, you can just imagine these delicious smells coming out of the TV. I remember, watching him as a child, that is what I wanted to do.
‘I started off loving food and hospitality from a young age, working in local pubs as a whipper-snapper, pot-washing at The New Inn, Halse, to bar serving and waiting at the Farmers’ Arms at Combe Florey.’
A gap year followed school, travelling the world, before he joined to Exeter University based in Plymouth where his work studying media arts, journalism and documentary making was all dedicated to food, wine and hospitality, including the beauty of local, sustainable foods.
From university, Jaimie discovered fine wine, starting his career at Exeter wine company Execellars at Exeter Racecourse learning knowledge of fine wine and delivering them around the West Country, from North Somerset to South Devon.
’It was a wonderful experience. And this is where I got the taste for wine… as well as getting a taste for it at school and at home,’ he jokes.
During this time, Jaimie set up Champers and Hampers, selling Champagne hampers at country events across the area, starting off at Taunton Polo Club, selling Champagne and strawberries at their summer fixtures.
While still in his early 20s, he made the move to London where he worked at a fine wine brokerage, whilst continuing with Champers and Hampers at weekends.
When the fine wine market crashed his best friend told him he should do what he loved — his passion for food. So, he set up a successful supper club — the SW6 Supper Club — in the heart of southwest London, using mainly West Country produce. The supper club still going today, now taken over by young enthusiasts.
During his time in London, Jaimie honed his extensive self-taught cooking skills by working in fine dining restaurants in the heart of London, training at the famous Harwood Arms in Fulham, under Mike Robinson, who shares Jaimie’s passion for sustainability, traceability and working with game.
A spell in Africa followed, training as a private chef and accompanying people on big game reserves, cooking on charcoal, teaching locals how to cook for Westerners.
‘From there, I came back and relaunched Champers and Hampers and was entered into a national competition at the CLA (Country Land and Business Association) Game Fair, which I didn’t expect to be entered into.
‘I literally wrote my menu and dish on a cigarette packet on the way to the competition. Lo and behold, I won and, from there, I became a successful private chef overnight, cooking all over the world for royalty, to celebrities to film producers and film makers, working in Africa, Scotland, the Americas.’
‘That is the reason I’m called Gamey Jaimie — because I have won Game Chef of the Year twice. I’ve now been nominated a third time and I specialise in using game. It is so good for you, very high in protein, very low in cholesterol and you can’t get closer to field-to-fork on your plate.
‘I don’t like to typecast myself but game can be anything from hunting wild mushrooms in the fields, getting wild fish from the rivers and seas, gamey vegetables — it’s not just meat! I even do vegan and vegetarian supper clubs.
'I like to describe my passion for food as art on a plate because of being very, very dyslexic, I’m very creative and the best way to express that, for me, is cooking with a bit of pizzazz!’
‘Food is my stress-release, it keeps me calm and is a way to show off my character and who I am.’
After spending 15 years in The Big Smoke, the larger-than-life personality has come his back to his roots.
‘I’d had enough of travelling every morning on the Tube and waking up to the hustle and bustle. I wanted to get back to where I’m from, glorious West Somerset,’ he says.
‘My plan was to come back and fine dine privately which you can do anywhere in the world, and I happened to choose Somerset because, to me, it is the most beautiful county in the British Isles.
‘So, I wanted to set up my catering business again in the West Country, exploring and using the best produce Somerset has to offer. We have such beautiful produce from Somerset, from Exmoor to the Quantocks. We have Porlock oysters, Exmoor venison, Exmoor beef and lamb, we have wonderful poultry over the other side of Wellington.’
But then the pandemic hit and put a hold on his plans.
‘Covid really was very damaging for my business, so everything I had booked up, all the trips I had abroad, everything I’ve had booked for the summer seasons for the past two years and at Christmas was all taken away overnight.
‘It was soul-destroying and mentally and financially crippling but… never shoot your horse and take cover, be the Phoenix from the fire! So, I set up the #roastdonation campaign, which went viral, where I would cook a roast once or twice a week and donate it to the homeless shelter and the nursing homes for the weak, vulnerable and homeless. This was just to give them a little bit of joy during different times. I was calling it a ‘hug on a plate’.
‘There’s nothing better than having a cooked roast dinner presented to you when the chips are down and I was delivering this and cooking for about 30-60 people weekly at the Canonsgrove homeless shelter in Taunton.
‘Also during the pandemic, I made a pilot of a documentary film called The Wild Scoundrels Eat the Country, driving around exposing the wonderful produce the area has to offer.’
Then Jaimie came across Cothelstone Manor, just down the road from where he grew up.
‘It’s such a beautiful, beautiful building, it’s got so much history and before it gets turned into anything else, I wanted to use this stunning building and the estate to run my Secret Somerset Supper Clubs from, using the best of the West Country and Somerset’s produce, using venison from the Quantocks, fish from our coastline, vegetables from our local villages and allotments.
‘I run various supper clubs at Cothelstone, with roaring fires, beautiful scenery, fantastic ambience — Taste the West, Taste Somerset, rustic Tuscan suppers with Somerset produce, Persian evenings with local lamb, a fish night, fish courses and butchery courses and I’m going to do a vegetarian night.
‘It’s a Secret Supper Club so it’s invite-only, minimum of 12-16 people and it has a very personal touch, you really do get looked after. You don’t have to go and spend a fortune at Michelin-star restaurants when you can come to the beautiful stately home in the heart of Somerset and have an eight-course tasting menu right on your doorstep.
‘I just love what I do, I love being back and engaging with people.’
Celebrity clients
- Guy Ritchie — Jaimie cooks regularly for the Hollywood film director, who was famously once married to singer Madonna. Jaimie says: ‘He is massively into using local produce and the health benefits of game as it’s very lean, clean, low in fat and high in protein’
- Simon Fuller — a British entrepreneur, artist manager, film and television producer of UK series Pop Idol. Jaimie comments: ‘He is very much into supporting local food producers’
- Royalty — ‘I’ve worked for Spanish royalty and former German royalty
- Heidi Klum — Jaimie has cooked for the model, TV presenter and producer.
Keeping other names close to his chest, Jaimie adds: ‘It really varies as I get calls asking me to be a private chef and I can do anything from £15 per head right up to £1,500 per head’.
