This month’s Featured Chef…
Michal Caines MBE
Executive Chef, Gidleigh Park Hotel Devon & Bath Priory Hotel
Director, Abode Hotels & Michael Caines Restaurants.
Michael, thank you very much for your time today. It’s great to see you. Maybe you could start by outlining your role.
Well, my role varies in levels and activities from creative input and development of our menus; strategic management of our delivery of service and then in Abode mode, of being the operational partner and cofounder of Abode Hotels, I take on the role of Director of Food & Beverage.
So there are six Abode hotels now, is that right?
There will be, currently we have 4; 2 in development. Exeter, Canterbury, Glasgow and Manchester with Chester next year and Salisbury there after. Then there is Bath Priory Hotel and Gidleigh Park Hotel, which exist within the group Bath Priory Limited, and my role there is technically Executive Chef for both. Within Abode Hotels, we have Michael Caines Restaurants which is something I set up in 1999, we also has Michael Caines Taverns, Bars & Grills – it’s a group within the mid market, so anything from sandwiches in a Boutique to Michelin starred restaurants – they all appear under the Michael Caines banner, we are pretty much covered in that market segment. And I do pretty much everything, from designing the ground floor, logistics as well as the planning and development of all the outlets.
So a lot of your role isn’t necessarily chef driven?
Well, it depends how you look at it. A lot of people say if food is your business then you should be in the business to know what your business is about. I take two different views as to what my role is about – one is of the creative chef and the other one is somebody who likes to be in control of the destiny of the business. I think chefs, historically, abandon the kitchen around about, 25/30 I call it, a mid career crisis (laughter), where people get to a certain level and Chefs find they are treading water or they are Sous Chefs that can’t get a break to be Head Chefs or they’re a Head Chef and can’t get a break to get their own place. When we start, we all have this delusional dream that all we want in life is to own your own restaurant.
