I suppose COVID has been a big factor over the past few years as I’ve not been able to travel, so I haven’t been gallivanting all over the world. It’s the first time I’ve been with the team here constantly, shoulder to shoulder, since 2011 when we opened the first Roganic in London. It’s like we’ve gone full circle back to when we first opened L’Enclume in 2002. Obviously we’ve got a bigger team (and have more customers!) but I’ve really, really enjoyed it.
The team is key – Paul Burgalieres, the head chef at L’Enclume, and Tom Barnes, who looks after all our restaurants in the North West, have been on each of my shoulders and are without a doubt the most talented guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Tom’s been with me for eleven years now, so everyone knows his talent, but he’s also asked me to mention that he’s the most good-looking chef in the whole group of restaurants in the first interview. I won’t comment on that! We’ve also got two amazing sous chefs at L’Enclume, Scott Braithwaite and Alex Rothnie; it’s a bit of a dream team all-round. Everyone has absolutely smashed it, and I think we just really built momentum with our consistency, which took us over the line.