Staff

Syddy (as she hates to be called) has an interesting history that includes supplying environmental products to the marine industry; managing hospitality suites and marquees at the Commonwealth games; chartering yachts in New Zealand during the America’s Cup; managing a café in Auckland, New Zealand; and helping to manage three different pubs. Just the sort of history we love, and she’s turned out to be a B&P natural.

Also known as ‘Irish’ Barry, because he is. By nature, Barry is a bit sporty and initially wanted to be a PE teacher, but decided to swap cold showers for cold beers, which seems sensible. He came to Sutton Hall via Harkers in Chester, the SAS training ground for pub managers.

Jimmy, as he is known, studied politics and history at Northumbria Uni, and is a very bright boy with a very active life, which includes football, rock climbing, beer, reading, hill walking, cycling and food.

Jamie realised his future was in cooking when at the tender age of eight he'd bake an assortment of cakes at home and sell them to neighbours from his garage. He is a Crewe man born and bred and bears his cheffy name with commendable forbearance.

Graham is a former head chef of Sutton Hall before we became involved, and we’re delighted to have him on board. He’s obviously a bit of an adrenaline junkie as he missed the cut and thrust of a busy kitchen and couldn’t wait to get back into the fray, so he’s plainly bonkers. In his spare time he likes to run all over the place after his teenage children.

So far Sam has gone full circle. He started as a kitchen porter here at the old Sutton Hall five years ago, and has since followed his real passion for food, working in a couple of the local pubs. Once the opportunity arose to come back to Sutton Hall he jumped at the chance. In his spare time he is a keen scout, loves martial arts and Manchester United.

Adam is another of our trainee chefs, and enjoys the nickname R&B as a result of his ability to combine dance and rap. He enjoys watching Manchester City, and oddly enough, he is very good at yo-yoing - apparently he used to be a professional, but does anybody get to be a professional yo-yoist?

There were many superb original features of Sutton Hall that we greatly admired and wanted to keep, Barbara being one of them. She kept an eye on the building while we were deciding which way to go with it, and has proved an invaluable help, particularly with her endless fount of local knowledge.