Staff

Neil came to B&P from a high-jinx time running a skiing hotel in France for six months, before which he ran a large country house hotel in North Yorkshire. Before taking up the reins at Sutton Hall, Neil ran the Black Jug in Horsham, but he's also had stints at Glasfryn and Harkers and helped open the Combermere, so he knows a thing or two about being busy. He's a bit of a cool operator, but he’s partial to the odd pink shirt so it’s difficult to tell. If reincarnation pans out, he has expressed an interest in being born again as a sofa.

Hennie hails from South Africa via the Lake District, and sure knows his way around a pub. He was part of the team that opened the Hand and Trumpet, and has a cool head when things get busy. One of our projects is to convert Hennie to the pleasures of European wine - at the moment South Africa rules the vines on planet Kruger, but he's an eager student of the grape.

Gemster has been with B&P for some time now,and was part of Neil's team that ran the Black Jug. She enjoys travelling and horse riding, and is a bit of a phenomenon as she just never seems to stop rushing around at a rate of knots. Gem is trying to lead a blame-free life so she won’t be re-incarnated as part of the management team in a busy pub ever again.

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.

Anthony is one of those people who had a successful and lucrative career, but realised that he just wasn't enjoying it. Cooking was his real joy, so he tore up the rule book and went back to "Go" - in this case catering college, taking a massive drop in income. So here he is, a couple of years later, as head chef of Sutton Hall, having had a couple of very successful years heading up the kitchen at the Hand and Trumpet. You've got to take your hat off to the man.

Christian has spent a good many years cooking in a variety of Cheshire hostelries, and cooks like a dream. He’s a dead ringer of that bloke from the 90’s indie band the Charlatans – but please don’t ask for his autograph.

Richard trained at Stoke on Trent College and began his cheffing at Azzurri Restaurant in Alsager, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the kitchen - he is old beyond his years.

Andy is a truly enthusiastic budding chef who believes that the only thing worth talking about is food, food and food, and the only TV programmes worth watching are food, food and food. Apart from this, Andy used to be in a hard-core boy band called “Stoke Roses”, who featured a lot of rock anthems about….food. He used to date a girl called Charlotte, after the apple dessert.

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.

Conor came to cooking relatively late, but has clearly found his forte. He impressed us deeply in his interview as he came to our training kitchen, realised we were short-handed, climbed into a set of whites, and got stuck in there and then. He is the fourth person in the crew with Connor as either a first name or surname, so shouting “Connor” produces a satisfying degree of mayhem.

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.