Marlborough Living Jan - Feb 2020

NOTES
from the pass
Michael Caines MBE, chef/patron of Lympstone
Manor, is one of Britain’s most decorated and
well-known chefs. Sally Thomson caught up with
him to discuss his ventures in wine, his passion
for teaching and his need for speed...
When we last met you were at
Kentisbury Grange, and I note that you
received some awards for that?
Yes, the Small Hotel of the Year and
Restaurant of the Year. It’s great!
Kentisbury Grange is owned by my old
school friend Mark Cushway. Mark asked
me to get involved and help him with
his project, which I did, and it’s great to
see that over the years we’ve managed
to acquire many awards which is a
tribute to the team. The chef there at the
moment is James Checkley and he is
doing a great job, and we just continue
to advance and improve. There are
challenges being in North Devon that are
different to being located in South Devon,
unfortunately places in North Devon can
get overlooked on the culinary map, so
it’s nice to be able to contribute to the
North Devon economy by creating a
lovely venue, and to see it do well.
When we last spoke you mentioned that
your pride and joy was Lympstone Manor.
You are now nearly into its third year…
It’s incredible to think that when we last
met, it was just in its infancy. We won a
Michelin Star within six months, and we
are very pleased to announce that we
have been given five rosettes this year,
so it is great progress and we just look to
the Michelin gods that we might advance
to two! But the main thing is that since
we spoke we planted a vineyard and the
whole property has settled and matured.
It really is the best of me and everything
that I have achieved in my career
combined into this wonderful place.
Do you draw back the curtains and pinch
yourself to remember that it’s yours?
Every day! When I walk into that
"Lympstone Manor
really is the best of
me, and everything
that I have achieved in
my career combined
into this wonderful
place."
property and I look
at that view…I do pinch myself! But
I also recognise that it has been a
huge amount of hard work and it still
continues to take a lot of commitment.
Sally: So about your vineyard! The
harvest in 2018 was good wasn’t it?
Michael: The harvest in the UK in 2018
was brilliant, it was the best harvests in
the history of English wine making, it’s
been incredible. We planted our vineyard
in 2018, and in its second year it will
produce grapes that we can harvest
(next year), those grapes will then be
vinified and we will be releasing our first
wine in 2024. So it takes three years for
the vineyard to establish. We are now in
our second year. We planted, in eleven
acres, 17,500 vines, of which 50%
are Pinot Noir, 20% Meunier and 30%
are Chardonnay. They are the classic
champagne varietals, so we are looking
forward to producing some wonderful
English sparkling wine. Hopefully they will
have their own story to tell, alongside the
story of Lympstone Manor.
I’ve been watching Jason Atherton
in The Chef’s Brigade, and what I
hadn’t really realised is the interaction
between each person in the kitchen
and how it can affect the cuisine. I
work in an office, and each person
does their own thing, whereas in a
kitchen, the relationship between each
person is quite a complex one!
In all honesty it’s not that different! Similar
to what you described with your office,
everyone has different disciplines. The
editor brings into the magazine all those
different skills that contribute into a great
publication. In a kitchen it is similar, it’s
like an orchestra, and we conduct that
orchestra, but we edit it and so we are
the curators but it requires an individual
team working alongside each other and
communicating. Our deadlines however
are very immediate! It requires massive
amounts of effort and discipline, and
that discipline is not self-indulgent,
it’s selfless, as it is a requirement. It is
a very tough environment. We are all
interconnected and intertwined, but it’s
also like the analogy of a swan, where on
the surface to the customer we appear
very calm, but underneath there’s two
legs paddling! But we’ve got more than
two legs on the team, and those legs are
components, all working together. It’s
fascinating and it’s a good insight into
what goes on behind the scenes.
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