Where did it all begin ? Did you always want to be a chef?

No I didn’t want to be a chef. I probably thought I’d work in an office somewhere and follow in the footsteps of the rest of my family. My dad’s history is that he took over his dad’s bakery, he did that because of circumstances. That was in St Albans in Hertfordshire, he only did that because he was family and he was helping. My brother and sister went to university, my mum’s very clever. I wanted to do the same thing, but academically I’m not gifted in that way. There wasn’t many options if I’m being honest. I was washing dishes in a pub, I was 14 when I got that job. The boss said he would do an apprenticeship in the pub for me. It didn’t sound that appealing if I’m being honest. I did it , because I wanted to work and have a job. I was quite embarrassed at first, seeing my friends and they were at school, or thinking about the future, and I was making club sandwiches in a pub. I didn’t see a future in it, but it just happened.

How did you come to work at the Grosvenor Hotel ?

I went to work in Ibiza. One thing that I did like when I was younger was house music and going out and having fun. I used to do that a lot. I went on a holiday with friends when I was 16, then I went back when I was 17. When I was 18 I got a bag together and a one way plane ticket and I got a job as a chef. When I came back, my parents had moved, towards Chester. I had a few months before I went back to Ibiza so I got a job at the Grosvenor. And you know what, that job is where I realised there was more opportunity than I thought in cooking, and that it was something you could be proud of. Before that , frying chips and doing plates of nachos didn’t give me much reward. I felt quite proud working there. That was the first time I thought: Yes I can do this, this is a good career!

You opened Sticky Walnut in 2011..

January 2011. When I worked in the Grosvenor I became really good friends with a chef called Nathan. He is a best friend of mine, and he is actually now the baker at the Bakery. I had moved to London and was working with the best people I could , to really become the best that I could be as a chef. Whenever I came back to Chester , me and Nath would always discuss about about maybe opening our own place. Nathan said to me “well remember that little bistro that’s opposite me called The Village Bistro, its for sale. Its really cheap, maybe that could work!” And that was it!

How do you think Hoole and Chester has changed since then?

Chester has changed a lot . When I opened Sticky, the best operator in Chester, and arguably still the best operator was Joe and Ben at Joseph Benjamin, who are now Porta. Absolutely fantastic independent operators , amazing at what they do. They stood out to me. There wasn’t that much about…

In terms of hospitality now, there are so many quality independents..

There are so many! Chefs Table, incredible, Covino, incredible, Porta, incredible. I think what Nev does at Paysan is amazing, and I loved Artichoke. Its fantastic. When I took this place, there was a few articles out there which referred to Hoole as “Notting Hoole”, I always found that a bit funny, I’d say its always been that sort of place, where young professionals of Chester lived. It’s always done well, its always had an amazing butcher, an amazing fishmonger. It’s rare to have that. One thing I am a bit gutted about is The Suburbs closing. We really liked having them opposite and we felt like we complimented each other’s business well. It was really nice for us to recommend them as a pre and post dinner drink, particularly as we are so small here. It’s a real shame they’ve gone, but that’s the evolution of places, and something will come in its place. I viewed the Suburbs after it closed to see if there was something I could do with it. I viewed it with the intention of opening a bakery. I walked back to our HQ and I had a lightbulb moment thinking “we could do a bakery here!”

You have received some criticism for your crowdfunding approach to building your businesses..

I’m one of those people … if 100 people can tell me in one day that everything we do is brilliant, and then you get one person can say “why do you do it like that its rubbish!” I would go to sleep thinking about the one person. There have been people who have been critical about the crowfunding. I actually did a post on instagram less than a year ago, for the last crowdfund we did . We raised a hundred grand in a few days for a kitchen refurb we did here.

That’s a lot of money to raise in a small time, it must make you feel quite loved ?

Its incredible! It was a short one. Afterwards a regional paper wrote something, it wasn’t terrible, but it was weird saying “Gary Usher’s fans give him 100 grand to refurb his kitchen!” You could say that’s true, but you could also say that its almost inciting people to have a go as well . The headline works, because factually its kind of true. But the way I see it, I launched a crowdfund. The plan was to sell a hundred thousand pounds by selling a hundred thousand pounds worth of restaurant vouchers. I do get criticised for it but if you really untangle the way I do it, its not a GoFundMe its not a charity, I’m selling restaurant vouchers and experiences. If you put 50 quid into the crowdfund you get 50 quid off in one of the restaurants. An experience is something like a private event I do, I’ll come round and cook at your house ort lots of different things. That’s how I’d like it to be framed, but often its not , and that encourages people to call me a wanker.

How did The White Horse in Churton come about ?

During the pandemic I would drive up to see my parents in Wales. On the way there I would always pass the White Horse, and for 3 years it was closed. I saw the for sale signs and I pulled up one day to have a little look. I did the usual thing , looking through the windows, face pressed up against the windows, and I’m usually badly dressed so I had a hoodie on, looking like I’m gonna burgle the place! One of the neighbours came out and said “can I help you?”. The gent is a guy called Kev and he is a friend now. He explained that he and the community had made the pub an asset of community value, a stop on the pub being sold to developers. They were hoping someone would take it over and that ended up being me.

It’s been a huge success ..

It definitely hasn’t, no. The pub, I’m very proud of and I love it. The guest chef nights we do are fantastic. It’s great for the pub, however the guest chef evenings was an initiative we launched because the pub needed to be busier. We are only doing it because we weren’t busy enough. I don’t like lying , I like to be honest. We did it out of necessity. A lot of the things we have done over the last few years haven’t been passion projects , they’ve been survival projects. We cook breakfasts in the restaurants now because we need to, at the moment its just the weekends here. We opened on Christmas day, I don’t particularly want to be open on Christmas day.

What are your views on the challenges faced by hospitality?

Oh my God…My view is that’s its unbelievably tough for hospitality and in April it’s about to get a lot worse. The budget has added so much on to hospitality businesses by increasing the NIC ( National Insurance) , business rates are coming back. For us, as a business its added 500 grand on, a year, across the whole business. We need to find that money, and that’s not to make a profit, that’s to be the same place as we were last year, and we were shit last year. So how do you find 500 grand? You can go to cheaper suppliers, you can make redundancies. Everybody’s dream is to get more revenue, 500 grand more in sales. It’s not likely in a cost of living crisis. Its a depressing thought in an already tough economy. Some people are doing well, The Ivy, the chain, they couldn’t be any busier, Brunning and Price, they are crazy busy. For most people it’s going to be a real challenge…

Tell us about the Bakehouse

That came about because I took on a massive unit in Hoole and I needed to make better use of it. I have a history of bakers in the family, my grandad was a baker and I loved all of the old branding. Bread has always been a big part of what we do in the restaurants. The bread does sell out, we open at 8. We have an events unit which we use for all our outside catering, our central stuff, research and development, menu planning, its a real hub and our head office. We have 5 ladies that work upstairs there and do all of our accounts.

How does it feel to be labelled as “Britain’s most controversial chef” by the Daily Mail?

I am the opposite! I should probably be Britain’s shyest chef! I hate being called controversial and I spoke to my brother about it because its not the first time I’ve been called it.

You have an image that people like to build up

Yes, and I’m not like that at all. I find it really embarrassing and I hate it because it makes me sound like a dick. My brother said , its not because you’re controversial its that you do things a bit differently , or in an unconventional way. So perhaps some of my replies on social media are very passionate. If you work with me, I will stand in front of anything that comes at you. I get personally attacked on social media all the time and that’s fine. When there’s abuse towards people that I work with, I’m very protective. There’s a sense of responsibility, you do have a duty of care when somebody is working with you, and that applies online as well. I don’t do it anymore , but if you go onto TripAdvisor and you mention in a derogatory way somebody that works with us, I will come for you! I am protecting them from that. We have about 150 staff.

What are your plans for 2025?

I’ve got to be honest its going to be similar to 2024 and that’s being dictated by the Government. 2024 was all about innovation, and survival as a business. If you don’t change when things aren’t working, you won’t survive. But people are scared to change because they are proud of what they’ve built. But if its not working you have to. Sometimes you need to change into something that wasn’t your plan, but if that new plan works better you have to do it. That means a load more guest chef nights. ( including Michel Roux, Tom Aikens, Tom Parker- Bowles and others). At Sticky Walnut we have 2 courses for 17 quid.

What would be your dream for the restaurants ?

My dream is just that, we can pay the bills and we have enough money to decorate them when they need decorating. Maybe if you’d asked me 5 years ago the dream might have been different. Maybe I’d have said a wanted a restaurant in Hong Kong, Ibiza or London. Genuinely my dream is just to pay the bills!

https://elitebistros.com/