Cook House is about cooking good food that’s interesting and delicious in a happy, relaxed environment, with good music and nice people making you feel at ease and comfortable. It is about meeting new people, talking to each other about food, recipes and where you’re from. It is about shared experience and conviviality. It is about learning more about where your food comes from, who grew it and how to make it. It’s about motivation to make my neighbourhood and city a better place. It is about reminding people that eating out is personal, and it’s about the people cooking, eating and growing, which you shouldn’t forget. It’s also about a passion to do something I love for a living and to encourage others to do the same. I get very excited when I hear people say, ‘I’m thinking about leaving my job to do this…’
My constant motivation is seeing people enjoy themselves with good food, smiling and laughing and clinking glasses. I am inspired to plan the dinners I want to go to, the restaurants I want to visit, the events I want to attend. Unfortunately that means that I never get to experience them as a guest! I do think I take just as much pleasure in seeing other people enjoy them, however. And one day maybe we will have grown enough as a business that I can be a guest too! I definitely don’t want to be the one doing the washing up in a few years’ time…
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By opening Cook House in a very small first venue I have learnt how to do so much in real time. I have made it all up as I’ve gone along, working hard and learning as I go. I have learnt how I can improve and what I want to achieve in the future, as well as how to make bread, butter, cheese, salami, pickles, pies – and much more!
Cook House still offers exactly the same thing it did on day one: a warm welcome and some delicious food in an interesting space. It has also come so far and it has been an organic growth. ‘Slow and steady wins the race’ is what they say, and I think that’s definitely true when finding your feet in a new business and a new profession. Take your time.
I did not know I would be writing a book on our four-year anniversary, or that I would cook on national television with Michel Roux Junior, or that we would make it into the Good Food Guide and be listed in the best new entries, or that people would love our food and queue out the door for it!
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Today I am in the process of expanding Cook House and that means moving to a new venue. It is a much bigger project and I am currently experiencing all those fears I had the first time round. They are the same questions: What if I can’t do this? What if I don’t have enough money? How do I cook that? How will the service work? I managed then, so I know (and hope) I will manage again. I want to challenge myself and continue to learn and embrace change. As a relatively new restaurateur and cook I am always looking for new ideas and inspiration, and to find like minds. I read, I cook, I ask other chefs for advice, I try out anything that makes me curious and excited, and I keep doing that over and over; things move forward and evolve, and new opportunities and ideas keep coming along.
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My purpose in writing this book has always been to inspire people to do what they always wondered if they could: open a café or a cake shop; be a baker or a florist; train to be a chef; start a street-food cart; whatever it is I would very much advise that you give it a go, change your life and do the stuff that you love as a profession. Start small – it won’t happen overnight, but imagine what you would like your life to be and start working towards it!
I have made my own way so far. You don’t have to pigeonhole yourself into a traditional job and, looking back, I’m glad that I was brave enough to just do my own thing. It didn’t feel like I was being brave at the time, naive perhaps; I just couldn’t ignore my desire to create something that people would enjoy, which I would enjoy, and which one step at a time all joined up to become a job.