Top chef Kenny returns home

Jun 12 2008 by Jane Hall, The Journal

IT’S a case of out with one Michelin chef and in with another as one of the country’s newest culinary masters heads home in a bid to keep the North East gourmet flag flying.

Newcastle-born Kenny Atkinson, who earlier this year earned the Scilly Isles their first Michelin star for good food, will join Seaham Hall’s acclaimed White Room restaurant on August 1.

He replaces former Michelin head chef Steve Smith who has left the County Durham hotel to take over the kitchen at the award winning Devonshire Arms at Bolton Abbey in North Yorkshire.

Last night Mr Atkinson described his new job at the North East’s only Michelin-starred restaurant as a “dream come true,” and thanked The Journal for bringing him to his new employer’s attention.

In a feature in The Journal’s Friday Taste supplement in April on his Michelin success, the 31-year-old father of one revealed he wanted to come back to his native North East to work. “When I spoke to yourself I said if the right position came up I would like to come back to the region. I was getting offered a lot of top jobs on the back of the Michelin star, but I had turned them all down. But ironically, by turning them all down it allowed Seaham Hall to move in.

“When Steve Smith left I got a call saying the head chef job was mine if I wanted it. It really is a dream come true and I’m very excited about it all. I always said if I came back to the North East it would be either with Seaham Hall or Terry Laybourne, and it has been a case of waiting for the chance to come up. The fact that has happened the year I have attained my first Michelin star is fantastic.

“It’s a case of out with one Michelin star chef and in with another.”

Mr Atkinson, who attained a Michelin star in only his first full season at the Tean Restaurant on St Martin’s, 28 miles off the UK mainland, won the coveted accolade for his locally sourced modern British dishes. Under Michelin rules the star stays with the restaurant, not the chef, however. So both Seaham Hall’s White Room and the Tean will retain their Michelin status until the new guide is published next year.

But Mr Atkinson will now need to prove he can meet the same standards that brought him his success on St Martin’s, to keep the White Room’s award and see his own Michelin status returned.

“Seaham Hall has always been renowned for its quality and the restaurant is superb. Its potential is unlimited and I’m looking forward to continuing to fly the Michelin flag for the North East,” he said.

Mr Atkinson, who caught the cooking bug while working in his uncle’s hotel in Gateshead as a 16-year-old, was raised in Fenham, Newcastle, within sight of his beloved St James’s Park. He left Newcastle as a teenager to pursue a culinary career and moved to St Martin’s with his wife Abbie, 27, and son Aaron, now two, in 2006 to head up the Tean Restaurant.

He admitted to being sad about leaving behind the idyllic St Martin’s, which measures just one square mile. “It is sad. I have worked extremely hard over the past three seasons to achieve what I have here at the Tean, and as soon as I get the recognition I leave. But the way I look at it is I am going to a place I have been wanting to go to for a long time, close to my family and in an area I love and am extremely proud to be from.”

Mike Beveridge, food and beverage manager at Seaham Hall, said Mr Atkinson had been top of the list to replace Steve Smith. “He was definitely our first choice and we are delighted he is coming here. Obviously, the fact he won his Michelin star this year is a big plus point as we want to retain the White Room’s Michelin star.

“But the fact Kenny is from the North East, knows the area and is a keen advocate of local food was also what we wanted.”

Mr Beveridge confirmed Mr Atkinson would be given free rein to make his own mark. “We would expect him to come in and use his own flair and style to put his signature on the restaurant, and we are really keen for him to do that.”

CAREER POINTS

Name: Kenny Atkinson.

Age: 31.

Born: Fenham, Newcastle, within sight of his beloved St James’s Park.

Family: Wife, Abbie, 27, and son Aaron, two. Parents Carol Hastings and Walter Atkinson still live on Tyneside.

Career: Left school at 16 with no qualifications and no hopes for the future.

His first job was working on a fruit and vegetable stall in Newcastle’s historic Grainger Market.

After six months Kenny decided he wanted to go into pub management but was too young. Instead he worked for his uncle in the kitchens of the Ravensdene Hotel in Lobley Hill, Gateshead, where he fell in love with food.

After studying catering at Newcastle College for two years he headed to Greece for seven months.

On his return to the North East he joined the Vermont in Newcastle where he stayed for 18 months before moving to Woodnorton Hall Hotel in Evesham, Worcestershire, where he met Abbie.

Stints at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, and Greenway Hotel, Cheltenham, followed.

In 2006 he was asked to move to the St Martin’s on the Isle Hotel in the Scilly Isles to head up the Tean Restaurant.

Accolades: In 2008 he wins both his and the Scilly Isles first coveted Michelin star after only his first full season at the Tean Restaurant.

Words of wisdom: "Getting a Michelin isn’t just about good food, it has to be consistently good food. You can’t have a bad service. If you aren’t 100% consistent you lose the star."