Ross Chatburn

I have been a chef for the relatively short time of 7 years. I was 24 when I decided to go into this line of work, which left me 6 or 7 years behind most of the people who were starting out at the same time as me.I began working as a chef in The Radissson at Manchester airport where I learnt to deal with a huge number of covers in a big busy kitchen, before deciding the higher end food was what I wanted to cook. A year into my tenure I left for a job in the middle of Cheshire at a fine dining pub called The Bells of Peover, which at the time was aiming for all sorts of culinary awards and was headed up by Matthew smith, his sous Adam Summers and junior sous chef Steven Moore, all of whom had experience at some of the countries best restaurants. Despite the really low wage and 100+ hours per week, it was the most rewarding job I could ever have hoped for, starting as commis chef in 2012, I worked my way up to sous chef in only 2 years with the guidance of these fantastic mentors, and a lot of hard work and determination to push myself as hard as possible. The fact that I was 24 when I started really pushed me to progress as fast as possible and gave me much more of a reason to work hard. After the bells of peover I worked as head chef in a restaurant in Manchester. This restaurant was a tea room when I started but the owners wanted a special fine dining element to their offering on the weekends, which I implemented with great success over the time that I was there. This was a very enjoyable time on the most part, my first job as head chef where I was learning things about business and management. It was in 2015 however that I was offered a job as senior sous chef at Hotel Gotham, which was opening with a view to be a five star destination in the city centre. I accepted and soon took control of the menu, achieving 2 rosettes in our first 6 months. I later became the head chef there and kept our 2 rosettes for 3 years. I have since moved to Oddfellows on the park in Cheadle as Head Chef, where I hope to gain as much recognition as possible for my food and continue with the success this hotel and the sister hotel in Chester have already attained.

Connect with Ross and discover more of his work at @chefchatburn