Ones to watch: Simon Ulph

‘Going from being nineteen living in southeast London to a little town on a tiny island was a bit of a culture shock, but it was good,’ he says. ‘It was a massive change of pace – at the Globe we were doing 110 covers pre-theatre, around 100 à la carte and then as soon as a show finished we did another eighty post-theatre; it was ridiculous. At The Hambrough, which had a Michelin star and three AA rosettes, there were just fifty covers, so you could take your time and use really nice ingredients. It was the first time I’d done anything like tasting menus, amuse bouches and canapés, so it was a whole new ball game. But I wouldn’t have changed it for the world – the way Rob talked about food and how he cooked definitely made me realise what I wanted to do with my career.’

After two years, Simon’s itchy feet got the better of him and he decided to leave to do a stage with the legendary April Bloomfield in New York. On returning to the UK he landed a job cooking at the 2012 Olympics, where he met Japanese chef Masaharu Morimoto – the famous face of the Iron Chef television series – who offered him a job at his eponymous restaurant in California’s Napa Valley after just three days of cooking together. Simon jumped at the chance, and moved over there the second he could.

‘It was incredible to see just how simple Japanese cuisine was,’ he says of his time there. ‘I think the busiest service we had was something like 487 covers, but because there were so many chefs everything was done fresh daily. Making 120 dim sum every morning wasn’t great at the time, but it really helped me to hone my skills.’

After a year of immersing himself in Japanese cooking and the Napa Valley’s rich food scene, Simon returned to the Isle of Wight to become Robert Thompson’s sous chef at The George Hotel in Yarmouth. The two then left to open Thompson’s, where Simon was eventually promoted to head chef. That was where Simon stayed until early 2017, when the draw of his native Kent proved too much. He became part of the I’ll Be Mother restaurant group, working a brief stint with Scott Goss at The Twenty Six, just outside Tunbridge Wells, before taking on the head chef role at the group’s Swan Wine Kitchen at Chapel Down Vineyard.

‘Kent is home, and it’s been a long time since I’ve lived here,’ says Simon. ‘I love catching up with old friends, just going down to the pub for a quick pint or something. I’ve loved living everywhere else, but I knew I’d always end up back here. It’s part of the reason I went for the job at The Swan Wine Kitchen.’

Simon’s time cooking Japanese food in California obviously influenced him greatly, and he loves incorporating the techniques and ingredients into his menu at Chapel Down. ‘I just love Japanese flavours,’ he says. ‘One of the dishes I just put on the menu is barbecued lamb rump with a miso-braised shoulder, some little pickled carrots and then a dressing made from lamb fat, sesame, soy and a bit of mirin.’