About Time You Met: Gareth Stevenson, Head Chef at Palé HallBy Angelica Malin

Hard not to look at our surroundings and be inspired; whether that is the green valleys and rolling hills where we are situated or the grandeur of Palé. Nature dictates what we put on the plate, through the seasons though, so I would say nature.

How long does it take to build good relationships with local farmers, producers and suppliers?

It’s an ongoing process based on trust and respect. If a local farmer comes to me and I’m honest with him about the produce, whether it is positive or negative, it starts a conversation. We have worked directly with our butcher since pre-opening at Palé and I have a great relationship with Haydn as a result, we created the breakfast sausages together to a unique recipe. He knows exactly what we want because of how we have worked together in the past. Similarly, our rare breed lamb farmer, David Ogilvie, knows how much of a fat spread we want on the lamb, how long we want it hanging for, to create the product we want to use. It didn’t happen overnight and things only get better with time, but it usually takes 6 months as a minimum before we are fully in tune with each other.

Congratulations on the Michelin green star award – is that something you expected?

No, in a word! We know through working practices we have brought in with the teams and suppliers, we are in a good place in that respect, obviously supplying our own electricity helps as well! We try to get better continuously, ‘Kaizen’ I think the Japanese call it. Not huge bounds every 6 months, but a bit better every day.

What systems have you put in place to make the food offering more environmentally friendly?

We preserve a lot, so we aren’t buying things out of season with the food miles that usually entails. We cut down on sous vide cooking to reduce single waste plastics, it’s also made our chefs better cooks. We have cross seeded elements from the tasting menus into the casual dining offering, to reduce waste, and we compost what we can from kitchen waste which helps grow us things like cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, all of our micro herbs, salad leaves, courgettes etc.

Do you cook much when at home?

I try to cook every day off. So obviously the last 12 months I’ve cooked a lot still! Usually, one pot wonders as I hate washing up.

 Who do you look up to most in the chef world?

Obviously, I’ve worked indirectly for Michael Caines for 8 years, so he has been a huge influence, I try and instil the lessons and values he taught me in the kitchen team, we still use recipes that Michael shared with me to create our dishes, alongside my own recipes. To achieve what he has in this industry over the last 30 years is incredible

Why is it called the Henry Robertson dining room?