Head Chef at 45 Jermyn St., Sam White, joins us to talk about his early life, adventures around the world, in Africa, France and the UK, but also his career in Food & Drink and the Hospitality Industry. Essential listening for dedicated foodies.
Training?“It’s started off quite informally, I left school in Taunton in Somerset not really knowing what to do…I even signed up for the Army but I missed an intake - there was a 6 month wait.My Dad was a Dairy Farmer, my Mum was a Nurse and a really good cook, and I had grown up on a farm with 3 brothers. I was used to an outdoorsy life, so perhaps I thought time in the army would be an adventure. I was also dyslexic, so in part, am sure this influenced my thinking in some way.Favourite dishes from Mum?She makes a good pasta bake! Also cooks a delicious ham in cider with a glaze, served with dauphinois potatoes and a parsley sauce. At Xmas it was a Boxing Day thing with my 3 brothers in tow! Every time I’m back it’s like the first time she’s cooked…she asks for my advice, but also has opinions on food, she takes complete credit for all of my culinary success! (Smile) my main culinary influence…College days…I enrolled in college and whilst I was there doing business studies I took a part time job washing pots and pans in a converted cow shed called Pod Shavers. A pod shaver? It’s someone who makes cricket bats. The head chef there got me involved in plating dishes, he was also a College lecturer…so he got me doing more in the kitchen. I enjoyed the environment and working weekends being part of the buzzy atmosphere.Next steps?I decided I wanted to be a chef, enrolled in the local College in Somerset, who were training Chefs to work in schools and hospitals, but I wanted to be in restaurants. So at 18 years old I got an apprenticeship at the Castle Hotel in Taunton which had a Michelin Star at the time and it’s where Gary Rhodes and Phil Vickery made their names, it’s always been known for championing British produce and British chefs.I worked for a Chef called Richard Guest who had worked in London under Jean Christophe Novelli. It didn’t phase me because I didn’t mind working hard or long hours. It was a bit of an old school kitchen, there was a standard and you had to produce to that standard.I went on to work in a restaurant called Givey Park down in Devon with Michael Caines, it had two Michelin stars…the style of food was classically French. He’d trained with Gordon Ramsey when he was young, it was amazing training, as it taught me discipline. I suppose just like being in the army…it was intense, there were 18 hour days, and you lived onsite.Being dyslexic at school made me feel that I couldn’t carry on in further education…but I knew I needed to work with great Chefs. While I was at The Castle I did a Chef swap, I went to Normandie in France. It was in the middle of nowhere, I was 20,years old and I didn’t speak any French. I was there for about 6 months. It was a smaller restaurant and it made me realise that I didn’t want my own restaurant. The chefs were the first ones in and the last ones out…I realised that it wasn’t the life for me longer term.I had a plan in my head, but it went out of the window…I was a bit burned out when I came back from France. There was no structure to my career, I was ducking and weaving at the time. I find that in Hospitality you’re promoted because you can cook…but you might then be a Head Chef responsible for 12 other chefs, put in charge of a budget, responsible for HR, but no one’s ever taught you any of that. Head Chefs react how they’ve been taught. But at Fortnum’s now there is lots of management training, which is great.Mentor?Confidence had been knocked out of me a bit early on in my career. My Mum had been a midwife in Africa, and I’d always wanted to go and visit. There was a book called the 50 best restaurants in the world, this was before Instagram, so I ended up sending them a letter asking if I could do work experience (unpaid work) in a restaurant in Cape Town. This allowed me to take in Zambia, Botswana and Namibia as a month long overland trip first (along the way). At the time 8 of the top ten best restaurants in Africa existed along this one strip in Franschhoek Valley, which is a wine region in SA.It was exciting because at the time SA Chefs could come to the UK and get a visa to work in great restaurants. There were great restaurants there too. In SA the Chefs had worked in lots of different places, and liked mashing up lots of different ideas as opposed to sticking to more formal training that we had been taught. The quality of the produce on their doorstep was tremendously exciting.I stayed for a year and met my wife Sarah in a youth hostel there, who was from Bromley in Kent! She was travelling the garden route, as I was, so we ended up travelling together. We ended up going to Kenya and also going up Mount Kilimanjaro together. Later I came back to the UK…but I never wanted to work in London, due to the reputation for the intensity those restaurants had. I did a year as Chef de Partie at Scott’s in Mayfair, which had 40 Chefs in the kitchen. Scott’s was good but I wanted progression. A Chef de Partie is the backbone of the kitchen…doing all of the cooking. In London I had a bit more of a social life, hours were more reasonable as it was a big crew.Mentor?I was looking for a job after I left Scott’s and took some agency work to go to Monaco and work for Maclaren formula one. A French chef knew I was looking for a job, and he suggested the French Embassy in London. I thought it would be great to look inside the kitchen, I did a trial and got on well with the Chef there. It was a small team of 3-4. Head Chef Gil had been there for 20 years…everything was French and I was the first British Chef they’d employed! We’d watch the French news in the staff restaurant…and I had to prove that I could hold my own. They made fresh baguettes there every morning and I had to make them every day until I got it right. Gil was a great mentor and when I left there I went to work for a chef called Mark Hicks. He was a great mentor to me and an incredibly well connected guy. Any events he would do, I would have to cook for…and he would take all the glory! Every meal I did I was cooking for Mark really. I knew what he wanted and started thinking like him: we ended up having a great relationship and great friendship.Style of cooking / known for?Only when I came to 45 Jermyn St. when I started doing my own stuff, did my own cooking style emerge. I was quite happy working for Mark, did great stuff in Malibu and at events all over the world, but unfortunately he went into liquidation due to Covid. When I first came to 45 I was still working to a brief and cooking in that style…it had to be on a white plate, because Mark served on white plates etc. Simon Thompson gave me confidence and brought me out of my shell. We did tastings together and the whole experience built my confidence and signature style.Signature dishes?The Beef Wellington is great and the theatre is brilliant. I like the truffle custard that I’m putting on it at the moment. A warm set custard with wild mushroom soldiers and a Parmesan Tuiles, with shaved white truffle. 45 is formal but not too formal, there are no table cloths…so you can dip in, but it still has a touch of class based on the menu and cuisine. The journey we’re on now is one that I really enjoy. Looking at the supply chain, and always considering regenerative farming. My brother is a farmer too. Using small producers in the UK, Mark believed in that and so do Fortnum’s.Fortnum’s crew along the way? (Flesh out)When I worked for Mark we did Boardroom events here. I knew Chef Director Sydney, and Julien Lanclume as well. Simon had worked at Caprice Holdings previously so we had crossed paths.I never wanted to end up in a pub or a small neighbourhood restaurant - there’s nothing wrong with that, but I’ve always been looking for somewhere that offered me growth. Which Fortnum’s have.Best days at Fortnum’s? (flesh out)Moving out of Marks shadow has been good. Mark Hicks, Rick Stein Jose Pizarro - 45 is now on of their favourite restaurants…and they are people I’ve greatly admired.Is it about Bringing talent through?Yes it is. It’s about growing talent inside Fortnum’s. We have a Chef training programme. Here you have everything under one roof, it’s about freeing up their time to learn. I have a pastry chef in 45 who can go and learn how to make afternoon teas which is another skill. Or go and create a dinner event on our new 3rd floor. There’s no need for them to go elsewhere.How do you find new talent?Getting the message out on social media is important, it’s a tool we’ve got to get better using. Show that we’re accessible and giving people a chance. I’ve had CVs and been advised that this person wasn’t for me. I’m a believer in getting them in, because it’s about attitude…and investing in people. When it works out it’s brilliant. I have a young guy called Alfie who is a Commis Chef. He has special needs, he loves cooking and all he ever wanted to be is a Chef. Now he’s running the Larder section. So it can be done, but we need to adapt.I have a few people who can’t read or write, Alfie records everything in his phone, so technology can play its part within reason. There’s also Baker, who’s been with us for 6 years. He came to us from Sierra Leone, he fled the civil war there, spent six years in a camp in Guinea (separated from his family). He is a success story of Fortnum’s even though he can’t read or write. He is the energy in the kitchen, and we need that. He keeps us going when we get tired.….we are also audited, but we have to embrace technology when developing chefs as well…using audio recordings as a tool too. But also recording training sessions eg how to de-bone a lamb etc.Jaz who is the Head Chef at 45 - we’ve built something together in partnership which is great. I think I probably give people a bit more of a chance due to my dyslexia, I think the empathy comes from there…Do you cook at home?I keep it quite simple at home, I like the pasta dishes our Chefs make … 3-4 ingredients that our Chefs make. A bit of linguini with anchovies Parmesan, that’s delicious.
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