Richard Bainbridge
Richard Bainbridge
With a background in classical cooking in Michelin-starred kitchens, Richard Bainbridge returned to his home city of Norwich to open Benedicts, a renowned restaurant which serves Norfolk produce cooked with passion, playfulness and creativity.
As the majority of British diners turn their backs on old-school temples to haute cuisine in favour of casual, laidback restaurants that do away with tablecloths, dress codes and judgmental waiters, a new generation of chefs has emerged. With solid foundations in the classics, they go on to open their own (much more relaxed) establishments that serve unfussy food absolutely packed with flavour. Richard Bainbridge is a perfect example of this.
Growing up in 1980s Norfolk, Richard certainly didn’t come from a foodie family. ‘My first memories of eating all involve really bad processed stuff,’ he says. ‘There was only my mum, my sister and me and we struggled to get by, so food wasn’t much more than a necessity. But my mum would always make a Sunday roast, even if she had to have the potato peel while we ate. The chicken was dry and the vegetables were boiled until they were grey, but there was something about being around the table with the family that resonated with me. There was also my nan, Nanny Bush, who used to make really tasty traditional stuff like baked hams, apple pies and trifles from scratch. I think those things taught me more about hospitality than food.’
Like many chefs, Richard didn’t do well at school due to being dyslexic, so when he got a job washing dishes at the pub his mum worked at the day after his thirteenth birthday, he loved the non-academic environment. ‘The buzz, the excitement, the chef giving me a swig of cooking brandy for the way home – I thought it was incredible,’ he explains. ‘I didn’t feel like an idiot; I felt like part of a team. So I kept working and scraped the grades together to get on a catering course when I was seventeen. At the same time, I got a summer job with Galton Blackiston at Morston Hall. It blew my mind – back then there were only three chefs and we did thirty covers a night, so I basically got one-on-one training with Galton. I learnt what things like seasons and provenance were and to appreciate fresh ingredients. I remember being asked to go get some chervil from the fridge and, having no idea what it was, spending about an hour bringing all sorts of things back!’
Once the summer ended, Richard left Morston Hall and began his catering course. However, it paled in comparison to what he’d learnt in those few months in the kitchen, so he quit and began working as an apprentice for Galton instead. After spending some time in the US, he returned to the UK to seek the next chapter of his career.
‘I sent out twenty-five CVs to all the big restaurants in the guidebooks and got three phonecalls back. One was from Le Gavroche, one was from The Fat Duck and one was from The Waterside Inn. I decided to go for a trial at The Waterside Inn and it was just incredible. Nearly thirty chefs from all over Europe cooking classic French food at a three-star level. It was a massive kitchen run to seriously exacting standards. It was like going to university, and I spent nearly four years there. I still use recipes I learnt there when I was in my early twenties.’
Richard started at The Waterside Inn as a junior commis, but worked his way up to junior sous chef – the youngest they’d ever employed. Armed with an unshakeable foundation in the classical basics, he returned to the US in 2007 to work with Günter Seeger, where he learnt about modern cooking and lighter, fresher flavours. After three months, however, his visa was rejected, so he decided to spend a while working in New Zealand as a restaurant manager whilst visiting his sister. During his travels back through Europe (where he met his future wife Katja) he was offered a sous chef position at The Waterside Inn, so he returned to the UK.
‘I lasted for about six or eight months, but left because the place had changed,’ he says. ‘I moved over to Dublin where Katja was working and met another really influential chef – Kevin Thornton. He was the most eccentric guy I’ve ever worked for, but he always made sure his food had a story behind it. He had this scallop dish with squid ink sauce, green beans and seaweed. The scallop and the seaweed represented Ireland’s amazing coast, the green beans were the grass of the land and the squid ink sauce represented the dark, black times of Ireland’s history. Most people when they got that plate of food wouldn’t know any of that, but it worked in his head and it really resonated with me.’
When he was twenty-six, Richard got a call from his old mentor Galton asking if he’d like to be head chef – the first time he’d been offered the role. The next five years saw Richard return to his home county and cook at a Michelin-starred level alongside Galton, truly honing his craft. However, Richard’s dream had always been to open his own restaurant, and after some persuasion from his wife, he took the plunge and the two of them opened Benedicts in June 2015 – twenty years to the day after he first walked into a kitchen on his thirteenth birthday.
‘We started off quite safe as we had no money, but over the past three years the diners started to trust us more and we now cook some more interesting things,’ he explains. ‘For example, when we first opened game wasn’t a big thing – we’d put a bit of partridge on and that was it. I tried putting mallard on with the foot left on the leg and it instantly got sent back. People said it was disgusting! Now in autumn most of our menu is game – we’ve got teal, mallard, venison – and they all fly out of the door, foot and all.
‘I think we’re in a really good place now where people come in expecting something a bit more,’ he adds. ‘When you’re a small independent restaurant in a small city with no money behind you then you have to listen to your customers. Once people trust you and are wiling to try something different, then you’re able to really express yourself. All I want is for them to leave after a meal knowing they’ve had a really lovely evening.’
After all the graft, sleepless nights and long hours it took to open Benedicts, it has become Norwich’s most famous restaurant and a reason for visiting the city in its own right. Richard’s success comes from cooking dishes that, quite simply, everyone likes to eat, while his classical training and love of nostalgic favourites such as trifle elevate his menu to another level. There’s no better place to eat in the city of Norwich than Benedicts, and it seems quite right that its chef-owner was born and bred in the city.
Three things you should know
Richard has appeared on Great British Menu four times, and won a place at the banquet in the 2015 series with his dessert, Nanny Bush's Trifle (a dish he credits for making Benedicts the success it is today). He returned as a veteran judge in 2017.
Richard is particularly passionate about Norfolk's incredible produce, championing local ingredients such as game, seafood and vegetables on his menus.
Richard puts an emphasis on training the next generation of chefs at his restaurant, giving them the freedom to be creative and improve their skills.
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