It might feel like a daunting first glimpse into the world of work as a teenager, but the right school work experience placement has the power to shape careers. That was certainly true for Jack Bond, who didn't harbour any dreams of becoming a chef (he had, instead, considered joining the police) until his form tutor, a food tech teacher, arranged for him to spend a week at a delicatessen in Liverpool. Joining the ranks as a kitchen porter, he quickly found his curiosity piqued and learnt lessons which still shape his cooking today. ‘I wanted to learn how they'd made things taste the way they did,’ he laughs. ‘I got very interested really quickly and latched onto it. That fascination with how to make something the best it can be without doing too much to it is really something I’ve tried to follow since.’

That initial placement grew into a Saturday job, and a space to feed what was fast-becoming a love of cooking. By the time he left school, Jack's career was set – in those initial months, he worked in three kitchens; a restaurant focusing on British classics, another – next door – influenced by French cuisine and an events caterer. ‘I always loved the adrenaline you get from the kitchen,’ he says. ‘I liked the vibe, the camaraderie. I found it rewarding. I honestly believe it’s the only job where you get that immediate feedback, be it positive or negative. I find that really exciting.’

When it came time to narrow down the trio, Jack plumped for events catering around the north-west, a role which saw him work alongside chef Brian Wareing. Jack impressed, and when he packed his bags to get a taste of cooking in the capital, Brian introduced him to his brother Marcus, who offered him a taste of Michelin-level cooking – first was a stint at Marcus' one-star The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, followed by another at The Gilbert Scott (that closed in 2021). ‘It really set me up,’ Jack says. ‘Marcus taught me a lot about core values, how to manage different situations, deal with the hours and the standards and expectations of guests.’

Having been put through his paces, Jack felt ready to spread his wings and landed a role at New York’s three-star Eleven Madison Park. It was 2017, the same year the restaurant nabbed the top spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, and Jack is the first to admit that he felt out of his comfort zone in those early days. Today, he reflects on it as one of the best things he's ever done, a position that shaped his mindset around restaurant values and ethos. ‘The culture they have instilled there is unbelievable,’ he says. ‘Everyone works for each other. I was there when it was Will [Guidara] and Daniel [Humm], and hearing them speaking every day was inspiring. There was no barrier between teams, you help each other out.' His time there was unfortunately cut short by a summer-long refurbishment which forced him back to the UK, and subsequent visa issues which stopped him going back. 

A development chef role across Marcus' three restaurants came next, but in 2019 Jack rejoined some of the Eleven Madison Park team when Daniel announced plans to open Davies and Brook at Claridge's in Mayfair. ‘I’ve always kept a really good relationship with everyone I’ve worked with,’ Jack says. ‘Working there felt like being part of that team again, even though it was a sister restaurant.’ As well as being his first experience of a restaurant opening, it also gave him a chance to help instil the culture that had inspired him in New York. That was underpinned, he says, by kindness in the kitchen and put into practice through details like a forty-eight-hour working week. Davies and Brook was a success, earning a Michelin star after just six months, and Jack stayed there for almost three years before its transition to a vegan menu saw it eventually close at the end of 2021.

Jack pondered whether it was time for a break from fine dining, and was looking into work at cookery schools when a call from Matt Abé convinced him to take a development sous chef role at the Restaurant Gordon Ramsay group. After a year, he and wife Beth decided their time in London was up, and in January this year headed north for the Lake District. There, Jack met The Fat Duck alumnus Ollie Bridgwater, executive chef at Gilpin Hotel and Lake House and its one-star restaurant Source, and signed up to his first head chef role. At the restaurant, which is at home at the family-owned country hotel in Windermere, the tasting and a la carte menus celebrate both plant-based and – where meat is involved – nose-to-tail cookery. With such fantastic produce on the doorstep, it's also brought Jack closer to the ingredients he's serving. ‘The food is super sustainable; we try to keep everything to a low carbon footprint,’ he says. ‘Everything is sourced from the Lake District, and the menu changes four or five times a year. It's simple, but elevated.’

Chefs forage the Cumbrian landscape and grow produce in their own vertical farm, which has proved such a success it has been expanded to an outside kitchen garden. ‘The effect on the team has been incredible,’ he says. ‘The care of produce has gone through the roof. People get how long it takes and how hard it is to grow something that’s perfect – and even something that isn’t.’ Between leading the menus and shaping the kitchen ethos, as head chef Jack is finally able to put into practice the lessons he's learned since starting out at the delicatessen as a teenager. 

The dual pillars of sustainability and culture are likely to dictate what comes next. Though he is relishing the challenges at Gilpin, he has an eye on his longer-term goal of running his own restaurant with Beth, a restaurant manager, and being able to continue the focus on seasonal, environmentally-minded cooking, perhaps at a restaurant or pub with rooms. Wherever his path takes him, and despite considering a career outside the kitchen, he knows what it will centre around. ‘It will definitely have a fine dining aspect,' he laughs. 'I’ve worked long enough in fine dining to know that I can’t get away now – it’s impossible.'

Jack and Beth have since moved on and are now head chef and general manager of The Cottage in the Wood in the Lake District.