Five minutes with Robert Walton MBE
Claire Etchell joins Robert Walton MBE, over a glass of rose, and chats about how Robert has been an inspiration to so many throughout the lockdown. He’s delivered numerous live videos, collaborated with my famous faces, and has kept us smiling with his nightly cooking show.
Claire Etchell: Hi Robert, how are you? It’s a pleasure to speak with you
Robert Walton MBE: I am well thanks Claire, thanks for having me.
C: What a journey the last year has been for you! Let's start at the beginning if you don't mind, talk us through your life story and bring us up to speed.
R: Thank you, Claire. You are right, this year has allowed me to rekindle my love for food and my love for cooking, which is where it all started. I started cooking when I was about 16 or 17 and over 40 years later, I was still in and out of the kitchen. I really enjoy what I do, I really enjoy cooking. I started in London as a trainee manager, I love people, I love speaking to people, I love meeting people. I went to Ealing arts and cookery college. I wasn’t there when Freddie Mercury or George Michael were there, but they went there and some great chefs came out of Ealing college. I lived in a hostel during college, three in a room sort of thing. Cooking was not my first love though, I was in a kitchen with every different nationality of people, five floors underground, really in a completely different environment to my upbringing, and I was not happy. After a while in the kitchens I quite enjoyed it. I worked at my first job for two years and the sous-chef said that he was moving to Bedford and asked if I would like to join him? I agreed, I knew him quite well. The original plan with my role as a trainee manager was that I would have to do a short spell in each section of the hotel, to get my stripes to become a fully-fledged manager. I took the opportunity to move to Bedford because I really enjoyed cooking, and he offered me a lot more money than I would have got staying as a trainee manager. I agreed to go, and I was only 18 or 19 at the time. I ended up running the kitchen at 19. After a while, the sous-chef and I moved to Scotland, moving together as a team. That is how I got going, I ended up being in very important positions at a very young age, I was very lucky and managed to learn a lot at such an early age.
C: What a great experience at such a young age to move from being a chef to overseeing a kitchen!
R: I came back from Scotland and created a dining club under a casino and it became really successful near Reading. I was there for three years. People gave me lots of money to cook. I built up a really incredible database of people, I ended up getting to know the real people in the surrounding area. It gave me the foundations to open my very first restaurant which I did when I was 24.
C: Wow, 24!
R: Yes, I started my first restaurant when I was 24. It was called “Petit Village” in a little village near Sonning Common, I ran it for three years. From there I continued to grow my clientele base. I bought “Pinsent Manor” when I was 27, it was a nine-bedroom house that I turned into a hotel with a restaurant, beautiful greenhouses, and three acres of ground. I had some incredible customers, there was nothing like it in and around Pangbourne. We had Frank Bruno, Sheila Ferguson, Barbara Woodhouse. Customers were coming and spending lots of money, it was around the time that nouvelle cuisine was in and I was very good at the decorating and presentation of food. It was at this point I thought that maybe I could achieve a Michelin star, at the time there were only 26 restaurants in the UK that had a Michelin star. I started to get aspirations about this, but it was a case of running a business and trying to work on the food quality at the same time. Michelin has very high standards and requirements to meet to be accepted and given the star. If there is any tiny regret, and I have no regrets in life, it was that I couldn't quite concentrate on the food as much as I really wanted to at that point. But if I hadn’t done it that way, I might not have been so successful in the other areas of my life so I can’t say I have any regrets. And anyway, if we could get to where I am today with Michelin, I have everything. From there I went to Trunkwell House when I was 33, I still own a piece of Trunkwell right now.
C: Trunkwell is a huge events space, a big player?
R: It is one of the biggest, busiest wedding venues in Berkshire. Not to mention the biggest Christmas venue in Berkshire. Between the middle of November and the first week of January, we had nearly 8,000 people through the door. We cooked every turkey fresh, every potato, every carrot, everything was freshly prepared. We would often feed 500 people a night. Even though the guests are out to enjoy themselves, they're not out to for a gourmet meal, but for me, the most important thing was I have to serve a really good hot tasty meal.
C: I imagine that you really enjoyed that time because you enjoy working with people and making great food, I can imagine it was a great place to spend time?
R: Absolutely, I enjoyed the concept of building it up as it went through the years. We got very busy; the party's got crazy. I think the heyday for me used to be the New Year's Eve party that I would put on, exactly as I would imagine them, which would have been leading up to the Millennium. The Millennium party was fantastic, it was one of the best parties I've ever put on. It was £250 a head, 21 years ago. We had Dom Pérignon flowing, the works. It was incredible, we did a lot of those parties, I had visions of running parties like the Great Gatsby. Each event I personally planned and created until around 2003/2004, it became a business from there.
C: So from there, your next venture was starting up the Nth Degree Global?
R: Since 1992 I had been involved with the restaurant association and that led me to meet some incredible chefs and it really got me into London, which I'd never really been in because I was living out here, running my business. I opened a pub called the Elm Tree, which was voted one of the best Gastropubs in the country in 2002. Everything I had was within the village of Beech Hill, while I loved the village, I had always wanted to open up in London, the restaurant association was the real stepping stone and opening the doors of places like The Langham to me. They made me event director of the Restaurant Association, then Vice-Chairman, then I became Chairman and now I am the longest-serving President ever, which is really a lovely accolade.
C: When did you get your MBE?
R: I got my MBE for services to hospitality on the New Years’ honours list in 2007. I helped the Restaurant Association open the doors and create events in all different areas as it was originally just a London club. It is all voluntary of course and from that work I was recognised, which was incredible.
C: So you went to Buckingham Palace and met the queen?
R: Yes, it really is the most emotional and best day of your life. I know they say that when your children are born it is, but as an event just for yourself, it was incredible. I took my mum, my daughter, and son. The same day, Jo Malone and Kylie were also receiving their honours which was fantastic to meet them both.
C: How did you meet your current wife, Donna?
R: I met Donna through a builder friend of mine that was doing work in her new shop at the time in Chelsea. I was driving up to London to the Ritz one evening, so I thought I’d pop in and see the work my friend was doing. Donna was in the shop and we got chatting, I took her next door for a glass of champagne and we talked and talked. Donna had never been married and I couldn’t understand why. She’s a very driven and motivated woman. I think our secret to marriage is that I know how hard it is to run a business and how much work is involved, it split up my first marriage the amount of work I was doing. When Donna says to me that she has to work evenings and weekends, of course I know she does and that’s ok because she has her own business to run and build. I love that drive and determination in her to be a better version of herself. I love that she wants to achieve goals, no matter what those goals are.
C: I think you are both such a good match for each other. You’re both similar in many ways, with lots of ideas and enthusiasm, both entrepreneurial. I love how when you are in the kitchen, she bosses you around and I think it’s a great match. Of course, this is where your name Bobby Dazzler comes from, this is her nickname for you?
R: It is, yes. When we met, I introduced myself as Bob, but she didn’t want to call me Bob as we had just met. Of course, my full name is Robert but that’s too formal. I don’t remember exactly when the nickname came in, but Bobby Dazzler stuck. There are a lot of people who know Donna and I closely and only know me as Bobby Dazzler, which can prove tricky when people book things and don’t realise my full name is Robert.
C: When the time came, you married Donna at St Paul’s Cathedral, that must have been an amazing day!
R: We did get married at St Paul’s and it was an amazing day, I had the opportunity with my MBE to go to the Honours Chapel and get married, we had 232 people at our wedding. It was an incredible day: helicopters, Phantom Rolls-Royce, The Ritz, a dessert room bigger than my home kitchen. It was phenomenal.
C: To bring us up to the present day, how was the Nth Degree Global created?
R: The Nth Degree was a concept that I created because I was continuously invited to events that I would go to but wouldn’t be blown away by. I had a lot of contacts, amazing chefs like Heston Blumenthal and Jason Appleton, the list goes on. I wanted to bring together interesting people from all walks of life, entrepreneurs, successful business people who all love good food and create incredible events. The concept was to form a great social network, people feel like they are attending a dinner party but with friends, they’ve never met, with the goal of doing business. We then created the Restaurant Association Gala, bringing together all of these great chefs that I knew and worked with and also these big brand names like Unilever or Chelsea Football Club to sponsor the awards and prizes, one year we sent people to the Cayman Islands which was a sponsored prize. Now we’ve created a function which people want to go to, they can win a luxury holiday with flights by entering a raffle or winning an award. I watched the Michelin event and felt like I could do better, so I approached them and they said yes for 2020 but we all know that didn’t happen, but my idea will hopefully happen this year.
What we managed to do last year in its place, was host a virtual Michelin event which is shared on the YouTube channel. It was a great event, Davina McCall hosted the event, there was a giant screen in a studio with no-one there which was surreal, my very first event for Michelin had a great impact given the situation. The story is that whatever I do, I want to put on a good show. We are hoping to do more events in 2021, we’ve got a selection of events lined up.
C: I know that the Young Chef Young Waiter awards are a keen interest as you started yourself at such a young age, how have the awards and the selection process changed over the last year with the pandemic?
R: The Young Chef Young Waiter awards are close to my heart, the final of 2021 will be at Expo in Dubai which is exciting. We are even working now at putting together the Young Chef Young Waiter programme in the Middle East for 2021 so that the awards can be presented at Expo for the regional finalists. We’ve moved 90% of the process online which has been great as it allows me to be involved every step of the way and get to know the applicants and the finalists, it also means it is accessible to everyone. Social distancing has also helped us improve the applicant experience, rather than having them all in one kitchen working away, they will now be randomly selected to go to a kitchen and work on their own, overseen by the head chef and the judge. This means that an individual who usually works in a small local countryside pub could be drawn to go and cook in the kitchens of The Dorchester, what an incredible experience for them! No matter their background or their location, they could be drawn to work in some of the best restaurants, an incredible experience not only for the applicant but also the celebrity chef who is judging and for the sponsor.
C: Lockdown has allowed you to spend more time at home in your own kitchen, what has been your favourite dish that you’ve made?
R: There’s been so many! I love making the “celebrity specials”, I’ve cooked lots of Italian food that’s not usually in my repertoire. The musical ones have been great, and I’ve cooked for charity. It’s all been great fun.
C: Tell me about the “Human Being Diet” that you have created.
R: The concept of being on a diet to me is like sitting here and talking about life insurance, I know that I need to do it but I really don’t want to. I wanted to make dishes that the whole family would eat and enjoy. The HB diet cottage pie is launching very soon, we’ve done casseroles, coq au vin, curries, there isn’t really a limit to what we can cook although we do try and avoid pasta. The aim is to develop a set of dishes that are easy to master and don’t feel like diet meals. Beautiful, clean, healthy food that is going to help you lose weight but where you won’t be hungry. It’s allowing people to enjoy their food and enjoy the cooking process.
C: Finally, what are you looking forward to when everything re-opens this year?
R: Working with Michelin is really exciting, planning Young Chef Young Waiter around the world. More cooking at home, maybe even launching a cookbook of my own. Things are looking onwards and upwards as soon as we get out of this lockdown.
C: Thanks again Robert for a fabulous evening and for talking to us about your life.
R: It’s been a pleasure, thanks, Claire.
