Hotel giant`s Kamodo kitchen

Business
No contest for a blue ribbon pair
Peter McGeown and Emma
McCarthy, tax planning,
wills and probate lawyers
at Thames Valley law firm
Clifton Ingram LLP, have
been appointed associate
members of the Association
of Contentious Trust and
Probate Specialists (ACTAPS).
With Reading-based Emma
and Wokingham-based Peter
obtaining their qualifications,
Clifton Ingram now has the
largest Tax Planning, Wills
& Probate team in the area
with 12 professionals, but also
the most ACTAPS associate
members in Berkshire.
ACTAPS is the blueribbon standard for lawyers
specialising in contested wills
and estates – an area very few
solicitors focus on. To achieve
the ACTAPS qualification
solicitors must complete a
two-year training course.
Peter McGeown, partner
and head of Clifton Ingram’s
Tax Planning, Wills and
Probate Department said,
“Whilst Emma and I are
already experienced in
contentious probate, making
and defending legal disputes
over wills, estates, trusts and
Court of Protection issues,
our ACTAPS membership
provides our clients with the
additional assurance of our
expertise in this increasingly
complex area of the law.”
Peter is based in the
firm’s Wokingham office and
specialises in inheritance and
capital gains tax planning;
disputes concerning wills
and trusts; will drafting and
all aspects of trust and estate
administration. Emma is
based in Clifton Ingram’s
Reading office and has over 10
years’ experience in advising
upon the full range of private
and elderly client matters.
Impressive credentials: In the complex area of
wills and probate, Peter McGeown and Emma McCarthy
have an enviable level of knowledge and expertise.
Hotel giant’s Kamodo kitchen
By Judith edwards
W
ith a net wealth of £75m and
rising, husband and wife team
Tej and Sarina Dhillon share a
passion for transforming hotels.
Their growing coterie of inns and hotels
across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire,
Oxfordshire, and the Midlands, represents
the backbone of the Dhillon Group. The
collection currently comprises five highly
individual properties: Stoke Place, Slough,
an impressive 17th century mansion
hotel with 40 bedrooms and a soon to be
completed spa and fitness suite; the Crown
Inn, Amersham, The Liongate opposite
Hampton Court, The Paragon, Birmingham
and the Olde Bell, in Hurley, Berkshire.
Focused on acquiring hotels of character
where the market is dominated by larger
chain-owned properties, the Dhillons’ ethos
is one of excellent customer service, a nonheirarchical management structure. Staff
uniforms are out and high standards and
teamwork are in.
The Olde Bell is an 12th century coaching
inn and a work in progress. The Dhillon
group acquired the inn six years ago, and the
philosophy here is that hotel guests do not
‘rent’ space they ‘take ownership’ of an area
and treat it as their own.
In recent months
executive chef Warren
Geraghty and general
manager Alan Dooley
have invested £50k of
the firm’s money in an
outdoor ‘summer’ kitchen,
the only one of its type
in the country. Designed
to specification by a local
kitchen company and
manufactured in Belgium,
this kit is the apotheosis of
outdoor food preparation.
With a catering capacity
of up to 350 plus 50 hotel Clear objective:
guests, the 15-strong
Executive chef Warren
kitchen staff are driven to Geraghty is a man on a
achieve the best results, carbon zero food sourcing
not based on technology mission at The Olde Bell in
and the latest equipment, Hurley.
but by serving the freshest
local produce. And when I
say local, I mean, on site. While meat and dairy
products are sourced from local farms, only
the fish travels any distance, from Devon and
Cornwall. When it comes to fruit and veg, the
team of Warren, Alan and full-time gardener
Mandy, plus helpers, have a burgeoning
enterprise of vegetable growing in a delightful
kitchen garden.
Warren, who has worked with Marco Pierre
White and other catering-world A listers, is
one of the healthiest looking chefs I have met.
He said: “If you don’t keep fit, you can’t do
your job,” and it is clear that despite 15 hour
days, he, and his colleagues, are thriving.
This is a happy and successful ship.
Warren’s plan is to make the inn self-sufficient
in terms of home-grown fruit and veg in 2012.
The menu reflects a natural harmonic of
seasonal produce and inspired combinations
with bread, jam, biscuits and preserves all
made in-situ. This puts The Olde Bell into the
same self-sufficiency league as the Waterside
Inn and Le Manoir aux Quatre Saisons.
Projects under way include the
construction of a replica Victorian
greenhouse, the planting of wildflower
gardens with individual barbecue zones and
the creation of a 150m x 70m fruit cage. They
are introducing bee hives, a potato patch and
are looking for a local charity to adopt. Alan
said: “We want to teach kids about growing
and cooking and to create information
folders about our garden projects. We have
numerous garden projects under way and we
grow flowers for the hotel. It is all part of a
journey and an ongoing story and it is fun.”
Warren said: “We are not trying to be clever
or arrogant, just honest. Everything we use
will have tracability.” Their target is a carbon
footprint of zero for food.
The high-tech summer kitchen with
its Japanese Kamodo oven and greenegg barbecues are not elements generally
associated with a 12th century inn, yet the
approach works and in the last 12 months the
hostelry has doubled its turnover. Alan said:
“Despite this, we are still a bit of a hidden
secret, even so, at weekends we are frequently
packed. We have a very good reputation and
this is building.” The Olde Bell has become
something of a choice destination for local
chefs, including Heston (Fat Duck), Adam
Simmonds (Danesfield House) and Tom
Kerridge (The Hand and Flowers). When you
travel, they say, ‘look for where the locals
go’ but at home, going where the best chefs
congregate is a good strategy.
Firm’s global finance revolves
around Thames Valley bank team
Barclays and HSBC’s Corporate
Banking Teams in the Thames
Valley have refinanced a revolving
credit facility for Direct Wines that
will support the business in its
continued international expansion.
One of the UK’s largest privatelyowned businesses, Direct Wines
sells wine to consumers in the UK,
Continental Europe, the USA and
Asia Pacific via the web, phone,
mail order and a small number
of UK retail outlets, including its
flagship store ‘The Arch in Borough
Market, London. It trades as
Laithwaites Wine, Virgin Wines and
Averys, and provides wine clubs
in partnership with The Sunday
Times, Die Welt in Germany,
The Wall Street Journal and The
Australian.
Founded in 1969 by Tony
Laithwaite, its exclusive range of
wines are sourced globally from
small independent producers, and
from its own vineyards. Its wines
have won over 400 awards in the
International Wine Challenge and
from Decanter, the leading trade
publication.
As part of the refinancing,
Barclays Corporate, Thames Valley,
will continue to act as agent and
security trustee and remain the
provider of the company’s UK cash
management services. HSBC’s
Thames Valley Corporate Banking
team will support the roll-out of a
global cash management solution
that will see HSBC become Direct
Wines’ lead international banking
partner.
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