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The Gilpin Hotel and Lake House near Windermere has announced three new chef appointments.
Ollie Bridgewater, Aakash Ohol and Tom Westerland will all join the hotel and head up one of the three restaurants at the site.
Bridgewater joins as executive chef at HRiSHi which is set to be renamed Source. He joins from Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire. He worked there for five years as sous chef.
Ohol has been appointed as head chef at Gilpin Spice, the hotel’s Asian fusion restaurant. Ohol worked as sous chef at HRiSHi. Prior to this Ohol was head chef of a five-star restaurant in Goa, india.
Lastly, Westerland will join the team as head chef of Gilpin’s newest restaurant Glöð. he trained at Restaurant Hywel Jones and was also head chef of the Brasserie at Lucknam Park. He has also been named National Chef of the Year for Wales.
Bridgewater said: “I’m very grateful for the opportunity here with Barney and Zoë, there is a lot of history here, a lot of family; I want to respect that and protect the legacy. It does mean a lot to be chosen for this role. I visited before I knew I was coming to work here and I always thought it was a very special place, so I’m very excited to get started on this project.
“The new menu will be seasonal produce led, and we will be looking into the sustainable aspects of absolutely everything we do, that will be an important cornerstone. We’ll be collaborating across all three restaurants to use each animal nose to tail, ensuring nothing is wasted.”
Owner Barney Cunliffe added: “Whenever something major changes within an organisation you must look at it as an opportunity to re-examine what you’re doing and find ways to make positive changes for the future. We are very sad to see Hrishikesh go, but we are happy to see him follow his dreams; the whole team and we wish him lots of luck for the future.
“Rather than try to emulate what we had, Zoë and I felt that it was time to try something new and with the opening of our new restaurant at the Lake House, it felt like the ideal time to begin to diversify our culinary offering.”
The Gilpin Hotel and Lake House is run by Zoë and Barney Cunliffe, having joined Barney’s parents, John and Christine Cunliffe in 2001.
