Adam Maddock revealed a chance phone call from a vegetable supplier led to him teaming up with Tommy Banks to develop a wide-ranging project at Saltmoore in Whitby.
Looking for a fresh start after a spell at the Fife Arms in Scotland, Adam became aware of an opening to work alongside Yorkshire chef Tommy, of Great British Menu fame as well as other televised appearances.
Adam will assume the role of head chef, while award-winning Tommy, who runs Michelin-starred The Black Swan, will oversee things as consulting executive chef.
Billed as a ‘luxurious wellness-led sanctuary’, Saltmoore, formerly Raithwaite Sandsend, is developing a range of different dining experiences for its guests over the next couple of years.
That starts with the brasserie and a cafe, which open their doors alongside the hotel on November 14.
“It is going to be everything you’d expect from a UK brasserie,” Adam told The Staff Canteen.
“It’s really focusing on the moor and the sea aspects. We’ve got a quite large kitchen garden, which we’re going to utilise throughout the menus and the drinks on the bars. That’s going to be really accessible, somewhere you can eat three nights in a row and still have plenty of choice and not feel you’re stuck for choices. We’ve written a menu where everything on the menu you want to eat.
“Then the spa and café, it’s just focusing more on what you want after a workout and to put you in that mindset of you may be leading a healthy lifestyle for a day.”
It is the start of a detailed plan at Saltmoore.
Adam explained: “It’s definitely a long-term project.
“Next year we’re going to launch Calluna, which will really hone in on that farm-to-fork aspect of things, hyper seasonal, using the best of what we can get our hands on. Just really using our skillsets and going all out to try and make something special.
“The pizza restaurant down the line (in 2027) is just another thing we can offer, which keeps guests on-site and keeps it interesting for the teams as well.
“If you go to work in a restaurant, you’re going to do one or two menus – lunch and dinner. Here you’re going to have a breakfast menu to get your head around, afternoon tea, the brasserie, Calluna, the pizza restaurant. For any young chef coming into the industry, you’ve got exposure to four different restaurants within one property, which is something I’ve been exposed to most of my career, with hotels.
“It gives you a different skillset.”
Devon-born Adam started out with Chris Tanner in Plymouth, before moving on to Gidleigh Park under Michael Caines. A stint of more than four years with Martin Burge at Whatley Manor followed, ahead of linking up with Robert Potter at Castle Combe’s Manor House.
Adam then returned to Whatley Manor with Niall Keating, before heading to Driftwood in Cornwall, White Brook in Wales and Braemer’s Fife Arms.
“Everywhere I’ve worked has had a remoteness element to it,” said Adam.
“We’re probably the most central I’ve been in a few years here. But when you pull in to the hotel, it gives the impression you are surrounded by rolling hills. You don’t see anything else but the countryside.
“Then as soon as you drive out you have that coastline. It brings that Scotland element of the heather in the moors and then the Cornish element where you look out the window and you’ve got the sea.
“Everything about it ticks a nostalgic nod I guess to somewhere I’ve worked previously.”
Asked why he has predominantly decided to work in hotels throughout his career, Adam explained: “It’s funny, when I was 20 and left Gidleigh Park, I said never another hotel. Then I end up being chucked into another hotel.
“I guess it’s just having a clear direction of where you want to go. A restaurant, they come with their own challenges, but for me, I like the multi-aspect of a hotel, where you’ve got a brasserie going on, you can have a function going on. Then you’re trying to do a tasting menu there and it’s just that chaos I guess is what I like about it.
“No day is the same, whereas the restaurant is lunch and dinner. There’s more that can go wrong in a hotel and I guess that’s what I like!”
Discussing his decision to leave the Fife Arms and move to Saltmoore, Adam said: “Scotland, on a personal level, was a difficult place to live, up in the Highlands.
“When I was looking, this was too good of an opportunity to turn down. It came around in a weird way. A veg supplier rang me and said ‘have you managed to find anything yet?’ I said no and then he put me in contact with Tommy. A couple of days later I was down here having a look at the project with Tommy.
“It wasn’t something I knew about until that moment, but I’m glad I got that phone call, because it is an amazing project. It’s going to be something quite special hopefully.”
Asked how he sees his relationship with Tommy working, Adam explained: “He’s been great. A lot of our thoughts on food, our ethos and how we approach things are very similar. It’s very collaborative.
“It’s not Tommy Banks, ‘this is how we’re doing it, this is how it has to be’. It’s very much like I’ve got my skillset, he’s got his skillset, if I need a recipe or advice, he’s at the end of the phone.
“He’s very much treating me like one of his own head chefs I guess, within his own properties. It’s been a really nice relationship, really collaborative, really nice and easy to speak with, open.
“What you see when he’s on TV is how he is in person.”
Dishes begin at £12.50 for a starter and £25 for a main course, with room rates available at Saltmoore from £290, including breakfast.
