One is a baker and cookery school owner, one a chef restaurateur, but they both stand for the same thing in their approach to food – fresh, natural and unprocessed. We chat to Richard Bertinet and Sat Bains.
Richard Bertinet came to this country in 1988. He knew there was a strong tradition of home baking in the UK, but when he arrived he was surprised to find that very few people were baking bread – it was not part of people’s baking habits.
Thirty years later, things have changed dramatically, with artisan bakeries commonplace, offering freshly baked bread ranging from white bloomer and multigrain to ciabatta and sourdough. Now it is very cool to bake from every age.
Richard has undoubtedly played a part in this bread revolution. Having worked in bakeries since he was 14 in his native Brittany, after moving to the UK in the late 1980s he worked as a pastry chef and head chef and then as operations director with the Novelli Group of restaurants in London. He set up his consultancy business the Dough Co in 2000, in 2004 he moved to Bath and the following year opened The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School in St Andrew’s Terrace, at the same time as publishing his first hugely successful book Dough. He later set up The Bertinet Bakery as part of his mission to produce artisan bread for as wide an audience as possible. “My dream when I came to England was to relaunch sliced bread in this country – because sliced bread in the UK was not what I was used to in France”, says Richard.
The Bertinet brand of sliced sourdough was made with just three ingredients – flour, sea salt and water – and his bread achieved nationwide listings with both Waitrose and Pret à Manger before Richard sold the bakery to The Bread Factory in 2019.
In the years since, he has been writing books, appearing on TV and developing The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School. “The cookery school is what I love: I love teaching, I love the variety of people coming in, I love passing on knowledge” he says.
Bread-making and pastry are some of the many staple courses offered, encompassing single day to five day courses, as well as individual days on themes such as patisserie, pies, croissant, viennoiserie and many more.
A high percentage of the bookings at the cookery school are from international visitors. Richard explains, “On every class we run, we have a great variety of people. Wonderful different cultures, different languages, different nationalities. I love it when we first meet in a group and ask about each other’s lives. Wherever in the world our visitors are from, our guests takeaway new found skills and new friends too.”
As well as many masterclasses with Richard, The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School welcomes many guest chefs from Italian classes taught by Valentina Harris, Indian feasting with Amandip Uppal and Japanese Cooking with Tim Anderson. They also run classes with chefs who own restaurants, so you can come and cook with Nathan Outlaw, Angela Hartnett, Clare Smyth, José Pizzaro and Mark Hix, although you have to be quick off the mark to book a place on one of these masterclasses.
A recent addition to The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School roster of classes is the Lunch and Learn series that chef Sat Bains is coming to Bath for in September. He will be demonstrating a recipe, answering questions before everyone shares lunch.
“We love running classes with someone who is really passionate about their subject where they prepare a dish and talk about their life. A fabulous experience”, says Richard.
Sat Bains, who is coming to The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School this month, is a double Michelin star, Nottingham-based chef. Raised in Derby, Sat’s food story has seen him work in Raymond Blanc’s Le Petit Blanc in Oxford as well as in London’s L’Escargot before returning to the Midlands to work in Nottingham, winning the prestigious Roux Scholarship in 1999. His Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms, located in an industrial estate just outside Nottingham, won a Michelin star in 2003, and a second in 2011.
Sat’s book Eat to Your Heart’s Content, published earlier this year, was written after he suffered a sudden heart attack in 2020, in his early fifties. Sat survived what was described as a “widow-maker heart attack”, one of the deadliest where the heart becomes completely blocked. After an emergency operation and 10 days in hospital, Sat was discharged, weighing 17kg lighter than when he arrived, knowing that he needed to overhaul his diet and lifestyle.
“I have a degenerative heart condition – and there is not much I can do about it apart from look after myself”, says Sat. “I’m just happy and lucky to be here, but there are things I’ve got to do to stay here.”
During recovery, Sat worked with his friend and nutritionist Dr Neil Williams, who helped him formulate a revised diet to help maintain his heart health. Having always prided himself on the flavour of his food, Sat was not willing to sacrifice this on account of his new heart-healthy diet. The recipes in the book are made up of those he devised, focusing on lean protein, a mix of legumes, good fats such as avocado, nuts and olive oil, and vegetables and fruits.
“Think about the epidemic of obesity we are dealing with and the resulting medical issues – it’s all coming from fast food and processed foods. It’s so convenient to go and buy ready meals, and the only way to compete is by cleverly cooking your own food to make sure it’s delicious. The flavours achieved in the recipes in the book are about using high-quality, fresh ingredients and combining this with the use of seasonings and spices, or by adding a tiny splash of soy or seaweed or dashi, which reduce salt and fat and still give a massive burst of flavour”, says Sat.
The philosophy in the chef’s own diet and in his book is to ‘eat the rainbow’. “The idea is to get as much colour, texture and flavour in your diet as possible because it’s good for your gut biome. It creates an eco-system, just like a rainforest or a coral reef, full of diverse things, and that is what our gut needs – so you get your nutrient-dense alliums, your sulphurous vegetables, your beautiful proteins and your olive oil and nuts and berries, all natural ingredients.
“What we’re trying to do is make people realise that when they cook good simple, natural recipes, the flavour is so much better than what they can buy from the shop. Cooking in this way is almost like falling back in love with cooking again.”
Richard and Sat met on James Martin’s Saturday Morning ITV show at the end of 2023. They made an immediate alliance and Richard asked the Nottingham chef to come and demonstrate his heart-healthy food in Bath. There was no hesitation from Sat: “I love sharing knowledge, preparing dishes and talking about food. It’s one of those obsessions in life for both of us and we’re very lucky in our field, both Richard and I, because we spend every day doing something we love.”
Sat Bains Restaurant and Rooms: restaurantsatbains.com
Lunch and Learn with Sat Bains, at The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School is on 20 September. You can also sign up to the cookery school newsletter to find out about and book future courses. thebertinetkitchen.com