Richard Bertinet

Originally from Brittany in North West France, Richard trained as a baker from the age of 14. Having moved to the UK in the late 1980's, he started cooking and his catering background included stints at the Chewton Glen Hotel, as head chef at both the Rhinefield House Hotel in the New Forest and the Silver Plough at Pitton in Salisbury where in 1990 he was awarded Egon Ronay, Pub of the Year and American Express Magazine, UK Pub of the Year. In 1996, a position as Operations Director with the Novelli Group of restaurants brought him to London where in 1998 he started advising small food related businesses. The business flourished causing Richard to set up the Dough Co, his consultancy business, in 2000 and to split his time between consultancy work advising on the development of new products for several of the supermarket chains, teaching and writing. In 2004, with a young family, Richard and his wife Jo decided that it was time to leave London and head West to be closer to Jo's family. The plans for The Bertinet Kitchen began to take shape and they found the premises at 12 St Andrew's Terrace, Bath at the tail end of that year. The cookery school opened in September 2005 in the same month that Richard's first baking book, DOUGH was published by Kyle Cathie to critical aclaim and a host of awards (IACP Cookery book of the year 2006, James Beard Award for Best Book (Baking & Deserts) and the Julia Child Award for Best First Book). Richard published his second book CRUST in 2007 (World Gourmand Award for Best UK Book (Baking) and his third COOK - In a class of your own in April 2010. He is currently working on a book on Pastry. Richard was named as the BBC Food Champion of the Year 2010 at the BBC Food & Farming Awards on 24 November 2010.