Gary is the Res­taur­ant Man­ager of the new York Little Chef.

Tell us a little bit about your­self – where do you live, fam­ily, friends etc. what do you do out of work hours?
I live in Ulleskelf, a vil­lage near Tad­caster, brew­ing cap­ital of the north! I like doing Pub quizzes, although it’s a good job that I’m not too bothered about win­ning them all the time! I love to ski, mainly in the French Alps, although hav­ing a snow dome at Cas­tle­ford nearby is a real advantage.

How long have you worked for Little Chef?
11 and a half years. That’s 59 years in Dog years!

How does work­ing in the new Little Chef com­pare with work­ing in the old Little Chef?
It’s so much faster paced, there’s always some­thing to do and even when the res­taur­ant is quiet we’re busy which is how we like it.

Tell us a bit about your team
We have a fairly young and ener­getic bunch here at York. It’s a friendly team and they look after each other and pull together when things get busy. They also take real pride in their work.

How are the rest of the team find­ing the new res­taur­ant?
We have many new team mem­bers here at York, because we have expan­ded the team so much; the ones that have been here a long time prefer it now as there is a real buzz. The team are also very proud of the res­taur­ant itself because we get so many com­pli­ments about the look and feel of the place. Even clean­ing the toi­lets is more enjoy­able listen­ing to the tunes!

Tell us a bit about your cus­tom­ers. Any celebrit­ies?
Our cus­tom­ers come from all walks of life, and some come from quite a dis­tance away, we’ve had cus­tom­ers from Lim­er­ick in Ire­land; they made a spe­cial detour to try the new Little Chef. Also, a couple spent their first wed­ding anniversary with us. They had tried to get into the Fat Duck but couldn’t so came to us and loved it. They also came back with friends the next day because we told them that Heston was com­ing back to film and they got the chance to chat to him dur­ing film­ing breaks.

Tell us a bit about your open­ing night, when was it and  how did it go?
I really enjoyed it, my Regional Man­ager was def­in­itely more nervous than me! I had com­plete faith in my team and they didn’t let me down. The cooks did a ster­ling job of keep­ing the food flow­ing out and the waiters kept the drinks flow­ing too.

How did you feel about being on TV?
I would have liked to get in shape a bit more! It was weird doing inter­views to cam­era though, we did quite a few. I was so proud of my staff.

What did you think to Big Chef takes on Little Chef and the fol­low up Did Heston change Little Chef?
The first pro­gramme was a real eye opener, some­times a fresh set of eyes is what’s needed, but maybe 10 mil­lion are too many! The out­come was pos­it­ive and we got there in the end.

What did you think of Heston?
He is a really nice guy, you can tell that all the talk about food qual­ity is not just for the cam­eras, the man knows his stuff and if it isn’t per­fect, he won’t have it! He spent time chat­ting to me and my staff even when the cam­eras had gone away and he didn’t mind at all about hav­ing pho­tos taken with the team.

Tell us a bit about the food?
It’s deli­cious! Ima­gine your favour­ite local pub food; great qual­ity Bangers and Mash, Fish and Chips etc, then add a few quirks and touches that make it even more spe­cial and you’ve got it. There is noth­ing to be afraid of; no Bacon & Egg ice cream, not a snail in sight, just really good food at per­fectly reas­on­able prices.

What is your favour­ite dish of the new menu?
The Chilli, it’s my favour­ite dish any­way and it takes some beat­ing. My abso­lute favour­ite on the whole menu is the Sticky Tof­fee Pud­ding; I defy any­one to find a bet­ter one than ours! I recom­mend it with Soft Serve Ice cream; it just melts together and gives the per­fect taste combination.

What do you think to the new Olympic Break­fast?
Although there are no sauté pota­toes, you can at least move after this one! The qual­ity is great and the black pud­ding is deli­cious, even if you’re not a black pud­ding fan.

Is there any­thing you don’t like about the new res­taur­ant?
No!

What is your best memory of Little Chef?
It’s got to be watch­ing my staff really dis­ap­point the film crew who really expec­ted them to mess up all the time. The pride I felt was amazing.

What would you like to see for the future of Little Chef?
Around 250 sites, all done to the Heston stand­ard, full all day and get­ting Little Chef back to where it was.

Jo is the Chef at the new Popham Little Chef

Tell us a little bit about your­self – where do you live, fam­ily, friends etc. what do you do out of work hours?
I live in Winchester. I moved here nearly ten years ago. I ori­gin­ally came for a two week break to visit my sis­ter but I never went back. I visit my fam­ily as often as I pos­sibly can.

How long have you worked for Little Chef?
I have worked for the com­pany for nine and a half years now. I star­ted at Sut­ton Scot­ney Little Chef and then went to man­age Bar­ton Sta­cey Little Chef. I then came to Popham at the time when they star­ted filming.

How does work­ing in the new Little Chef com­pare with work­ing in the old Little Chef?
There is much more of a buzz now.

Tell us a bit about your team
The team are very pos­it­ive and will do any­thing to help. We really gel as a team.

How are the rest of the team find­ing the new res­taur­ant?
Every­one is really enjoy­ing it.

Tell us a bit about your cus­tom­ers. Any celebrit­ies?
We now have cus­tom­ers that go out of their way to visit us, not just pass­ers by. Celebrit­ies that have called in include: Jenny Bond, David Ten­nant, and Tim Wanacot (more than once). Bil­lie Piper, Ben Fogal, Nor­man Cook – aka Fat Boy Slim, Eric Clapton, Susie Quatro, Jeremy Pax­man. They are just the ones I remember.

Tell us a bit about your open­ing night, when was it, how did it go etc?
It is the best exper­i­ence I’ve ever had with Little Chef. We were all on a high all night and for weeks after that too.

How did you feel about being on TV?
It was daunt­ing see­ing myself on TV. We got used to the cam­eras being there after the first couple of months though. Going to Heston’s res­taur­ant, the Fat Duck in Bray was one to remem­ber and was a great exper­i­ence. Cus­tom­ers have since asked for auto­graphs and I think WHAT? I’m just doing my job!

What did you think to Big Chef takes on Little Chef and the fol­low up Did Heston change Little Chef?
It was a once in a life time oppor­tun­ity. I thought a few people were por­trayed a little unfairly though.

What did you think of Heston?
Heston made us feel at ease, just like he was another mem­ber of the team. He inter­ac­ted great with everyone.

Tell us a bit about the food?
The qual­ity of the food is great and of course, we’re really proud to serve it.

What is your favour­ite dish of the new menu?
Def­in­itely the Fish and Chips.

What do you think to the new Olympic Break­fast?
Some of the cus­tom­ers miss the sauté pota­toes and think it’s not as big, but I wouldn’t be able to eat two!

What is your best memory of Little Chef?
Without a doubt it is that POPHAM LITTLE CHEF got into the GOOD FOOD GUIDE 2010!

What would you like to see for the future of Little Chef?
I would like to see all of the Little Chef res­taur­ants to mir­ror Popham includ­ing the pride and pas­sion the team have for the brand.

Mandy Weath­er­ley is the Res­taur­ant Man­ager at Ket­ter­ing West Little Chef

Tell us a little bit about your­self
I live loc­ally to the Ket­ter­ing West res­taur­ant and I’m a mum of three.

How long have you worked for Little Chef?
I’ve just com­pleted twenty years ser­vice with Little Chef and I’ve been at Ket­ter­ing West for the last six years.

How does work­ing in the new Little Chef com­pare with work­ing in the old Little Chef?
It’s much more of an up-beat atmo­sphere. The res­taur­ant is light, bright and fun.

Tell us a bit about your team
My team has doubled since we’ve re-launched the new Little Chef. I have retained my exist­ing staff and have some new bright and bub­bly people who have joined the team. Every­body is really enthusiastic.

How are the rest of the team find­ing the new res­taur­ant?
They are all really proud to be part of the new Little Chef.

Tell us a bit about your cus­tom­ers
We have had some really pos­it­ive feed­back from both new and old guests; they are lov­ing the menu and the mod­ern decor. Monty Pan­esar, the inter­na­tional cricket star who lives loc­ally recently popped in to try the spit roast chicken.

Tell us a bit about your open­ing night, when was it, how did it go?
The offi­cial open­ing night was 3^rd August this year. It went really well. The res­taur­ant was full to capa­city all even­ing and the cham­pagne was flow­ing too!

What did you think to Big Chef takes on Little Chef and the fol­low up ‘Did Heston change Little Chef?’
I thought it made great viewing!

What did you think of Heston?
Heston was really friendly and he was just a reg­u­lar guy. He was happy to pose for pho­tos with the staff and sign autographs.

Tell us a bit about the food?
The food is great. A par­tic­u­lar favour­ite seems to be the Braised Ox Cheeks.

What is your favour­ite dish of the new menu?
I love the freshly cooked waffles, drizzled with maple syrup and vanilla bean ice-cream.

What do you think to the new Olympic Break­fast?
The new Olympic is fant­astic with the thyme infused mush­rooms and tomatoes.

Is there any­thing you don’t like about the new res­taur­ant?
No noth­ing at all, it’s all fantastic.

What is your best memory of Little Chef?
My first visit to a Little Chef back in the sev­en­ties. I had a Jubilee Pan­cake and I thought; when I grow up I’m going to work in a Little Chef so that I can eat as many Jubilee Pan­cakes as I like!

What would you like to see for the future of Little Chef?
The concept to be rolled out across every Little Chef!