Mark Bunce
Born to Ken and Jacky in 1969, in a sleepy Northern town, my earliest culinary memories are not until I was 12 or 13 although my parents tell me that I used to stand at the split level cooker, wearing only a vest and poke the sausages when I was 4. (This service available from Chorley Bunce at an extra charge!!) As I say, the first memory I can recall, is from an Italian family holiday. We had just relocated to London, due to dad’s work and all deserved a well earned break. We were there over a few weeks and having gone to the same restaurant every night, got to know the pizza chef and he made me a special pizza for my birthday. After he showed me round the kitchen, I remember thinking that’s what I wanted to do.
Fast forward 2 years and I’m working every night after school in the local chippy, putting the bags of potatoes in the peeler and cutting the fish. Stood there in my Farrahs and newly permed ginger hair, I remember thinking this isn’t the glamorous career I had in mind!
After leaving school and kissing the chippy goodbye, one day a week at college and a full time job at Oliver’s Wine bar, Essex was my first trainee chef job. With ‘Brothers in Arms’ constantly on the turntable, Page 3 Girls as regular visitors to the bar and wages of £60 a week, at the tender age of 17, I definitely thought I was on the way up!
Always looking for something new, I got my first proper chef’s job at Harvey Nichols flagship restaurant in Knightsbridge. With Nouvelle Cuisine at its height and customers such as Princess Diana and George Michael, my time at Harvey Nics was a happy one.
After working there for 2 years, it was time to move again. I got a job in a film studio near Tower Bridge in London. This was where I first encountered location catering. I was working in the in-house restaurant and used to see the location chefs every morning loading up as they got ready to go out on a job. They always seemed a little bit different from the normal chefs, a bit cooler, like a plain clothes policeman compared to the normal bobby. Within 6 months, I was working with them. I spent 2 years working on the trucks before rumours of the studio being sold for Docklands development forced me to move on.
Fast forward a few more years, with location catering firmly in my blood, I’m a self employed chef working all around the country for various caterers, before finally settling to work for Silent Movies Location Caterers based at Pinewood Studios. I was now working with a chef called David Chorley, who I’d heard of at a previous company. He had covered for me while I was on holiday and now working together full time, I had the opportunity to learn news skills from him. We forged an excellent relationship and after 2 or 3 years of working together, it was obvious we had to do something of our own. Silent Movies went bust and this gave us the push we needed to set up Chorley Bunce Ltd.
Now in our 8th year we are firmly established in our field.
Contact Mark Bunce or look at Mark Bunce's page on the Internet Movie Database