Dave Chorley
I had an interest in cooking at an early age, my grandma
Hallsworth was a cook at a large country house in Oldham.
I remember her cooking traditional English food like hotpot,
boiled ham and my favourite was her roast chicken. The chickens
were kept in a small allotment and fed on scraps mixed with
wheat and corn. She would say to her husband “Jo am of tu
nek us a chuck fo tea” that was the Q for me and my granddad
to get some old newspaper out , lay them on the kitchen floor
ready to pluck the chicken on its arrival. The stuffing was
like no other to this day I have never tasted such a wonderful
stuffing. Loads of home grown onions sweated in the fat off
the chicken finely chopped sage from the bush out the front
and the stoke of the giblets. To this she would add a small
amount of sausage meat and stale bread. Needles to say I was
never a slim child.
My next memorable culinary moment was at Woodham comprehensive
in Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham when I asked if I could take
cookery classes in the girl’s home economics class. I was
the only boy of the 1200 pupils doing cookery and as a result
came in for a lot of flack of the other boys and some of the
girls. I then asked if I could hep in the school canteen and
would leave class half an hour before lunch so I could help
out in the kitchen. The school cooks loved the Bay City Rollers
and Donny Osmond. I was into Slade, Sweet & T Rex so many
an argument followed on the better band.
My Mum & Dad (Brenda & Fred) loved Jazz and went
to dance every Sunday at Hardwick Hall Hotel in Sedgefield.
The Tees Valley Jazz Men would knock out the same tunes week
after week but Brenda & Fred loved it. I asked my dad
if he could get me a part time job at the weekends and
holidays in the kitchens. On the 20th December 1973 the day
before my 13th birthday I was in the wash-up with all the
old girls whose combined age was older than the stately home
Hardwick hall once was. With Slade at number one in the charts
with ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ it was a turning point in my life.
Within a year I was helping the sous chef to prepair all
manor of foods. At the weekends I was incharge of the bar
basket meals, chicken in a basket, scampy in a basket etc
it was all the rage at the time. By the age of 15 I had left
school with bad grades and a full time job at Hardwick Hall
Hotel. By the time Mud – ‘Oh Boy’ was number one I had enrolled
on a day release course at Darlington Tech. I passed my 706/1
but not my 706/2 due to my bad dyslexia which in those
days it was considered no excuse for bad spelling.
Things were getting serious by the time first girlfriends came along Tubeway Army - "Are "Friends" Electric?" in the charts and there was every chance I was turning into a New Romantic.
I cut my catering teeth at Hardwick Hall hotel for five years.
Thanks to the owner Mike Addamson and his firm but fair
attitude. I applied for and got my first Head Chef job in
1980 at The Black Swan in Stokesley. The proprieters were
a family of mother, father and two sons, the father was a
retired cornell from the army, wish I had known that before
applying for the job! One year later and with the sound of
soft cell ‘Tanted Love’ blasting out of the kitchen I was
sacked.
To pay my way I took a job as a grill chef at the Berni Inn
Darlington, where the manager was an aneasatist until
he was struck off for malpractice. I worked behind the
bar to make my wages up and helped cook the lunch time
pub grub.
Nouveau cuisine was all the rage so I applied for a job
as commis chef at the Le Menage Etois in Sloan Square, London.
The Owner and head chef was a guy called Antony Worrell Thompson.
Renowned for his influence and his unique way of approching
food his influences lingers on to this day. I worked at Le
Menage Etois for eight months and then decided to head back
to Darlington, only to find myself back at the Berni Inn,
but not for long, in a small town news travels fast, I did
not have to look for another job, it found me. There I was
soaking the mushy peas for tomorows pub grub and in walks
this chap, he said he was opening a restaurant like no other
in Darlington and do I want to head chef it, well what could
I say? So with Dexys Midnight Runners “Come on Eileen" playing
on the duke box off I went to Boobies.
Boobies was one of the best times of my catering career,
serving fantastic food with all the waitresses living up
to the resturants name, it was the place to be seen in
Darlington in the 80’s. Myself and Barry Lavery the other
chef would fight and I mean properly fight over certain food
disagreements but remained good friends and work colleagues
for many years. The owner of Boobies was spending more money
than the place was earning and as a result slid into bankruptcy.
After three years at Boobies I got a call from Hardwick Hall,
one of the waiters was now the manager and had heard about
Boobies reputation and offered me a senior sous chef position,
within a year I was head chef and by the time UB40 – ‘Red
Red Wine’ was in the charts, my old mucker Barry Lavery was
my right hand man. Barry and I took Hardwick Hall kicking
and in most cases screaming into the 80’s. I married one of
the waitresses and we all danced the night away at the wedding
to Eurythmics - "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With
My Heart)" & UB40, & Chrissie
Hynde - "I Got You Babe". Two years later a positon
of chef manager came up at one of the partner hotels, The
Dun Cow Inn Sedgefield, so along with my new wife we applied
and failed. I was told my wife did not have the experience
needed to run the hotel. So we decided to get a pub resaurant
of our own The Hamilton Russell in Thorpe Thewles, try
saying that to the taxi driver when you’ve had a few too
many. The nightmare that was to follow no one could have
predicted, within 3 years things had changed dramatically.
I separated from my wife with inpending divorce and both my
Mother and Father checked out of the hotel of life, my world
was a very different place.
So I decided I needed a complete change and went to Japan, this was an unforgetable experience — working in the Yokaharma Internation hotel. After nine months on a 90 day visa, I was deported and was sent packing back to Blighty.
I
stayed with my sister while working in various restaurunts
in London. I was asked to cook a private meal at Teddington
Lock Studios, as I prepared the food for the meal I
couldn’t help hearing the constant swearing and loud music
coming from a funny looking truck in the car park. I had finished
for the day but this constant noise was still filling
the car park so I went over and asked what was going
on. They told me they were Location Caterers and told me about
film location catering.
I called the catering company Michesons the next day and
started the following day, cooking for Ian McShane and his
crew on Lovejoy. Bit of a shock to the system at first but
grew to love the daily challenges. For the first year I was
a relief chef, little did I know one of the chefs I was covering
for was Mark Bunce. We briefly met on the set of Prince of
Thieves. After a gap of 3 or 4 years we ran into each other
again working for a company called Silent Movies in Pinewood
studios, Mark was on Minder and doing a fantastic job, we
forged a lasting relationship while working for Silent Movies
and after four years we set up Chorley Bunce Meals On A Mission
Limited. Thanks to a certain chap called Menzies Kennedy.
Menzies was the location manager with the drama Department
for YTV, we had done two jobs for YTV, one of them being A
Touch of Frost. DJ (David Jason) took a shine to us and our
food and with Menzies support we flourished. To this day we
do most of DJ`s work, Menzies is now Executive Producer, we
have both grown together but not forgetting our small beginnings.
Chorley
Bunce Meals on a Mission Limited is now a medium size business,
I spend too much of my time managing the company at the moment.
I hope some day in the not too distant future I will return
to one of our kitchens and cook for the cast and crew as food
and its preparation is my passion.
Contact Dave Chorley or Look at Dave Chorley's page on the Internet Movie Database
