Chewton Glen’s executive chef Luke Matthews and his brigade of 27 chefs prepare almost 80,000 meals a year. Everything is created in Luke’s culinary threatre – whether it is the £24.50 three course lunch, a healthy snack in the spa, or the five-course Menu Gourmand.

Luke has been at Chewton Glen since 1993. He worked for ten years as Senior Sous Chef and in November 2003 was appointed Executive Chef. Luke is a local man, having attended school, and subsequently college, in Bournemouth.

Luke had an early appreciation of good food and a mother of whom Jamie Oliver would approve. ‘She always cooked fresh produce and baked her own bread, cakes and biscuits. It was good home-cooking and we never had processed food’.

After he finished his apprenticeship, aged 20, Luke had a brief sojourn at Chewton Glen with chef Pierre Chevillard. ‘He inspired me, he was a brilliant chef and a great guy. I decided then I wanted to be a chef at the top and began to take it seriously.’

He worked in the Channel Islands and in one of the first gastro-pubs in Oxfordshire before heading to the South of France as sous chef at Les Bories at Gordes in Provence. After another 18 months at Bishopstrow House in Warminster he finally came home to Chewton Glen, as sous chef under Pierre Chevillard for ten years before taking over the top job three years ago.

Luke’s view:
‘I am driven by satisfying my guests. Many of them enjoy simple food made with top quality ingredients and cooked with the same care as the more complex dishes’