Andy puts star style on Pebble Beach platters

AS A small boy Andy Waters used to peer through the hedge surrounding the Chewton Glen and watch the helicopters landing, vowing one day he would work there.

His mum’s sister Margaret lived at Hobourne Naish and Andy would spend his summer holidays with her. When he was a teenager his aunt managed to get him an interview at Chewton Glen and he was taken on as a commis chef.

It was the start of a career that has seen him earn a Michelin star for one restaurant and a red ‘M’ – a prestigious Michelin award one down from a star – for another. Along the way he has worked in the kitchens of a host of Michelin-starred restaurants both here and in France.

Now Andy has returned to where it all started, Hampshire, as head chef at Barton’s Pebble Beach. He said: “I can clearly remember the excitement of watching the helicopters land at the Chewton Glen and thinking how I really wanted to work there one day. There was a real aura about it.

“It definitely sparked my interest in becoming a chef, and from a young age I was cooking for my family. I was so excited when I got a job there. It was the start of everything, really.”

From the Chewton Glen Andy went on to work at the Plough and Harrow, in Edgbaston, then to Lyon in France, before returning to Britain at the renowned Simpsons in Kenilworth before establishing his own restaurant, Edmunds, where he won the Michelin star.

After decades of hard work Andy decided he needed a “complete lifestyle change” when he saw the job at Pebble Beach.

He said: “It is such an iconic restaurant. The Pebble Beach is one of the few places where I had always thought I would have liked to have worked in the area.

“It has such a great reputation locally. It has had a fantastic chef in the shape of Pierre Chevillard who I know and I feel privileged to be able to carry on the baton for a bit longer.”

Working front-of-house is his wife Beverley who has been a staple in that role at restaurants the couple have previously owned.

He said: “It’s always just worked. She knows how I think and I know how she does. We complement each other.”

The couple have settled happily into life by the sea, with Andy saying: “We are loving it. We had reached a stage where we needed to get more of a life-work balance. Working long hours seven days a week had to stop for me.

“Until now I have never been able to go to any of my two children’s school fetes, performances, or parents’ evenings.

“Today I’m meeting them from school where they’ve really settled in and we’ll probably go for a walk on the beach, which is just fantastic.”

Although he left the Chewton Glen in his teens, he maintained links with the area despite his career taking him to different counties and countries.

From the five-star hotel he went to work at the Plough and Harrow for eight years before leaving for Lyon where he worked under the renowned Paul Bocuse whom Andy describes as the “godfather” of Lyon as far as chefs are concerned.

He said: “He was an absolutely fantastic mentor. A lot of the masters have worked under him. Paul has sadly died but he really gave me the most amazing tutorship.

“For all my time in France I was always called ‘roast beef’ I don’t think any of the French chefs back then could really comprehend an Englishman could be a real cooking force.”

On returning to the UK, Andy went to work in Simpsons restaurant in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, where he was working when it won a Michelin star.

Andy said: “That was such a massive achievement. There were three of us in the kitchen, me, Luke Tipping and Glynn Purnell. Glynn has his own restaurant called Purnell’s and also appears on Saturday Kitchen on the TV, and Luke is still at Simpsons.

“All three of us have won a Michelin star each, which is fantastic.”

Andy opened his own restaurant in 2002 in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, named Edmunds, after his late father. He said: “My father died when he was just 32 so he never saw my real success, which is such a shame. We opened another restaurant, The Queens in Belbroughton, a village near Birmingham.

“We were given the ‘M’ award there – which to have two restaurants of mine receive such recognition was just amazing.”

After selling Edmunds, he returned to Edgbaston where he opened a restaurant called Waters on the Square in 2012.

He was then approached by Genting Group two years later to launch a restaurant called Waters in their Resort World at the NEC in Birmingham. It was a challenge he could not turn down so he sold both of his restaurants to take it up.

But working for so many decades “12 hours standing at a hot stove in a hot kitchen” took its toll on Andy and his family life.

Now he is at Pebble Beach where he is relishing the prospect of “putting a bit of flair on the past”.

He said: “I have to say in terms of suppliers this is the best restaurant I have ever worked at. The quality of the produce is just superb, and most of it is on the doorstep, for example the fish and seafood.

“They have got a wonderful network of suppliers down here which means I can create some really great dishes.”

He has been working on a new a la carte menu which was launched this month which features a lot of his signature British modern cuisine.

Andy is looking forward to enjoying the beauty of Hampshire once again, joking that he still “has a few good years in me yet” and trying to achieve the seemingly impossible – making an already great restaurant even better.