When news broke that renowned Isle of Wight chef Robert Thompson was to close the doors of his eponymous Newport restaurant in February, it would have undoubtedly got the rumour mills turning.
After gaining his first Michelin Star at just 25 and last year awarded an MBE for his services to hospitality, tourism and charity, he could quite frankly have his pick of restaurants anywhere in the UK.
However, having spent the past 16 years helping to create and cement the Isle of Wight as an all-round foodie destination, he’s staying firmly put – albeit laying down new roots six miles down the road in Ryde.
‘The first time I set foot on the Isle of Wight, its culinary reputation wasn’t exactly renown – there wasn’t a great deal here,’ he remembers. ‘But I could see the opportunities, the potential for this place to grow and to have a reputation for foraging and local produce similar to the West Country 10 to 15 years down the line.’
Like many successful chefs, Robert acquired a love of cooking at a young age, finding himself pot-washing in a professional kitchen from the age of 12.
‘Everything at home was always home-made, I was lucky that my parents enjoyed cooking – my dad was always making pizza dough and, you know, the house was always full of onions,’
laughs Robert, who was born in Bedfordshire. ‘But the real gear change for me was when my brother, Patrick, who is seven years older, became a chef.’
Early years spent pot washing in his brother’s restaurant kitchen set him up for an illustrious career, which after a few years working alongside Patrick, saw him join the two Michelin-starred Winteringham Fields in Lincolnshire to work under the fatherly instruction of chef-patron Germain Schwab. When Germain retired and Robert took over as head chef, Michelin awarded him his own star – he was just 25 years old and the youngest chef ever to have been given the accolade in his own right.
However, it has been his time spent on the Isle of Wight that has enabled Robert to really hone his own style and direction. Just a few months after arriving on the island and taking over at The Hambrough, in Ventnor, he earned the second Michelin star of his career and the first for the island, firmly putting the Isle of Wight on the foodie map.
‘When I arrived at The Hambrough, it was losing a huge amount of money, so I stripped it back, went back to the drawing board and we got a star straight away,’ Robert, 43, explains. ‘The feedback was incredible, and we had all sorts of people visit – I remember having to park Janet Street-Porter’s car for her because she pranged it on the curb outside.’ Journalist Janet described Ventnor as ‘Britain’s answer to fashionable Biarritz’ in an article for the Daily Mail following said visit.
After five years at The Hambrough, Robert decided it was time to move on and begun looking for his own restaurant that he could build and mould from the ground up. After a short spell at The George hotel in Yarmouth, he opened the doors of his first solo venture, Thompson’s, in Newport in 2015 with the purpose of ‘bridging the gap between bistro and overly exclusive restaurants.
‘After years spent working for other people, I needed to be out on my own,’ he admits. ‘And this place had me all over it! My Dad, Peter, hand-made the oak dining tables, each with their own individual cutlery drawers, and the cheese trolley; we laid the floor together, and I built the bar out of reclaimed railway sleepers. A huge amount of personality went into it.’
When news of a national lockdown hit almost five years later in 2020 however, Robert was forced to completely re-evaluate the business.
‘I remember sitting there, watching it unfold on the news and hanging off every single word that was being said,’ explains Robert, who at the time had just invested thousands of pounds in upgrading kitchen equipment at Thompson’s. ‘We were just coming out of winter, which is quiet here on the island, and were gearing up for the new season. I really thought it could be the end and literally stared at the wall for two days.’
However, Robert is one to make the most of a bad situation and, as soon as he was able, got back in the kitchen and started cooking meals for people to enjoy in their home.
‘I looked at what stock I had in the fridge, freezer and dry stores and did what chefs do, I wrote a menu utilizing what I had to hand,’ he says. It was the start of his ‘You Be Chef’ at-home restaurant meal kits. The boxes, which are now available for delivery nationwide, feature extraordinary ingredients, prepared by Robert and his team on the Isle of Wight, with insider tips so consumers can enjoy plating up Michelin magic in their own home, no experience necessary.
‘At first I was doing everything myself, I remember driving round the island, delivering these meal kits, and sometimes I’d have people in tears when I’d come to the door – it was such an emotional time,’ explains the father-of-two. Before long he was doing hundreds of orders for his meal boxes each week.
The pivot was so successful that when restaurants were allowed to re-open after the first lockdown, Robert decided to hold fire, choosing instead to focus on the at-home meal boxes.
‘I really believed – I still really believe – in this brand. I think it's honest, it's being made by chefs, the same chefs who are here cooking in the restaurant, and it supports us year-round,’ Robert explains. ‘As much as the Isle of Wight is becoming more of a year-round destination, island life is very seasonal and so of course for a restaurant, it’s quieter in November and December than July and August, but this gave us the potential to be even busier in the winter.’
Four years on and while Thompson’s did eventually re-open, You Be Chef remains an intrinsic part of the business and was the impetus for Robert’s latest business venture – the relocation of Thompson’s to Ryde and the opening of a new bistro-style eatery on the same site.
Open year round for breakfast, lunch and dinner, RTCaféGrill, opened on the ground floor of Royal Maritime House, which formerly housed the Liz Earle HQ, in March with a menu that puts local talent, suppliers and produce centre-stage. The new restaurant has a laid-back vibe with an open kitchen, long bar looking out over the Solent, a snug with banquette seating and separate bistro-style restaurant area with clothed tables and oversized rattan lights hanging from the high ceiling.
Thompson’s fine dining experience, which will be reincarnated on the lower floor of the building this autumn and will be operated by the same team as RTCaféGrill, allowing every staff member to develop their skills across both offerings.
‘Thompson’s is a fine dining, special occasion sort of place and that means we’d rarely see the same people often,’ admits Robert, who is father to Louis, 13 and Chester, 5. ‘Lockdown opened my mind a bit and when we re-opened, we started doing Sunday roasts. I hadn’t before because I was worried how restaurant guides would view it, but it was so successful and brought regulars in, some would come back four times a month! So, I realised that I could offer two levels of dining. On moving to Ryde, we wanted to give locals, visitors and international travellers the chance to experience a new dining destination, whether they want to enjoy a bottle of wine at the bar, a family lunch with the kids, a relaxed evening meal or tasting menu, all while discovering some of the very best ingredients from across the Isle of Wight.’
A champion of local produce, Robert loves nothing more than foraging in the woods or along the Island’s shoreline for ingredients that can be used within his menus. However, he also plans to open a farm to help him achieve his long-term ambition of becoming more sustainable.
‘I’m hoping to be able to take diners there so they can get that whole farm-to-fork experience and our cookery school will be based there too,’ explains Robert.
The entire project is a huge investment and clearly shows Robert’s ongoing commitment to the island’s culinary scene.
‘This is such a big opening for me,’ he says. ‘It’s easy to forget that a few years back Covid could have stopped everything, but that period was a part of my journey that's really propelled me to do things a bit differently. Would I be doing this if I didn't have the experience of those years? No way. So as hard as it was, it’s brought all this, and I have to pinch myself every day.’
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