Nick Thirkell

Nick's career began in 2003 with a modern apprenticeship at the University of Bath, cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for up to a thousand students and lecturers, and catering events within the university grounds and for the chancellor.

In 2006 he joined The Bath Priory Hotel as chef de partie — his first insight into a kitchen run on the classical French brigade system, under Michelin-starred chef Chris Horridge.

A sous chef post followed at 14 on the Quay in Gibraltar, a fast-paced traditional Spanish kitchen, then Aqua Italia in Bath, where pasta was made by hand each day. Between 2011 and 2012 he cooked on location for BBC, Sky Sports and HBO productions with All England Film Catering.

At Hartham Park he spent three years as sous chef, creating and costing menus for the fine-dining restaurant, weddings and banquets while training a team of eight. In 2015 he was appointed Head Chef at No4 Clifton Village, an award-winning boutique hotel in Bristol's most affluent district, leading a team of six and holding restaurant standards through sixty-five weddings a year.

In 2018 Nick was selected for the internship programme at The Fat Duck in Bray, then holding three Michelin stars, working across the development kitchen, bakery, pastry section and main restaurant. His career has taken him through kitchens from one to three stars.

In 2017 he was headhunted to join the senior kitchen brigade delivering hospitality for the Royal Box and Rolex Suite at the Wimbledon Championships.

The following year he completed the shoot season at Dunskey Estate, one of Scotland's premier sporting estates — breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea and formal plated dinners daily, with estate game, loch-caught brown trout, locally landed shellfish and wood-fired feasts on the estate's private beach. Seasonal appointments at Corrour Estate, a 66,000-acre Highland estate, followed during peak sporting seasons.

From 2022 to 2024 he was sole private chef at Cothay Manor, a medieval estate in rural Somerset run farm-to-table: glasshouse produce, estate-reared lamb, locally dry-aged beef, and almost everything else sourced within ten miles. Bread, pasta, condiments, ice creams and baked goods were produced in-house, alongside shoot days, summer theatre evenings and the refurbishment of the Manor House kitchen.

Between 2019 and 2021 Nick was sole private chef to an entrepreneur and family, travelling between residences in Kensington and Mougins, with seasonal menus from the kitchen garden and household events for up to twenty-five guests.

Since 2017 he has held a trusted portfolio of repeat private clients, working discreetly for the households of Mohamed Al-Fayed at Barrow Green Court, Claudia Schiffer and Matthew Vaughn, Mikhail Fridman at Athlone House, Andrey Andreev at the Wentworth Estate, and Adar Poonawalla in Pune, where he prepared five-course tiffin lunches and plated dinners across the palace and stud farm.

Nick moved to the superyacht industry in 2024, beginning as crew chef aboard Lord of the Highlands through the Scottish Highlands and Outer Hebrides, then sole chef on M/Y Gatsby along the Amalfi coast. He was appointed rotational Head Chef of the 85m M/Y Wanderlust, leading a galley team of three for three owner groups and twenty-four crew through Komodo and Raja Ampat.

A shipyard period aboard M/Y Sea Huntress followed, then a full Mediterranean season and the start of the Caribbean season as sole chef on the 52m sailing yacht Q, cooking for ten crew and up to twelve guests. He is currently sole chef aboard the 45m M/Y Gisa in the Adriatic.

Remote provisioning, logistics and budgeting are as much part of the work as the cooking — as is a calm, collaborative galley.