Michelin Star Joy
Having worked as Heston Blumenthal’s sous chef at The Fat Duck for more than a decade, Ollie Bridgwater is now leading the team at SOURCE at Gilpin Hotel
Under the guidance of new executive chef Ollie Bridgwater, SOURCE at Gilpin Hotel near Windermere, has retained its coveted Michelin star.
To the delight of the team and Gilpin’s owners, Zoë and Barney Cunliffe, the announcement was made at the Michelin Ceremony Great Britain & Ireland 2023, which recently took place at Silverstone Circuit, bringing together top chefs from the length and breadth of the UK.
Ollie joined Gilpin from Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, possibly the most innovative and successful restaurant in the UK’s history, which next year is due to celebrate an astonishing quarter of a century of three Michelin stars.
Bringing new techniques, skills, creativity and imagination honed in one of the most competitive, demanding and pressurised roles in the industry, Ollie’s appointment is a real coup for the Lake District’s burgeoning fine dining scene. Prior to joining the team at Gilpin, Ollie was with Heston for almost a decade as his sous chef at The Fat Duck, including working in Australia when they moved the entire restaurant to Melbourne for seven months.
Ollie says: “There’s a lot of history at Gilpin, it’s a very special place, so it’s a big responsibility as we reshape SOURCE in the coming months and years. I love making the most of special ingredients that aren’t around all the time, starting with one beautiful local ingredient and using great skills and techniques to make the best of it. Our menus at SOURCE focus on incredible local produce, seasonality, sustainability and precision – the detail really matters.”
Describing his joy at achieving the accolade, he said: “For any chef, earning a Michelin star is the ultimate recognition. It’s what we’re all striving to achieve throughout our careers, so for the team and I to have retained one star at SOURCE under the new name is just fantastic. A huge thanks to the SOURCE team both in the kitchen and out front, this gives us a real boost and reassures us that we’re on the right track. We now have an unbelievably strong foundation to build upon.”
Owner, Barney Cunliffe added: “Zoë and I are so delighted for Ollie, his team in SOURCE, and for Team Gilpin. Ollie is an incredible talent, and a perfect fit with our philosophy. With intense technical skills from nearly a decade at The Fat Duck, he also, having visited the area for many years, has a huge love and respect for our Lake District produce. Ollie’s dishes are beautifully executed, as if they are as Mother Nature intended – on her best day, with each ingredient important and perfectly balanced with each other.
“We already had a vision to create the most delicious, sustainable and ethical dishes working alongside our incredible local farmers and producers. Within our nose to tail culinary philosophy, our soon to be opened butchery with in-house butcher, enables us to work with and buy direct from neighbouring farms that are practising the most ethical and sustainable husbandry and also producing the most delicious meat. Our in-house vertical farm meanwhile allows us to grow produce on site, with maximum, unique flavours, incredible freshness and sustainability. Along with our other two restaurants Gilpin Spice and Knipe Grill at Gilpin Lake House, at SOURCE we will be re-examining every element of our offering with sustainability, ethical sourcing and nose to tail philosophy at its heart.
“It is all about the sourcing, which is why we are so delighted to call the restaurant SOURCE. I knowmum and dad (John and Chris Cunliffe) who we lost so recently, will be looking down on Ollie and the teams’ achievement with enormous pride,” concludes Barney who, with Zoë, joined his parents at Gilpin in 2001.
Gilpin Hotel & Lake House was originally built as a private house in 1901. John’s grandmother bought Gilpin Lodge in 1919, just four years after Beatrix Potter made nearby Hill Top her home, and she also bought Knipe Tarn, then a simple fishing lodge which is now Gilpin Lake House.
Sold out of the family as a private house in 1968, by the time Chris and John bought it back in 1987, Gilpin Lodge had been converted into a humble bed and breakfast. Having run hotels around the world, from New York to Cyprus, Jamaica and London, Chris and John decided to move back to the Lakes and begin the transformation of the house into a luxurious hotel.
Six generations of Cunliffes have been associated with the two estates – today Gilpin Hotel & Lake House is one of England’s finest modern country house hotels, a haven of calm and style, a year-round retreat with just 39 rooms and suites. It is renowned for extraordinary service, exquisite décor and stunning culinary experiences.
