Member Article

Bdaily talks secrets to success with Kenny Atkinson

In the run up to this year’s Be World Class conferences in the North East and Yorkshire, Bdaily is chatting to the speakers who are looking to inspire businesspeople and share their wisdom on what it takes to find success.

He describes himself as “just a North East lad”, who has found success through a determination and drive to do what he loves. Kenny Atkinson is head chef at Rockcliffe Hall Hotel, and has worked his way up from pot-washing to become a Michelin Star chef.” It’s a journey, and it’s incorporated a lot of sacrifice and self-drive. I left school at 16 and almost fell into catering by accident. From working in a pub washing up, I went on to move away, and have continually made moves to get where I am now, and sometimes people have questioned those decisions.”

Despite his credentials, Kenny is a humble guy, and really emphasises the hard work that went into achieving his mantle. Having been oblivious to the kind of performance techniques and wisdom that Be World Class aims to make clear to people. “I think what I’ve realised is that its a huge learning process. You continue to learn, and you’ve got to be open to that. The other key thing is the end goal, you’ve got to have something to work towards. It’s these kind of things that I’ve learnt from the speakers at the last Be World Class conference.”

Kenny explains that his clear idea of what he wanted to achieve meant he often took career steps that seemed illogical to others around him. “On maybe three or four occasions, I was in a position where I could have taken a higher paid jobs, but chose to take a pay cut because I knew it was the right way forward. People around me would say ‘you’re crazy, what are you doing’, and I had to stay confident.“It was when I met Simon and talked through a lot of my experiences, and his thinking, I realised there was a number of these crossroads episodes. It’s having the faith to follow through on your instinct and know exactly what you want.”

Now Kenny wants to share the ins and outs of his story with businesspeople, hoping to inspire and instil a sense of duty in them to build the next generation of “I’ve talked to Simon and others, and started to identify what the next level is for me. One thing I noticed in my industry is the lack of young chefs coming from the colleges. So for me, that’s what I’m beginning to do - get into the colleges and talk about the trade and get young people enthusiastic about the trade.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .