INTERVIEW: MasterChef star on his new County Durham restaurant and culinary career shift

As part of Bdaily’s coverage of World Food Day (October 16), we sat down for a conversation with Mike Bartley, former MasterChef contestant and Bishop Auckland native whose new restaurant recently surpassed its crowdfunding target.

Our chat ranged in topic from his a-typical career trajectory to the multi-million-pound regeneration of his hometown. Read on to find out more…

1. Our readers might recognise you from your appearance on BBC’s MasterChef series in 2021. Can you recount that experience and some of the biggest lessons you brought away from it?

It seems so long ago now! Filming took place in September 2020 when we were still in lockdown, so we had a very different filming experience to other years. Daily Covid tests, face coverings when the cameras weren’t rolling, and there were no parties after we wrapped up filming for the day!

I was a huge MasterChef fan prior to appearing on the show, so it was fascinating to be on set watching it all come together. The one thing that struck me at the time is that it is close to what you see on TV, nothing is set up for entertainment value.

When we walk through those doors at the beginning of the episode, that is the first time we meet John and Gregg. So the excitement that you see on TV is real.

I think my downfall on the show was that I was too focused on showing as much technique as possible on the plate, whereas I should have been thinking about whether the elements amounted to a cohesive dish.

That has really shaped my cooking after the show. When I’m developing dishes as a private chef, I constantly ask myself if an element is contributing to the dish in the right way. It has resulted in simpler dishes with fewer ingredients that are done well.

My drive for entering the competition was to use the show as a springboard into a career as a chef, and in that sense, I achieved everything that I wanted to.

There is a huge community of former Masterchef contestants who are ready to provide advice to any newcomers which, given that their journey began on the same path, was invaluable when deciding where to go after the show.

2. Following your time on MasterChef, you made a pivot in your career and became a private chef. How did this ultimately inform your decision to open a restaurant of your own?

Opening a restaurant off the back of the show was always the end goal. But at a time when there was still a risk of further lockdowns (which at the time were hurting the hospitality industry) it didn’t make sense to jump straight into a project with potentially crippling overheads.

It is well known that MasteChef contestants have a short shelf-life in the public eye – you’re only relevant until the next batch of contestants come along, so it was important to strike while the iron was hot. I had to devise a plan on how to establish myself as a credible chef whilst keeping overheads at a minimum.

Private cheffing seemed to tick all the boxes. I quit my job 6 months after the show aired and threw everything I had at building a reputation so that when the opportunity for a restaurant came along, the buzz was still there.

I didn’t give myself a timeframe for opening a restaurant. For me, the most important thing was the right opportunity in the right place, and if the timing fit, then I’d go for it.

Bishop Auckland is my hometown, and it was important to me that the restaurant was placed in the community that has supported me so much over the past couple of years. When I heard about the redevelopment plans on Newgate Street, I knew I had to be involved.

3. Can you tell our readers a bit about the kind of experience you hope to deliver with the restaurant itself?

My cooking style is to make the most of the land around me by using locally sourced and foraged produce. We have incredibly fertile land in the North-East, with vast countryside and stunning coastline and I think that should be celebrated.

Foraging is a huge part of my identity as a chef and helps ensure that my food is seasonal. This local connection will feature heavily on the menu at Jörd. In fact, the name itself is Scandinavian for ‘land’ and is the old-Norse goddess of the Earth.

The restaurant will offer an evening tasting menu, with small sharing plates available during the day. People often associate tasting menus with opulence and exclusivity, but that isn’t the goal here. I believe that tasting menus can be experienced without having to break the bank, and I’d love for people to try it who might otherwise be sceptical or put off by high prices.

The great benefit of tasting menus is that they can cater to all dietary requirements – by capturing dietary information at the point of booking, we’re able to ensure that all our guests are accommodated, whether they are vegan, gluten-free, or have very specific allergies.

With advance notice, everything can be tweaked to ensure that nobody has to miss out. With a standard ‘al a carte’ menu, people with specific requirements are often limited to one or two dishes.

4. Having recently surpassed your funding target to open the venue, are there any unique benefits apparent in taking the ‘crowdfunding’ route?

By taking the crowdfunding route, my aim is that the business avoids having to take bank loans, where the interest rates benefit only the banks. By crowdfunding, the benefit passes directly to the local people who back the project.

Those who have made pledges for the tasting menu will receive it at a discounted price. This has guaranteed over 800 covers when the restaurant opens.

When these people dine with us, they will hopefully share their experience with others and provide a solid foundation for long-term success. I was also keen to avoid seeking individual investors who might expect an element of creative control in the project. I want this to be my vision alone.

5. The planned opening of Jörd comes at an opportune moment for the local area of Bishop Auckland. In your mind, how does your own venture tie in with the town’s £12m transformation?

It has been a long-term criticism of both locals and visitors that the town centre is desolate and in dire need of investment. Over the past few years, we have begun to see change with the likes of Kynren bringing in much-needed tourism, and the ongoing transformation of the marketplace. But Newgate Street remains in a poor state.

It would be great if the high-street shops returned to the town centre, but with the out-of-town retail parks, we have to accept that it is unlikely to happen. I could either sit back and complain, or I could be a part of the change.

We do have some fantastic restaurants in and around Bishop Auckland, but if you want fine dining, you have to either travel or pay a small fortune. There is a niche in the market for elevated food at an affordable price in the local area, and the £12m transformation of Kingsway Quarter presents the ideal opportunity.

The site for the restaurant presents a blank canvas, so we can ensure that the design and the layout of the restaurant is conducive to the whole experience. Hopefully the redevelopment of the area will be the catalyst that attracts other local businesses to Bishop Auckland town centre, and in a year or two, it will be a very different place.

6. And finally, if you could sit down for dinner with any famous chef or restauranteur, who would it be and why?

I think it would have to be Tommy Banks. I’ve had the privilege of staging at Roots, his restaurant in York, where I was able to meet and work with him. His story, and his cooking style has influenced me more than any other chef over the years.

In 2018, I watched Kenny Tutt, David Crichton and others on MasterChef work a shift with Tommy at The Black Swan in Oldstead. The food that I witnessed piqued my interest and when I Googled the restaurant, I couldn’t believe it was only an hour’s drive away. I booked myself straight in.

This was my first experience of Michelin Star food, and it was a huge turning point for me in my culinary journey, as I started trying to replicate the dishes in my own kitchen, opening my eyes to a new approach to ingredients and techniques.

His passion for ingredients that are foraged or from the farm is a concept that has massively shaped my cooking style, and the fact that he is self-taught showed me that achieving a high standard of cooking can be done if you have the right amount of determination. I’m told he’s also a Sunderland fan, which definitely helps!

Marcus Wareing and Michel Roux Jr would be welcome to join us, for no other reason than they’re absolute geniuses and it would be a privilege to be in their company and benefit from their wisdom for an evening.

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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