How Alan became a chef to the stars

WHEN eight-year-old Alan Hill was baking his favourite rock cakes out of the Be-Ro book, he couldn't have imagined that one day he'd cook for rock stars, film stars, leading footballers and even an ex-Prime Minister.

Such things would have been beyond the wildest imaginings of this young lad from Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Yet today, Alan is chef patron at one of the most famous pub-restaurants in Derbyshire, the award-winning Devonshire Arms in the picturesque Peak District village of Beeley, part of the Chatsworth Estate.

Not too long ago, when the newly-released movie, The Duchess, was being filmed at Chatsworth, Alan was proud to cook for the leading actors Keira Knightley, cast as Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Ralph Fiennes, playing her husband, the 5th Duke.

Keira, he recalls, partook of steamed Scottish mussels with parsley, garlic, shallots, white wine and cream, while Ralph tucked into succulent fillet of beef with pont neuf potatoes, port wine glaze and Welsh rarebit. "It's one of my specialities," smiles the genial 40-year-old chef, who loves to take inspiration from the world's top chefs, while adding a generous pinch of his own ideas.

As a boy Alan endlessly perused his mum's well-thumbed Be-Ro recipe book. "I think every home had one, there were no Taste or Good Food Magazines in those days."

After leaving school he enrolled as a catering student at High Peak College in Buxton.

Two years later, aged 18, he took up his first job as a commis chef at the Leewood Hotel in Buxton.

"I left college thinking I was the greatest chef in the world. Then you start cooking in the real world and find it's a lot more demanding than you ever realised."

Alan recounts with humour one of his early blunders in the kitchen.

"I made a lemon souffle without realising that the gelatine is supposed to be soaked first so you can fold it into the mix to set perfectly. But little old me just whacked the gelatine in, didn't stir it, then poured it into the moulds. At 6pm, the chef said 'the lemon soufflé isn't set'. Then he did no more than pull out an expanded mass of gelatine and rub it in my face!"

The lesson was well and truly learned!

"There always has to be a salutary lesson and that was mine. Cooking good food to absolute perfection is a lifelong learning process for all chefs, who learn new things throughout their career."

The fact that there is always a new dish with a fresh combination of flavours, is a constant joy to Alan, who over the past 22 years has worked in top Michelin-starred restaurants across the country. At Juniper, in Altrincham, he worked with his culinary hero Paul Kitching, learning a tremendous amount in the process.

With its Michelin star and four AA rosettes, the restaurant was a favourite haunt of celebrities.

"While I was there I cooked for band members of Oasis and footballers including Viv Anderson."

While working at Nunsmere Hall in Cheshire, Alan prepared dishes for former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who stayed there for several weeks while writing her memoirs.

The Iron Lady, as she was affectionately known, was, it seems, fairly easy to please.

"She enjoyed simple healthy food like chicken and had fresh fruit salad for both breakfast and dessert."

During his varied career, Alan also worked at Michael's Nook, an award-winning restaurant in the Lake District; was a sauce chef at Fischers in Baslow; head chef at the Box Tree in Ilkley, Yorkshire, and head chef at The Old Tramshed in Saltaire, West Yorkshire. Two years ago he arrived at the Devonshire Arms, an historic and immensely popular pub restaurant with eight bedrooms.

The stylish interiors of the refurbished and completely transformed pub, its cosy bar, brasserie restaurant and bedrooms, have all been masterminded by the Duchess of Devonshire.

Full of atmospheric charm, beams, nooks and crannies, the Devonshire Arms is a coaching inn with an intriguing modern twist. What's more, last year it was named Best Pub Restaurant in the regional Food and Drink Awards.

"Food is of the essence here, everything is freshly cooked to order and we use the very best of local produce from the Chatsworth Estate and nearby farms," explains Alan, who heads up a brigade of five chefs. He's proud of the variety of dishes on the menu, from battered Whitby cod with hand-cut chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce, to bangers and mash with slow cooked red wine onions.