Will's Kitchen True North

This programme contains strong language

Hurry up! Take nine snacks from my right-hand side. Let's go!

-Rachel?

-Yes.

-Can't hear you.

-Yes, Chef!

27-year-old Will Brown is one of Northern Ireland's

most ambitious chefs.

I believe as a chef and as a businessman,

I'm on my way to the very top of the industry.

You're on the quail egg, yes?

Over 18 months,

we follow him as he strives to put his restaurant

on the culinary map...

The tuna is not in the middle of the plate, look.

..and win one of the food industry's most prestigious awards.

A Michelin star is my main game.

-Let's go!

-Yes.

Because I believe my food is the best food in the country.

Give me two fucking plates straightaway, please,

so I can do my job!

Please!

Right, beef, yeah, let's go.

It's Valentine's tonight so there's a lot of lovers out tonight,

you know, out to have a bit of craic and eat some nice food.

Give me a tuna. Sea bream, garnish straight on.

Get it straight on!

This time last year, I think the Schoolhouse did 12 people for Valentine's Day.

This Valentine's, we're doing 65 and we've turned away about 65.

-Bread back, please.

-Bread, bread, bread. Quickly.

So you can see the change in one year. It's big.

Right, two amuse, going to table 10.

-Hello?!

-Yes, Chef.

Table... See when I say something, can you say something back?

So I don't have to fucking waste my time saying it twice. Please!

Will trained with award-winning chefs including

Marco Pierre White, Paul Rankin and Gordon Ramsay.

Take these away.

Take these away!

He recently returned from London to take over his parents' restaurant

and guesthouse, which he now runs with his partner Karena.

Get two pork belly out, wakey wakey, two pork belly out. Yes?

It's located in an isolated spot along the County Down coast.

Will has ambitions to transform it into a destination restaurant.

The restaurant had been closed, really, for three years.

You know, when I started, it was just me

and a 75-year-old waiter working in the restaurant.

Table 14, go.

The first weekend, I think I had zero.

You're taking the checks down and putting them up

-the wrong fucking way.

-Sorry.

So there's a system which I've got my head round

to run this kitchen. Every time you take a check down

-and put a number on it, you're putting it on the wrong way.

-Sorry, Chef.

Fucking front of house are fucking fucking me over here. What the...

-What's going on? Where's the docket?

-I don't know.

-Well, what's on it?!

Karena? There's desserts on here, I don't have a docket,

John doesn't have a docket, they've been waiting 12 minutes.

Working with Karena is fantastic because, you know, I love her more

than anything in the world, I trust her more than anything in the world.

What you do want off me?! What do you want off me?!

Can I have two chocolates, please?

Two chocolates, yeah.

'I studied law and I was going to go down that route'

but I found whatever I started, I really enjoy working here.

Go and tell Karena!

I have hard days, he has hard days.

Tell Karena I am being put under pressure.

I do know how to calm him down.

It's fucking rare, right? And a med-well!

-I try to!

-SHE LAUGHS

With Karena, I've got eyes out front.

It's not as if I'm in the kitchen and there's

a load of strangers out here doing things they shouldn't be doing.

Karena?

-OK?

-Yeah.

-Prawn!

I do try and protect them but I also think that if there is

a problem in the restaurant, then it's always best, after service,

-to sit down and discuss it.

-Pass it up.

-Mitchell!

-Yes?

Two sea bass, please, table 9.

She doesn't tell me during service

because I'll probably kill somebody.

Have it all up at the same fucking time.

I'm stopping my whole service to go back and cut a croustillant!

You can't make mistakes, that's it.

He's a nice guy but if you make a mistake

then his mood can change fairly quickly.

Brioche... Brioche is burning.

You stand right in front of it, yeah?

If I took it to heart, I wouldn't be here, really.

I would be well out of the door!

What's the brioche?

I don't want to hold your hand all the time.

I think I'm hard on the staff, yeah.

What's the brioche, yes?

If they don't like the way I do things then they don't work here.

I believe that in them busy services, it's life or death.

John, get the manager! If you don't produce the goods, you're bankrupt.

For Will, it's not just about staying afloat,

it's about reaching the top of his profession.

I think in 18 months,

when I'm 28, I'll have the best restaurant in the country.

Will is passionate about using local produce in his cooking.

Even after a late night in the kitchen, he and his team can be

found foraging along the Strangford Lough coastline at 7am.

So, this plant is goosetongue, and we're going to use it

in a mackerel dish that's going on the menu tonight.

You see very little chefs going out so early in the morning

before a 15-hour day and trying to find all this wonderful produce.

-Your first time, Dan, you enjoying it?

-Yeah, it's great craic.

'All of our produce on the menu is local.

'And where we are, we're so lucky.

'We've got Finnebrogue venison,

'we've got the oyster farm round the corner,

'I'm getting my quails from Lisbane, it's a brilliant place

'to have a restaurant cos the produce is so good.'

For 30 years, Will's mum and dad ran the Schoolhouse.

They now help him manage the adjoining guesthouse

and support him in his pursuit of a Michelin star.

Och, I do worry about him, because he strives for perfection.

Even when he played rugby, the boots had to be the best,

everything had to be the best.

"Mum, if I have the best boots on my feet...and I'm

"so comfortable in them, I will play better."

There's a lot of things William wants to do.

You know, he wants to build a bigger kitchen. He's always one step ahead.

He never relaxes. I think that's what it takes.

I think he deserves a Michelin star, because he works so hard,

he's so dedicated, and food's his life.

Sometimes I think he takes it too seriously.

The only thing is, I always say,

"I wish I had a big money tree in the back garden," you know?

It's September 2014, and today, Michelin will announce

which restaurants across the UK will receive a star.

There will be a press release at 7.30, and every chef in the UK will

be told if he's got a Michelin star, if he hasn't got a Michelin star.

Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland is finally out.

Just says you can buy it for £11.

A Michelin star is one of the highest accolades a restaurant can receive.

Winning one would push Will into another league.

From what I've read so far,

Northern Ireland have achieved no Michelin stars this year.

Em...

We haven't got a star this year.

Still 27 years of age, you know?

Got plenty of time to go after that and get the star.

What we've got to do is keep working hard, keep building the team

and keep improving.

And you never know, one day, we could achieve it.

But it's not to be this year, by the looks of it, so...

Just when Will thinks that all hope of an award is gone,

some exciting news is posted on Twitter.

So after all, we HAVE just achieved an award,

which I am absolutely over the moon with.

We got a Bib Gourmand from Michelin.

A Bib Gourmand is an award for consistent food

cooked to a very high standard...

and it all falls into a certain price bracket,

so you can have three courses for under £30.

Can you believe it? Michelin? Michelin?

They awarded and recognised the hard work that all the staff achieved.

Do you know, I've a few chefs around the area who are

big competition, they've been here for 10 to 12 years,

and they've never achieved an award like this,

and I've achieved it after a year.

I don't want to sound cocky, but it has absolutely made my day.

KARENA LAUGHS

(Yes!)

-I'm going to play this cool.

-Yeah, right!

-I'm only joking.

Type this for me, Karena, in these words.

Fantastic achievement in our first year at the Schoolhouse.

-Well done to...

-No, no, let me say, OK?

Fantastic achievement in our first year at the Schoolhouse

to win a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

(Yes!)

Have to go to work now.

-Have to go to work.

-Woo!

It will be a year before the next Michelin awards,

and although Will has received a Bib Gourmand, a star is a long way off.

If there's one person that can help Will achieve his star,

it's Tim Magee.

Tim works all over the world

and is consultant to the top restaurants in Northern Ireland.

Any advice that he can give Will should prove invaluable.

So tonight we have a consultant coming to see us called Tim.

This is the starter we have, some local plaice came in this morning,

with broccoli puree. Purple sprouting broccoli

is a top piece of produce just grown down the road.

It's all about what's in season, so Tim's in for a good night tonight.

I think at this level of cooking you need to constantly

question yourself. "Am I doing things right here?

"Am I getting the best out of this onion?

"Am I getting the best out of this potato gnocchi?

"Could I add a bit more egg there or take a wee bit more egg away?"

In this game, you're constantly striving to make things look better.

-This is the menu I have at the minute.

-Looks lovely, like.

From a local-provenance perspective, you've got it, you know?

There is a certain amount of bullet-proofing I think

that needs to happen now to make sure you can't be

criticised for something that isn't actually involving the cooking.

-Yeah.

-The salmon's farmed, and that's fair enough, it would be,

but the sea bream, is it farmed as well?

The sea bream...is farmed, yeah.

Farmed sea bass has become the bane of the world, OK?

What it does to the environment, and it's now essentially wedding food.

Sea bream is next on the list on that, it's just queueing up.

I know you can't have wild fish every day,

but it's almost better to not have it and celebrate it when you do.

Also, an alarm bell straightaway for me is the green beans,

-where are the green beans from? Africa?

-The green beans are...

They're probably African.

I'm not sure, I'll have to ask my veg supplier.

-I imagine they're long-haul.

-Hold on a second, can we just stop?

HE EXHALES

That's this chap sitting at the side here talking about

the green beans being from Africa.

And I'm standing here now cooking for him, and he's sitting there...

..talking to me like I'm a three-year-old.

Soon as he walked through the door, I didn't like him. That's the truth.

I don't know why, I just...

Och, listen, the guy's a lovely guy, there's no problems.

But he's in there talking nonsense. Come on.

I do think the chairs are a little bit uncomfortable.

If you have an international dining critic coming along,

they're going to look at artisan light bulbs,

which have been slagged off for the last two or three years.

If one more restaurant opens in Manhattan with tiles

and artisan light bulbs, they're going to lose their reason.

But you've got that juxtaposition

of this old Victorian or Georgian building

and then this very modern side of it here,

which is a little bit discombobulating, for me.

If he asks where I got the onions,

I'm going to say they were bought in.

-Thank you very much, chef. Looks beautiful.

-Bon appetit, sir.

-Cheers.

Not too busy, not too many things on the plate.

It's lovely. The fish is seasoned perfectly.

There's a slightly astringent taste coming from...

Is it from the onions?

Have a taste. Is it from the ash?

I don't know where it's coming from.

-Do you get it?

-Not particularly.

-OK.

'He pretty much pissed me off, yeah.'

And I'm quite an easy enough guy to get on with.

I treat everyone like individuals,

but I thought his attitude stunk, to be honest with you.

Croustillant of beef cheek, fillet of Hereford beef.

Do you think that having the pastry around the braised beef...?

-Do you mean the potato strings?

-I know it's there for texture,

-which is great, but it can taste a tiny bit oily.

-That's true.

'I can take criticism, I take criticism every day,

'I take feedback from my customers,

'but whenever there's a chap enters your restaurant and you've'

never met him before, and he doesn't really know anything about you...

For me, when it comes to Tim the other night...

..didn't impress me. Didn't impress me whatsoever.

Will has some news that may force him

to put any ambitions for a Michelin star on hold for a while.

Me and Karena are expecting our first child together.

We're not sure if it's a little boy or a little girl.

It'll be in our world on the 26th of February.

I'm going to have a busy schedule, I would say, after Christmas.

What about black truffle, can you get me

a better price on black truffle?

I need to be sensible and make a few pound really,

that's what it's all about. That's it.

My priorities for the Michelin star have not changed,

but the most important thing is to look after this

family business that's been here for 30 years.

Because I'm having a child and I would like to pass that on

to my child, but saying that,

if a Michelin star comes along, then brilliant.

CHILD'S HEARTBEAT THUMPS

-That's a reassuring sound, isn't it?

-Uh-huh.

Little black mark is the stomach, it's had a good feed.

It's a well-nourished, healthy, happy baby at the moment,

-so all good.

-Good.

Brilliant.

-Cheers, all the best.

-Thanks very much, doctor, thank you.

Bit of good news on a Friday morning.

KARENA LAUGHS

Christmas is kicking off,

and the pressure in the kitchen has stepped up.

On top of this, Will has implemented major changes behind the scenes.

I reshuffled my team, cos I wasn't very happy with them.

To be honest with you, they just weren't talented enough.

They didn't want to go that extra yard to produce good food.

It's like picking a football team,

you pick your best team to win you the match.

Here, let's get this down to a T, I'm being serious.

So tonight's a bit tougher for us, we've changed the menu,

we've got a new set-up, this is our first night

properly working as a team,

properly together, so it's going to be difficult.

This is when it gets a bit frustrating,

because food sits on the top of passes for too long.

-Have they finished the table?

-Yep.

-Where's Scott gone?

I've mellowed a lot over the last six months. I think so.

I think so, I think I have.

Definitely, I definitely have.

-Sam, do you think I've mellowed over the last three months?

-Oh, yeah.

WILL LAUGHS

Is the crumble in the oven?

If you had put the fucking crumble in the oven then

we would have just lifted it out to send it to the table.

So put the crumble in the oven

whenever it comes straight on order.

We have to get this by Saturday.

When I'm finished and plating the main course, you just go and...

HE SLAMS COUNTER

You know what I mean?

We need to get it right as a team, and we're getting it right,

but there's always room for improvement, all right?

Never, ever want to see the soup boiling.

There needs to be four of these on the wall every night

before service, so if we get a fucking tasting menu on

it's already there and I'm not

running around like a headless chicken.

At some stage, we need to get it right, OK?

-Right, boys. Cheers.

-Here's to Saturday.

-Great service.

Six doubles in a row, got another seven doubles to go,

16-hour days, but it's worth it. It could go either way for me here.

A - I'll be a very successful young man

and I'll have a very successful restaurant.

Or B - I could go bankrupt in six months. It's as cut-throat as that.

But I'm through my first two-and-a-half years,

and we're making money.

But it's not going to grow with me sitting on me arse

16 hours a day, I need to be in here with my team,

trying my best to make things better, every day.

It's January and, on weekdays, the restaurant is empty.

Will needs to come up with a plan to keep business coming in.

Everyone's spent all their money over Christmas.

The food at the moment is very up-market.

I'm looking at the menu, it's quite expensive,

and we want to change our direction.

We want to go a little bit more bistro,

a little bit more brasserie-style.

Because we're not busy enough, and we need to get it busier.

Fork for a burger!

A bistro-style menu might mean a busier restaurant,

but it also threatens the likelihood of a Michelin star.

The new menu seems to be working.

Valentine's night has come around again and the place is packed.

But Will and Karena have more personal matters on their minds.

So hopefully, fingers crossed, the baby's born on Monday.

Cos we're closed on Mondays.

I've got ten days to go.

So yeah, ten days to go, I feel fine,

so I thought I might as well come in and help.

I feel like a whale!

SHE LAUGHS

Impending parenthood doesn't distract Will for long.

We can't have indecisiveness, it makes us look like amateurs.

Yes, Chef. If someone doesn't want onions,

-you ask them, straightaway...

-Yes, Chef.

"Do you have an allergy, sir, or is it your preference?"

Or whatever, OK?

-So that we don't look like morons.

-Yes, Chef.

I couldn't get out of the kitchen today so my mum went

and got them for me.

I'm not going to tell her that but.

A few Brownie points.

You need to build the points up

so you can go for a pint once a week.

Couldn't do it without her, there's no way.

I might be able to cook, but she helmed the ship,

you know? She really did.

-Give us a kiss on the cheek.

-That's made my day. Yes!

That's me happy for another day.

Over the last two years, I've totally chilled out.

It's not worth losing the head over a green bean not being

cut the same size, because you'll have a nervous breakdown.

That's not to say my standards slipped,

but I deal with things better now, I do not lose the plot any more.

But that just comes with experience, growing up.

Another source of torment for Will is feedback from customers

on websites like TripAdvisor.

There's a bad TripAdvisor come in today.

Fucking shocking, it's the worst one we've ever had.

HE EXHALES

It's just came in this second. Fuck's sake.

"We had such high hopes for The Old Schoolhouse Inn,

"unfortunately the staff did not help.

"After ten minutes of deciding what to eat,

"we then realised that the staff had given us two different menus.

"It was 95 minutes from sitting down till main course arrived.

"Two out of five."

And that is the worst TripAdvisor we've ever had,

and it just came in this second.

I want to call every member of the team a dickhead,

but I won't do that, cos it's unprofessional.

So what I'll do is just sit everyone down

and just try to understand what happened out front.

Most important thing is to keep your head

and deal with it in the right way.

It's a fucking disgrace!

It's disgraceful.

We may as well close the front doors. It's absolute madness.

I thought we were doing really well.

75% of TripAdvisor said the service is crap.

That's not all it says, Will.

Everywhere gets mixed reports.

What... What's happened on Sunday, like?

You know what I mean, what's happened on Sunday? Again.

There's people saying here that the front-of-house staff did not help.

OK? So that's you.

"I overheard a waiter asking bar staff

"if the Gewurztraminer was German."

Now, whoever asked that needs help.

-Because...

-Hang on a second, no, sorry, that's out of context.

Niall came up to me at the bar and said it sounds like a German wine.

He said it SOUNDS German.

-I'm talking rationally here...

-Are you?

..I'm just reading exactly what it says on our Facebook.

PHONE RINGS

Hello, Old Schoolhouse.

I'm going to be a father in a few hours.

If someone had asked me a year ago, I was going to have a child,

I would never have believed them.

You wouldn't believe it,

this is the first lunch service in two-and-a-half years I've missed.

It's well worth it.

How's it going, Scott? See for lunch... Yeah, she's good.

See for lunch, mate, could you just do five starters,

five main courses, all for £21.50?

And a £3 sup on the duck. Thanks, bye.

-Go with the vegetable...

-She gets toast after anyway.

-Yeah, I'll go with ice cream. She loves ice cream.

-OK.

-Cheers.

-Thank you.

I'm a little bit worried about both of them now.

You don't like to see your loved ones in a bad way.

BABY CRIES

After 15 hours in labour

and an emergency C-section, Will finally gets to meet his son.

KARENA LAUGHS

He's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

Stevie, I need another Yorkie made, I've burnt that one.

Three medium and one rare.

Fuck's sake. Fuck off! Go get Niall.

A few days later, Will is back in the kitchen working a 90-hour week.

My head's gone totally. I can hardly string a sentence in front of me.

But I just need to keep focused on the food and keep giving 100%.

I'm not physically exhausted, just mentally.

It's been a very long week and it's nearly over.

What you say is, "I'm sorry," yeah? And just forget about it.

Don't come and say, "It's my mistake,"

I know whose mistake it is.

I'm the one who has to fucking sort it out, know what I mean?

Summer has arrived, and the restaurant has picked up.

After a short maternity leave, Karena is back at work,

and Will is forging ahead with improvements to his business,

including a new vegetable garden to supply the kitchen.

At the same time, Will is learning to balance work and family life.

Working with Karena has become a lot easier, we know when to leave

each other alone, we know when to say the right thing or the wrong...

We've become really good.

Hold on, hold on, I never said to go anywhere.

Right, let's go.

Obviously it's a very high-pressure environment

and you would tend to vent at those closest to you,

so I find working with Will, it works better

if I sort of minimise my time in the kitchen directly.

Come on, ladies, let's go, yeah?

You have to grow a thick skin, which is something I didn't really

have before I worked here, but now I would say it's very thick now!

I'm not starting until the other two are back,

cos it's a fucking nightmare when that happens.

It's September, and time for Michelin to award its stars

to the industry's top restaurants.

This year's results have been leaked on Twitter.

Yeah, the two restaurants that achieved a Michelin star was

OX Belfast and also Michael Deane.

So congratulations to them both.

12 months ago, Will received a Bib Gourmand from Michelin,

an award for good food at good value.

He has just heard that he gets to hang on to it for another year.

It was really nice to keep it,

it means we're still achieving a high standard of food

and that we're progressing as a business and a restaurant.

If you weren't a little bit disappointed that

my career's went a different path now,

and it's about the Schoolhouse bistro now,

it's about our Bib Gourmand.

But there is a part of me that still wants a star one day,

but I'm 28 years of age and it's all ahead of me.

Will's ambitions for a Michelin star remain intact.

But he's in no hurry.

I think the most important thing about what I've achieved here

in the last year is learning...how to run a successful business.

You don't become a fantastic chef or restaurateur by sitting

on your ass for 15 hours a day.

You need to be in your kitchen.

For the next ten years, I will be here.

In my kitchen, on my chopping board,

working from 8 o'clock in the morning

till 11 o'clock at night, five days a week.

Then hopefully I might get a wee break after that.

MUSIC: Viva la Vida by Coldplay