Richard Thorpe inherited his love of cooking from his mum.
"She made really lovely meals at home," he says, "And she cooked for a living too, as a dinner lady at Holme Middle School."
That explains why, after leaving Tong School - where he enjoyed classes in food studies - he found himself on a youth training course with Bradford's school meals service.
"It was really interesting," he recalls. "It was industrial catering on a large scale. I was at Priestman Middle School kitchen, where the cooking served several schools across the city. We made around 4,500 meals every day. It was really hectic, but the busier it is, the more I like it - I love the buzz."
Twenty years on, and Richard, 37, is still thriving on the adrenaline-fuelled atmosphere of busy kitchens. He is a partner and chef at the White Horse Inn, Well Heads, Thornton, attracting a stream of regulars with his culinary prowess.
More than £450,000 has been spent transforming the Timothy Taylor-owned pub on a hilltop location with views over open countryside. Work has included a new commercial kitchen, where, along with head chef Julian Ido' Ideson, Richard creates mainly English fare including steak and ale pie, liver and bacon, leek bake, and vegetable risotto. Crumble and gateau feature among the desserts. Coeliacs are also catered for at the inn, which has welcoming open fires in winter and a pretty garden for relaxing outside in summer.
Where possible, ingredients are locally-sourced, something which Richard stresses as being important.
He runs the White Horse with his wife Sam, her mum, Pam Hughes, and his father-in-law David. Sam - who has worked in catering for about 12 years - and Pam man the front-of-house.
"It is hard work, but because you are working for yourself you feel the benefits," says Richard, whose career has taken him across the UK. The City & Guilds-qualified chef cut his teeth in the restaurant trade preparing an a la carte menu at a large London hotel.
Although just 22, he worked his way up to head chef and helped to secure two Michelin stars for the restaurant. "I worked hard. I take pride in what I do, and it was great to have the chance to experiment and create new dishes. I learned such a lot in a relatively short time."
Richard subsequently returned to West Yorkshire after he landed a job at TGI Friday's in Leeds. With responsibility for ordering and stocktaking, the work took him outside the kitchen and taught him valuable skills. "Knowing how to manage the accountancy side comes in so handy when you're running a business," he says. "This is the first time I've run my own place and although I'm not running it on my own, you need an all-round knowledge."
A job as bar manager at the Old Bank in Bradford's Market Street, drew Richard back to his roots. He stayed there for eight years. "It was different again, being front-of-house. Being face-to-face with customers brings different challenges. When you're working behind the scenes, in the kitchen, it helps if you understand the sorts of issues that can arise at front-of-house. It is all linked and it helps to have that knowledge and be able to see both sides of the coin."
Richard and Sam enjoy working together. "We've done it for the past 12 years," he says, "We are used to each other and our ways of doing things."
Off-duty, Richard enjoys ten-pin bowling. "I drop Sam off at a girlfriend's house and they gossip over a bottle of wine while I spend time with my own mates."
- The White Horse Inn. Well Heads, Thornton, Bradford. Tel: (01274) 834268
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