I’m so sick of airports that we’re ‘staycationing’ this year and having mini-breaks instead of a holiday abroad. Anyway, we’ve just been to stay over at The Yew Tee Inn, Marco Pierre White’s lovely pub in Berkshire. It doesn’t look much from the outside to be honest and it could do with a lick of paint but the food is quite fantastic (as you’d expect), the service is warm, friendly and low key and serves the best English breakfast I’ve ever eaten. What strikes you about the place after a while, however, is that is a complete shrine to the great man’s career and others he admires.
Most of the walls upstairs are covered in brilliant and original drawings by JAK the famous Evening Standard cartoonist. Every wall, every nook and every cranny downstairs has a framed menu (including those created for Royalty), an award or a photo of himself with one his heroes and mentors (the Roux Brothers) or a famous colleague like Heston Blumenthal. There’s also this photograph of him with Gordon Ramsay’s head on a platter! Having left school in Leeds without any qualifications and going on to become the youngest ever chef at 33 to receive 3 Michelin stars, he’s certainly got plenty to be proud of career-wise. Now The Yew Tree Inn has become his ‘career showcase’.
The following day, we had a wander around Hughenden Manor, the former home of Benjamin Disraeli, Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister. He became PM despite not being from the traditional class and background of the time and bought the house to secure his political career. As he wasn’t from the landed gentry, he felt that he needed to buy his way in. During WW2 it was code-named ‘Hillside’ and was a secret intelligence services base dedicated to aerial photo reconnaissance and making maps for RAF bombing raids on Germany. It’s now owned and operated by the National Trust and is open to the public. As I wandered round looking at all the memorabilia and drinking in its history, it struck me that buildings can have careers too; Hughenden Manor has has a career in politics, military espionage and now tourism. It’s certainly had a much longer and more fascinating one than the rest of us mere mortals can ever aspire to!
PS: Despite all the ‘staycationing’ we managed to get Emma’s first publication up on the mygraduatecareer.com site this week ‘From Facebook to LinkedIn’ is essential reading for anyone who knows how to ‘social network’ but not how to ‘career network’. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
I really liked the post. Great efforts.