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5 May 2012

At the age of 14 Richard trained as a baker in his native Brittany in North West France.In the late 80′s he moved to the UK and worked as head chef at both the Rhinefield House Hotel in the New Forest and the Silver Plough at Pitton in Salisbury where in 1990 he was awarded Egon Ronay, Pub of the Year and American Express Magazine, UK Pub of the Year.

After a position as Operations Director with the Novelli Group of restaurants, Richard set up the Dough Co. in 2000.

In 2004, with a young family, Richard and his wife Jo decided that it was time to leave London and head West to be closer to Jo’s family. The plans for The Bertinet Kitchen began to take shape and they found the premises at 12 St Andrew’s Terrace, Bath at the tail end of that year.

The cookery school opened in September 2005 in the same month that Richard’s first baking book, Dough was published by Kyle Books to critical aclaim and a host of awards including IACP Cookery Book of the Year 2006, James Beard Award for Best Book (Baking & Deserts) and the Julia Child Award for Best First Book. Richard published his second book Crust: Bread to Get Your Teeth Into in 2007 winning the World Gourmand Award for Best UK Book (Baking) and his third title Cook In A Class Of Your Own in April 2010.

In his latest book Pastry Richard uses simple techniques and step-by-step photography to teach you how to make four different types of pastry before you put your skills to the test with a mouthwatering collection of over 50 recipes. He also dismisses the myths of making pastry and gives you his top tips on how to avoid mistakes or how to put them right if you do slip up.

Richard continues with his popular cookery and baking classes at The Bertinet Kitchen which sell out almost immediately and was named as the BBC Food Champion of the Year 2010 at the BBC Food & Farming Awards on 24 November 2010.