The Sanctum on the Green Hotel in Cookham Dean is one of my favourite places to go for Sunday lunch. Everything about it makes for a great experience… the walk up the hill is just long enough to allow my girls to fall asleep in the pushchair, the setting is amazing with picture-postcard gardens, a walled courtyard, a dazzling outdoor pool and stylish boutique bar and restaurant. Plus the food is really, really tasty. But its biggest talking point is that it’s run by ‘Britain’s youngest chef’, a 20-year-old called Luke Thomas

 

‘Since I can remember, I have loved food. I started cooking when I was
12, working evenings and weekends in a butcher’s, and at the Chester Grosvenor Hotel and Spa and the restaurant Soughton Hall,’ says Luke.  

   ‘After I left school, I worked in the catering industry for some time, learning all about the business through work placements - in bars, restaurants, working with top chefs Gary Rhodes and Heston Blumenthal among many others, here and abroad [Chicago, Portugal and Dubai…]'

   I’m already impressed by him, given that the culmination of most people’s culinary skills aged 12 is chocolate cornflake cakes…

   ‘I was desperate to own my own restaurant,' Luke continues. 'And around this time, I happened to meet Mark Fuller, who owns Sanctum on the Green. We had a chat and I started asking myself what’s the big plan, what does my future hold? When he offered me my own restaurant, I realised my dream had come true a lot sooner than I’d thought it would.

   ‘I took up his opportunity and opened Luke’s Dining Room in 2012. I was just 18, so became Britain’s youngest head chef. I absolutely love it. It’s so much fun. It’s all I ever wanted to do and I think that shows.’

   I can vouch for that, because the food is delicious and you can tell
a lot of thought has gone into the ingredients, the preparation and appearance. There’s no denying the PR power that came with Mark Fuller hiring an 18-year-old, but the truth is Luke is also good at what he does.

‘It’s home cooking with a twist,’ he says.

   For Sunday lunch at the Sanctum, nine times out of 10 I tend to go
for the slow-cooked Herefordshire beef and Yorkshire pudding because
I love it so much. You get a good portion of tender, juicy meat, cooked to perfection, with an enormous crispy Yorkshire pud and some personal finishing touches - roast potatoes served in a mini saucepan and cute individual jugs of gravy so you don’t have to share!

   On a Sunday we’re talking two courses for £15.95 and three courses for £19.95. There’s also a kids’ menu (£9.95/£12.95). The menu has changed recently for the winter and includes a grandmother-inspired sherry trifle, which I’m yet to try, but I can recommend the local blackberry and apple crumble with vanilla custard for dessert.

   Earlier this year, Luke filmed the documentary series Britain's Youngest Chef for BBC Three, which followed him during his first seven months at the Sanctum. 

   And as if heading up a busy kitchen and being on a TV show wasn't enough, in June this year, he set up another restaurant in Broadway in
the Cotswolds. ‘It is in an old, boutique hotel called The Lygon Arms,’ says Luke. ‘It has the same feel as Sanctum so it’s a good fit, and we’ve branded the restaurant Luke’s. It’s a great move for me – it’s popular with the locals but because of the location, it also attracts a lot of tourists, so it exposes me to a whole range of people, even the Americans! We serve British dishes but they have a modern take on them.’

   The lamb rump, pomme puree, tomato, samphire and salsa verde for £18, followed by the chocolate pot, cherries and brownie bits for £5.50 sound good and might just be worth a trip to the Cotswolds.

   Are you wondering how a 20-year-old can run two restaurants, and well? That’s not all. Get ready to be amazed… ‘I also have a pop-up restaurant in London, which I always dreamed of,’ says Luke. 
  A few months ago, Luke and Mark Fuller teamed up to launch celebrity hangout Retro Feasts on the ground floor of Mayfair’s famous Embassy Club (frequented by Prince Harry). Is there no stopping him?

  ‘We are serving childhood favourites in a social diner. A pop-up restaurant is a brilliant idea,’ says Luke. ‘You can go in, do it for six months and work out the perfect formula for going forward. I’m now looking to do another pop-up in a different location.’

   He’s certainly a busy boy. Surely he will be taking a well-earned break over the coming festive season?
   ‘We have lots going on at the Sanctum over Christmas and I’ll mostly be around,' Luke says. 'We have our Christmas Fayre on 8^th December, we have a festive menu as well as our regular offerings, plus a Christmas Day menu, special entertainment for New Year’s Eve and a quiz night over the holidays. We’ll be doing what we do best, serving good food and showing people a fun time.
   ‘I’ll spend Christmas Day with my family in North Wales. My nan cooks on Christmas Day. She thinks I undercook the vegetables because they’re not mushy the way she likes them!’
   And if Luke parties too hard this Christmas, we know what his secret remedy is. He recently revealed to The Birmingham Post he likes Pot Noodles and Cadbury Dairy Milk. ‘It’s true! I like the curry flavour
Pot Noodles,' he says. It’s the best hangover food. And my favourite chocolate is Cadbury Dairy Milk.’

   And what does the boy who has had all his dreams come true want for Christmas? ‘I’m not sure – I honestly have everything I need,' he says, laughing. Perhaps a big bar of choc then?

   At such a young age, Luke has already achieved so much. His CV is to
die for. His passion and determination has already got him thus far,
and it’ll be fascinating to see what the future holds for him. A Michelin star perhaps?

   ‘My book is out next year, with Penguin. I’m just finishing it,' he says. 'It’ll be about my experiences and contain lots of photographs. We’ll have a launch in this area and in supermarkets. I’ll also be travelling around doing cookery in schools. It will be a record of my hard work so far and
I’m proud of that.’
   I would be too if I was him. And I bet all his family are brimming with pride. I think even his nan would forgive him a few al dente veggies!

 

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