FORMER Barnsley College catering student Matthew Green is certainly on the right track job-wise.
He has just been appointed head chef on one of the world’s most luxurious trains.
Last month Matthew, 39, took the top job on the Northern Belle - Britain’s equivalent of the iconic Orient Express - and he is already planning this year’s menus.
But preparing 300 five-course dinners in a kitchen the size of a cupboard while travelling at up to 90mph has its challenges.
“You’ve got to be organised,” said Matthew, who lives in Carlton.
“The onboard kitchens date back to 1961 and still have many of the original fittings.
“There is barely enough room for two people, so the menus have to be thought out with that in mind.
“But whether you’re cooking for 30 or 300, it’s being organised that makes it work.”
Matthew insists on using local seasonal ingredients which means home-grown Yorkshire food, wherever possible. And he loves giving a modern twist to traditional but now almost-forgotten English meals like Poor Man’s Potato Pie, Lamb Faggots and Fidget Pie.
He said: “I developed an interest in cooking as a lad and started a two-year catering and hospitality course at Barnsley College.
“I quickly learned that if you were serious about cooking and were prepared to listen and learn, then you could go a long way.
“In the mid-90s, the media attention on chefs and cooking as a whole seemed to rocket and they were all over our TV screens. We still seem to be obsessed with TV cooks and their ability to create magic in the kitchen.
“I was thrilled to be chosen to do a third-year course at college under the guidance of a great French chef who instilled in us the passion for food and what opportunities existed.
“Then, while working in a Barnsley restaurant, I met up with an old college friend who mentioned he worked for Orient Express and said they were looking for a chef for the Northern Belle, its sister train.
“My boss was selling up and starting a new venture in Spain. I had the chance to go with him but the timing wasn’t right so I decided to take the job on the train.
“The rest, as they say, is history.
“I have been there 13 years which is a long time for a chef to stay in any job. My colleagues are more like friends and even family.”
Matthew started out as a junior sous chef in 2006 and became sous chef in 2013.
“I love my job,” he said. “Every day I see a different view of some of the country’s loveliest countryside. It may be the rolling hills of the Lake District today, the Scottish Highlands tomorrow, then London.
“What other chef can say that? Many restaurant kitchens don’t have a window at all.”
The Northern Belle runs various day excursions from Yorkshire stations including Sheffield, Doncaster, Leeds, Wakefield and Huddersfield during 2019.
See northernbelle.co.uk for details.
