By the age of 23, chef Bradley Lean‘s career was already packed with luxury international adventures. He’d started at the renowned Dorchester Hotel, worked at the spectacular Four Seasons in Toronto, cooked through rough seas onboard some of the world’s finest cruise liners and fed thousands of press at the Sydney Olympics.
“Even I looked at my CV and thought ‘I’ve done alright’,” he laughs. “But you can’t rest on your laurels, being able to cook is one thing but as you get higher up it’s about man management because you have to know how to run a kitchen as well.
“So then I came home and learnt all the things nobody ever tells you about. And I found out what it’s like to have everything rely on you, to be the drill sergeant who keeps it all running.”
Now 40, Bradley was approached two months ago to become executive chef at the Titanic Hotel Liverpool.
“It’s a great challenge, I’ve looked at it and changed a lot of things straight away because I brought a fresh pair of eyes to it,” he says. “It’s all about teamwork and unity in the brigade, and that’s what it is, a kitchen brigade. I’m fair but I’m a hard taskmaster because you can’t be soft in this business.”
His dedication to precision dates back to his first job, as a 17-year-old trainee in the kitchens of the Dorchester on London’s Park Lane.
“The most organised kitchen I’ve ever worked in was the Dorchester and the exec chef ran it with military precision. It was so structured, and I bought into that philosophy. The more organised you are, the less stressful it is.”
Bradley was, in his own words, “the very bottom of the ladder, the third commis, the one who washed the lettuce” at the Dorchester. “It was hard graft, 14-hour days, but the stricter your training is then the easier your career path is going to be because this trade is notoriously hard.
“I think these days people see the cookery shows and think ‘I’m going to be a chef and cook all this great food on TV,’ but the reality is you’re peeling potatoes like I did. But it’s like any trade, you get out what you put in.”
After spells at the historic Lygon Arms in the Cotswolds and Four Seasons Toronto, Bradley went to sea for two and a half years, on the Oriana and QE2.
“I was chef de partie when I was 21, going round the world,” he says. “We used to do the Southampton to New York crossing which is notoriously rough, we couldn’t use the fryers, we had to put all the storm bars on the cookers and the ingredients would be rolling all over the place, but you get used to it. It was a great experience … despite the seasickness!”
Back on dry land, he headed to Australia for the Olympics in 2000 – catering the opening ceremony, for corporate VIPs and media – before coming home to spend nine years at the Chester Grosvenor, followed by his first exec chef role at the Doubletree in Chester.
From there he joined Titanic and, two months in, he has clear ambitions. “I’ve simplified the food and the number of components, and there’s some firm favourites and home comforts in there because not everyone wants to eat at the Fat Duck,” he smiles.
“I want make us the number one venue in the North West and in the next three years we will be, I’m a real believer in that.