Marcus bentley Wise

I was born in 1968 in the gables maternity hospital in Peterborough. The second son of a typical working class family of the time. I spent most of my youth moving around from school to school as my parents moved around. It was this that I think gave me the flexibility to move around and face uncertainty with a certain amount of inevitable acceptance , a thing in the modern world that is not such a bad thing. School was not a strong point for me as I had what was not so commonly know back then but now a more widely accepted thing, I was and still am dyslexic. This did not make school hellish for me in fact I liked school.
I wanted to be many things when I was at school but steeled on being an engineer like my father. Took the necessary options to get the right qualifications. Only to find that I wanted to be a actor, or so I thought. I did the school play and then joined the local amateur dramatics society. Soon I was left with one question, how to support myself when I was going to try and be a actor. The answer was simple go in to hotel and catering.
I started to work part time and weekends in the tray wash at the Golf Hotel Woodhall Spa them moved on to be kitchen porter and then Hall porter all while I was still at school. It seemed to be simple work and I seemed to be good at it. Also knowing that when I left school I would have a career to fall back on that always needs workers no matter where you are.
In 1984 I left school and started to work at the Golf Hotel full time as hall porter. Then moved back to the kitchen to work as Commis Chef. Taking 706 1 and 2 day release at Lincoln technical collage. Moved to work front of house in the restaurant bars and banqueting at the golf hotel. All the time trying to get in to acting one way or another, but not trying to hard.
In 1987 went to work as Commis Chef near Henley on Thames. I was close to London and all my living expenses were being paid for so it was the perfect place .It was here that I soon became to realise that in my home town I was a very good actor but out there, in the world were so many more talented and gifted people than me that I began to give up on the acting side of things. This might sound like regret but in the big scale of things it is not. Some thing about dreaming but not making dreams your master as Kipling once put it.
So in 1988 moved back to Lincolnshire. No real job and no real plan to be offered a job work for a new restaurant opening Mantles Fish Restaurant. Here I was working front of house as the restaurant manager for a thirty cover restaurant. It was fun and to be part of an opening restaurant was an interesting experience. Soon I moved to the Petwood Hotel Woodhall spa to be the Restaurant Manager. Then to the Crown Hotel Boroughbridge as Assistant Restaurant Manager. Promoted to Restaurant and Bars and Banqueting Manager and then latter became the licence of the hotel. It seemed that I was good at being front of house and people liked me and the work that I did. It was like being on stage accepts that I was director, stage manager and actor all at the same time.
Also in this time I got married and steeled down , not that I realised it at the time.
But in 1993 made redundant form Crown Hotel as hotel put up for sale. This was not so much of a shock as I also realised that It was time that I would be made to move on. The fact that it took so long did throw me a bit but it did happen eventually
So I started to work as chef for catering agencies in and around Yorkshire and the Untied Kingdom. Not that this was the plan, the plan was to stay fount of house. But the money of the chef wage was better than the waiter. I then started my rebirth in to cooking and found that I was also very good at imitating other peoples cooking style. A strange thing you would think as to be a grate chef you must have your own style. And I would agree with you that a grate chef must have his own style. But he must also have a day off as well and leave it all to a trusted person who will deliver what he does, in the stile that the customer expects. The truth is that I found my self gravitating towards, second chef, pastry section as well as banqueting. Strengths that I seemed to take under, easily and with very little difficulty.
And soon I was to be a father and then I found the life of a chef no so good as seemed to be out cooking and missing my kids grow up
So I left the hotels restaurants and turned up out side a food factory. To start with for just a sort time to get me over Christmas and speed some time with the family. Now I am still there, from cook, to stand in team leader, team leader and now development chef. I would like to see what is coming next but only time will tell .