Introducing Fiona Were, Head Chef
Fiona Were, Head Chef at The Greenbank Hotel, is originally from New Zealand. She has been in the UK for 13 years having met her partner, Iain while he was working and travelling in NZ and he then brought her back to his beloved West Country.
Her career to date includes being the Training and Development Chef for Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall, in its inaugural year, Executive Chef at St Michael’s Hotel and Spa and more recently Head Chef at the Housel Bay Hotel on the Lizard.
She trained in New Zealand and began her career at the Canterbury Tales Restaurant at the 5 star Park Royal Hotel in Christchurch New Zealand, working under three German chefs and was awarded Apprentice of the year with South Pacific Hotels. She was also the first student to gain 100% for her Chef qualification.
Fiona has appeared in several publications including Yes Chef, Cornwall Today, Inside Cornwall and the West Briton. Fiona has written feature articles for the Western Morning News and Home Farmer Magazine. She has demonstrated at the Cornwall Food and Drink Festival, the Falmouth Oyster Festival, Porthleven Food Festival and at Falmouth’s first Fish Festival this year. She has been named as one of the top 10 female chefs in the UK, in the Independant on Sunday.
Fiona's style of cooking focusses on fresh, local and seasonal produce, with international twists. She is passionate about only using free range poultry and fish caught using ethical methods, from sustainable resources and will be ensuring this ethos is continued at the Greenbank Hotel.
Fiona and Iain keep a flock of rare breed Indian Game and Red Dorking chickens as part of their ‘nano’ holding as well as growing their own fruit and vegetables, including apples for homemade cider. She is also a keen forager and can be found, walking the hedgerows and coastline with plastic bags in hand, looking for edible wild foods.
Fiona plans to continue and enhance the Greenbank Hotel's reputation as a "foodie" destination. If any accolades are achieved along the way, then this will certainly be an added bonus. She is in the process of completely revamping the menus and the style of food on offer and there will probably be an increasing bias towards fish and seafood dishes, over the forthcoming months. A true advocate of Cornish fare, Fiona and her team support small, local producers and make the most of what is in season.
