Star Quality

From reality TV star to Michelin star, executive chef Hrishikesh Desai has made his mark on Gilpin, one of the Lake District’s finest hotels

- Louise Taylor

Have TV cookery programmes done anything to improve our nation’s food? Or do we merely watch MasterChef while waiting for the microwave to ‘ping’ on our ready meal?

The cynics who decry all this TV cheffing-as entertainment should visit Gilpin Hotel and Lake House, just up the hill from Windermere. For in 2015, the hotel threw open its doors to the BBC 2’s Chefs On Trial programme in a quest for a new executive chef.

The chef who could stand the heat, and so stayed in the kitchen, was Hrishikesh Desai. By the end of the following year, he had secured a Michelin star for Gilpin. Today, his name is on the fine dining restaurant HRiSHi - modern British with exotic twists - and there’s also the Gilpin Spice restaurant, doing pan-Asian cuisine. Reality TV wrought real change for Gilpin.