Queen of the kitchen

SUE CADE talks to a female chef with her roots firmly in the Devon food scene

- SUE CADE

If there was ever a bona fide Devon chef, Donna Berry from The Swan at Bampton is it. Born in Torquay, she’s worked right across the county, from Newquay to Ilfracombe, Cullompton to Tedburn St Mary.

Donna realised early on that her destiny was to be a chef. “My auntie gave me a mixing bowl, wooden spoon, measuring jug and apron when I was 13. I was soon baking cakes and quiches with enthusiasm.”

She desperately wanted to take O Level cookery but the school had stopped offering the option. When Donna asked why, the deputy head said, ‘There’s no call for it’. Undeterred, she took a CSE and applied to South Devon College for a chef’s course. “Mum wanted me to be a secretary and suggested a management course with a bit of cooking, but I said absolutely no. I just wanted to cook.”

Back then, in the early ’80s, female chefs were few and far between. “There were two groups on my course made up mainly of girls and just four boys, but the girls didn’t follow it through. They became secretaries, took shop work or started families.”

Donna, however, went to work at Torquay’s Palm Court Hotel. “It was okay until the summer season ended. I looked for more hotel work but kept hearing ‘our kitchens only have men in them!’.”