Initiative memberFleur Lewis, Head of Food and Drink at Bishop Fleming and Laura Seaward, Senior Corporate and Business Services Manager, met with Michael Caines MBE, one of the UK’s most popular and well-known, Michelin star chefs to talk about lockdown and his multiple business ventures including Mickeys, the fabulous new beach bar and restaurant in Exmouth, Devon.
Michael’s background
Born in Exeter, Michael grew up as part of a large family with a keen interest in food. He attended Exeter Catering college before spending 18 months at Grosvenor House Hotel in London and three years Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons under chef Raymond Blanc before then furthering his experience travelling to France to study under Bernard Loiseau and Joël Robuchon.
Michael then returned home to the South West and took up the prestigious role of head chef at Michelin starred Gidleigh Park on Dartmoor in Devon, a restaurant with an incredible national reputation.
Two months into his new role tragedy struck and Michael was involved in a serious car accident requiring his right arm to amputated. Rising to the challenge Michael, who was previously right-handed, learnt to use his left hand, returned to Gidleigh Park full time after just four weeks and quickly cemented his place as one of the country’s finest chefs, earning a second Michelin star for the restaurant in the process.
In 2017, after twenty-one incredible years at Gidleigh Park Michael wanted a new challenge and he left to open his own hotel and restaurant and Lympstone Manor, a luxurious five-star country house hotel in the heart of East Devon was born, achieving a Michelin Star just six months after opening.
Since Lympstone Manor has opened, Michael’s business interests have gone from strength to strength with the opening of The Cove Restaurant and Bar at Maenporth and The Harbourside Refuge, Porthleven added to the Michael Caines Collection in 2020 and Mickeys Beach Bar and Restaurant alongside the Café Patisserie Glacerie which launched in May 2021.
Mickeys Beach bar and Restaurant
Michael sees an incredible potential and future for East Devon and around Exmouth and was keen to open a casual hospitality concept in the area. After five years in the making, the beach bar, restaurant and attached patisserie/glacerie, finally opened its doors in May 2021.
Mickeys is a fabulous addition to the Exmouth seafront, unlike anything in the area and adding a real element of sophistication to the region.
Restaurant consists of a vibrant ground floor with a casual menu including pizza, made freshly in their state-of-the-art pizza oven. Local produce and drinks remain key with Dart’s Farm’s beefburgers and local beers, wines and ciders making the cut.
Upstairs the restaurant serves a hearty mix of foods and drinks including locally sourced seafood landed at Devon and Cornwall ports and produce from local farmers and food and drink businesses in the area.
Sustainability is a key focus at Mickeys and Michael and his team are fully committed to using locally sourced ingredients and reducing single use plastic wherever possible to reduce their carbon footprint.
The waiting list for Mickeys is testament to Michael and his team’s hard work and we cannot wait to visit when we can!
ISCA drinks
The city of Exeter was originally known as the Roman settlement of Isca. With Michael’s connections with the city and at the outset of a further new venture, the name was perfect! The project involves three Exeter businessmen, Rod Saunders, David Perry (now based in the USA) and Nick Sprague.
ISCA premium sodas, with a range consisting of cola, tonic, ginger ale and pink grapefruit are carefully blended with certified, traceable, best-in-class hemp extract, otherwise known as CBD. The drinks are designed to help you relax (rather than acting as a stimulant like an energy drink does) and Michael confirms that the taste of the sodas is incredible!
ISCA drinks, although a relatively new venture for Michael, but are teaming up with Rocket drinks in the USA and they are shortly to undertake one of the largest CBD order in US history with 20,000 cases in the pipeline for California only with orders for Florida next and New York by the end of the year and the company has significant growth plans to take on the US drinks market before progressing across Europe and into Asian markets…watch this space!
Future Plans
Michael is very keen to continue to invest in his businesses and develop them to be the best they can be, supporting his staff and securing their future. Each restaurant and hotel in the Michael Caines collection has strong growth plans and Michael is keen to develop each one and safeguard them from any future downturns or pandemics.
Reflections post lockdown
When reflecting upon lockdown Michael noted that hindsight was a wonderful thing, and he believes some of the trickiest decisions made had the best interests of everyone involved at heart. Although lockdown was incredibly challenging, he is keen to remember all the people who lost their lives during the pandemic and believes the sacrifices we all made during lockdown were crucial to save more fatalities.
Michael remains very positive and trusts his instincts implicitly, an attitude that has helped his business thrive even in the toughest of times. He strongly believes that COVID-19 and the lockdowns were just a moment in time and moving forward, if we all stay positive, we can learn from our experiences and come out stronger the other side.
Secret to Michael’s success
It is evident that Michael’s success is down to hard work and determination. Michael clearly has a creative, entrepreneurial mind but he seems particularly good at executing ideas and seeing them through to completion which is highlighted from his incredible business collection and investment portfolio. He works hard, leading his team by example, and even when joining our meeting he was in his chef’s whites, ready for a busy afternoon at Lympstone Manor.
Michael also has a great head for marketing and over the years he has developed the ‘Michael Caines’ brand to show an incredible ethos of high-quality food and drink to an incredible standard,
Michael also clearly loves what he does. He is very passionate about food, as every great chef is, and as a real foodie at heart he genuinely thrives on developing new dishes, experiencing new flavours and will travel far across the globe (when he can post COVID!) to try specific dishes.
The Michael Caines collection does not stand still, and we really cannot wait to see what Michael does next!
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