{{Short description|English chef}} {{COI|date=December 2014}} {{Use British English|date=April 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Infobox chef | name = Sat Bains | image = Sat-Bains-WA-2012.jpg | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1971|2|28|df=y}} | birth_place = Derby, England<ref name=debretts>{{cite web|title=Sat Bains, Esq|url=http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/b/25808/Satwan%20Singh%20(Sat)+BAINS.aspx|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130121163142/http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/b/25808/Satwan%20Singh%20(Sat)+BAINS.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 January 2013|publisher=Debrett's|accessdate=5 September 2012}}</ref> | death_date = | death_place = | spouse = Amanda Bains | style = European cuisine | education = Derby College | ratings = {{plainlist| *Michelin stars {{Michelinstar|2|3}} *AA Rosettes {{Rating|5|5}} *Good Food Guide {{Rating|9|10}} }} | restaurants = {{plainlist| *Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms {{Michelinstar|2}} }} | prevrests = {{plainlist| *Martins Arms *Restaurant Sat Bains at Hotel des Clos }} | television = <!-- {{plainlist| *FIRST *SECOND }} --> | awards = {{plainlist| *Roux Scholarship 1999 *''Restaurant'' Chef's Chef of the Year 2009 *''Which? Good Food Guide'' Chef of the Year 2011 }} | website = {{URL|https://www.restaurantsatbains.com}} }} '''Satwant Singh "Sat" Bains''' (born 28 February 1971) is an English chef best known for being chef proprietor of the two-Michelin star Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms in Nottingham, England. He won the Roux Scholarship in 1999, and worked in France, before returning to the UK and opening his own restaurant. Bains was also one of the winners on the BBC show ''Great British Menu'' in 2007.
==Early life== Satwant Bains was born on 28 February 1971 in Derby, England. His parents were Sikhs who had only recently migrated to the UK from India. Throughout his childhood, Bains's father owned a number of shops,<ref name=newstar/> resulting in Sat's first job as a paperboy.<ref name=revelations /> His mother was a housewife, and cooked mostly vegetarian meals, although would occasionally cook keema on a Saturday. Bains would later recall that he wasn't interested in learning how to cook during his childhood.<ref name=newstar/>
==Career== At the age of 18, he attended the Wilmorton site of Derby College, reportedly only joining the catering course because it had the most girls on it.<ref name=staffcanteeninterview>{{cite news|title=Sat Bains, Restaurant Sat Bains, Nottingham|url=http://www.thestaffcanteen.com/featured-chef/sat-bains-chef/|accessdate=5 September 2012|newspaper=The Staff Canteen}}</ref> He passed the course, earning a City & Guilds qualification.<ref name=derbyuniversity /> He began to work at a restaurant under Mick Murphy, who he later described as an inspiration due to the passion that Murphy had for food.<ref name=newstar/>
He discovered the work of Marco Pierre White,<ref name=staffcanteeninterview/> and read the ''White Heat'' cookbook. He would later explain that he read the entire book in three and a half hours, describing it as "iconic".<ref name=staffcanteeninterview/><ref name=cookbook>{{cite news|last=Birkett|first=Rosie|title=Top chefs' bookshelves|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/may/24/top-chefs-bookshelves|accessdate=5 September 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|date=24 May 2011|location=London}}</ref> This inspired Bains to strive for something better and he sent off CVs to better-quality restaurants than the one he was working in. One of the chefs that sent him a rejection letter was John Burton Race. Raymond Blanc hired Bains as one of eighteen staff members for the opening of the first Le Petit Blanc in Oxford in 1996. Bains later recalled that within six months of opening, there were only ten staff members left.<ref name=staffcanteeninterview/> He moved on to work at the London-based L'Escargot for 3 months and then returned to Nottingham.<ref name=staffcanteeninterview/><ref name=mylifeinfood>{{cite news|title=My life in food: Sat Bains|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/my-life-in-food-sat-bains-8096808.html|accessdate=5 September 2012|newspaper=The Independent|date=31 August 2012|location=London}}</ref> thumb|right|Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms, in Nottingham Whilst in Nottingham in 1999, he applied for the Roux Scholarship. Between the regional and national round, the restaurant he was working at closed, leaving him unemployed. Bains won the competition, enabling him to travel to France to work at the three-Michelin-starred Le Jardin des Sens.<ref name=staffcanteeninterview/> He worked alongside another chef in training, René Redzepi.<ref name=master>{{cite news|last=Birkett|first=Rosie|title=Sat Bains and Nanna Vestergaard: master and protege|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/23/sat-bains-nanna-vestergaard|accessdate=5 September 2012|newspaper=The Observer|date=23 January 2011|location=London}}</ref> While in the south of France, he also chose to visit El Bulli in Spain.<ref name=staffcanteeninterview/>
He became head chef at the Hotel des Clos in Nottingham, which was relaunched as Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms in November 2002.<ref name=derbyuniversity /> Bains sent one of his sous chefs to Denmark to help his former colleague Redzepi open his restaurant Noma during the same year.<ref name=master/> Restaurant Sat Bains was awarded a Michelin star in 2003, becoming the first restaurant in Nottingham to win a star.<ref name=derbyuniversity>{{cite web|title=Sat Bains|url=http://www.derby.ac.uk/alumni/our-alumni-community/honorary-graduates/2010-2011-honoraries/sat-bains|publisher=University of Derby|accessdate=5 September 2012|archive-date=23 December 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223001722/http://www.derby.ac.uk/alumni/our-alumni-community/honorary-graduates/2010-2011-honoraries/sat-bains|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The restaurant's Michelin star rating was increased to two stars in 2011, which food critic Jay Rayner said was overdue and the length of time taken to give Bains his second star undermined Michelin's authority.<ref>{{cite news|last=Davies|first=Caroline|title=Hand & Flowers becomes first pub to win two Michelin stars|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/oct/06/hand-flowers-two-michelin-stars|accessdate=5 September 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|date=6 October 2011|location=London}}</ref> The restaurant has also been awarded five rosettes by the AA.<ref>{{cite web|title=Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms|url=http://www.theaa.com/restaurants/nottingham-restaurant-sat-bains-with-rooms-372791|publisher=The AA|accessdate=5 September 2012}}</ref>
During the summer of 2012, Bains took a turn in being head chef at a popup restaurant on top of the Southbank Centre in London. The popup, called The Cube, also featured other chefs such as Tom Kitchin and Daniel Clifford.<ref>{{cite news|last=Ruddick|first=Peter|title=Sat Bains, Claude Bosi and Tom Kitchin to cook at Southbank Centre pop-up|url=http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/Venues/Sat-Bains-Claude-Bosi-and-Tom-Kitchin-to-cook-at-Southbank-Centre-pop-up|accessdate=5 September 2012|newspaper=Big Hospitality|date=2 May 2012}}</ref>
==Television work== After originally declining the chance,<ref name=staffcanteeninterview/> he appeared as one of the competitors on the 2007 Great British Menu where fourteen chefs competed to win the chance to cook at a four-course banquet hosted by the British ambassador to France. He won the Midlands and the East heat beating the previous year's winner, Galton Blackiston from Norfolk. In the final round, Bains' starter of egg, ham, and peas was adjudged the best amongst the seven finalists with three perfect 10 scores from the three judges. Bains went on to add the dish to his menu at Restaurant Sat Bains.<ref name=staffcanteeninterview/> Bains credited his appearance on the show for an upturn in sales and a solid booking of the restaurant for the following ten months.<ref name=newstar>{{cite news|last=Rayner|first=Jay|title=Introducing our new star - Sat Bains, the chef who doesn't do lunch|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/mar/30/foodanddrink.features|accessdate=5 September 2012|newspaper=The Observer|date=30 March 2008|location=London}}</ref> He has also made appearances on the BBC's ''Saturday Kitchen'' and UKTV's ''Market Kitchen''.<ref name=observerbio/>
In 2015, Bains was a guest judge on ''MasterChef Australia'' during Season 7, week 2, where Bains asked the contestants to recreate his beef and mushrooms recipe in two and half an hours.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5059380/ Pressure Test: Sat Bains' Beef and Mushrooms], ''IMDb'', May 11, 2015.</ref>
===Awards=== ''Restaurant'' named him the Chef's Chef of the Year in 2009.<ref name=observerbio>{{cite news|title=Sat Bains, chef patron, Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms, Nottingham|url=https://www.theguardian.com/observer-food-monthly-awards/sat-bains|accessdate=5 September 2012|newspaper=Observer Food Monthly|location=London|date=11 May 2012}}</ref> He was also named the ''Which? Good Food Guide'' Chef of the Year in 2011.<ref name=derbyuniversity /> The University of Derby awarded Bains an honorary degree of Doctor of Professional Practice in April 2011.<ref name=derbyuniversity /><ref name=observerbio/>
==Personal life== Bains has a collection of between 700 and 800 cookbooks,<ref name=cookbook/> and published his first in September 2012 entitled "Too Many Chiefs Only One Indian".<ref name=observerbio/> He has stated that his favourite restaurant is Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck, or El Bulli in Spain.<ref name=revelations>{{cite news|title=Chef Revelations – Sat Bains|url=http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/10/02/2012/342256/Chef-Revelations-Sat-Bains.htm|accessdate=5 September 2012|newspaper=Caterer and Hotelkeeper|date=10 February 2012}}</ref><ref name=mylifeinfood /> He is married to his wife Amanda; they met whilst they were both teenagers.<ref name=newstar/>
==Controversies== On 7 November 2012, Bains was among a number of chefs who joined in the cyber-bullying of a customer to his associate Claude Bosi's restaurant Hibiscus. James Isherwood had written on his blog 'Dining With James' that he had not enjoyed his starter, leading Bosi and fellow Michelin star chef Tom Kerridge to verbally abuse him on Twitter.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/nov/08/top-chefs-unite-against-blogger-s-review | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Luke | last=MacKay | title=Top chefs unite against blogger's review | date=8 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/if-you-cant-stand-the-heat-chefs-sharpen-knives-for-hapless-blogger-8301517.html | location=London | work=The Independent | first=Tom | last=Peck | title=If you can't stand the heat... Chefs sharpen knives for hapless blogger | date=10 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/youre-a-c-and-this-is-personal-claude-bosi-launches-twitter-tirade-at-reviewer-8300523.html|title = You're a c*** and this is personal! Claude Bosi launches Twitter|date = 9 November 2012}}</ref>
He has also been known to react badly to online criticism, such as TripAdvisor reviews, insulting customers on a personal level when they have been unhappy with his restaurant.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/chef-sat-bains-roasts-anonymous-863983|title = Michelin scarred: Chef gives a roasting to anonymous online restaurant reviewers|website = Daily Mirror|date = 5 June 2012}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{imdb name|3767292}} *[https://www.restaurantsatbains.com Official website of the restaurant]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bains, Sat}} Category:1971 births Category:Living people Category:English people of Indian descent Category:People from Derby Category:People from Nottingham Category:English chefs Category:Head chefs of Michelin-starred restaurants Category:Alumni of the University of Derby