Mark Satterthwaite

TIU: Hi Mark, please introduce yourself and what you do!

M: I am Mark Satterthwaite – I am the owner of Base Restaurant, I am 34 and Ulverston born and raised. We started the business at the start of the first lockdown. Prior to us being here I was a chef in private households. When the lockdowns hit I wasn’t able to work so we started looking around for somewhere to make some money from. We looked at different kitchens that were available and where we knew people we closing. It went from there really and we have been here ever since. For the first sixteen to eighteen months we did takeaways, dine at home boxes and chocolates. When we were able to we opened up as a restaurant and have never looked back. We had always wanted our own restaurant but things had never really lined up for us. We’ve never seen what happened as a bad thing really because it pushed us, we had to do something. Before we got this building it was down to the case of having Tesco and Aldi job applications ready to go. Luckily I never had to pursue them but they were there just in case. The takeaways and dine at home boxes basically built our customer base before we opened up. When the lockdown restrictions were lifted it was a level playing field everyone was starting again a lot of kitchens were starting with new staff and previous reputations were under scrutiny.

TIU: Have you always cooked?

M: I have, I’ve never done anything else. My first job at thirteen was pot washing and I’ve been in kitchens ever since.

TIU: Same on the pot washing although I’ve been avoiding kitchens ever since!

M: My first job was at a restaurant up in the Lakes – The Boaters Restaurant which is across from The Lake District Hotel. My mum was working for them at the time doing bookkeeping and put me forward. That’s how I started. I moved around quite a lot doing stints in kitchens. When I started college you were encouraged to do as many kitchens as you could get and take in as much experience and knowledge as possible.

TIU: Which college?

M: I trained at Kendal College. I wasn’t the best academically in school I finished school a little bit earlier than I should have done and went to Furness College for nine months until the end of Year 11. I sat my GCSEs and from there went straight to Kendal. I stayed there for all three NVQ levels, as they were. It was phenomenal. Kendal is probably I think in the top three UK catering colleges – it’s high up there and its very, very good.

TIU: Do you take on apprentices yourself here at Base?

M: We do. We actually have quite a good link with Kendal College now where we have some of their students come and do work experience with us. My current junior pastry chef was on work experience last year and is now working here full time.

TIU: It’s good to hear this! Have you recently changed the menu here?

M: We have. So since we came back after Christmas we’ve had a little bit of a re jig in operations. We were solely doing taster menus of an evening – seven course taster menu which changed weekly and ran Thursday to Friday and Saturday evenings. But now we do them just on the first full weekend of the month. We were seeing the same faces and the same rotation and there was no growth. We’ve changed around and now we are basically operating as a steakhouse although quite french in the respect that the plates are all exactly the same and the proteins on the main board change constantly.

TIU: As a Lowick person it’s good to see some Lowick rump and fillet on there!

M: Everything that we do is sourced as locally as possible. The Hogget rump is from the Duddon Valley and the stuff you mentioned is from a farm at Lowick Bridge. We keep it as local as we can. It’s a nice way of working. We have our menus kind of the wrong way round – we will see what is ready and when, rather than write the menu and seeing where we can source it which manages to maintain food miles and keep on top of whats seasonal and right at its best.

TIU: You run the lunch clubs too?

M: We do run lunch clubs on the first Tuesday of every month. Really popular. They are the same standard as what we do of an evening but there are four courses – three with coffee at the end.

TIU: Having your own restaurant then, is living your dream?

M: Absolutely yes. It’s something I always aspired to do. When things were taken out of our hands with Covid it might never have actually happened. Especially with BAE being the biggest employer locally, that was always a thing. Do I retrain and do something completely different?

TIU: It will always be a case of who will be able to offer the most security. As long as people view money and status, good pay, good holidays as their goals. It’s sad when you consider later in life how many of us expect to pursue the things that interest us just as we are getting too old to do them and how much time we spend trying to encourage children to be individuals and play to their talents and interests.

M: There’s not a lot of industry apart from that – they are a huge local employer who have agreed to take on I think its something like 17,000 more staff. But a lot of sectors are losing out to it. Teaching especially. My wife is a teacher and the local schools are suffering.

TIU: That’s gutting. I absolutely view teaching as a service but we can’t expect teachers to be superheros. I don’t want them to be working past 5pm on a weekday or any time on a weekend but I know it happens. I can see that everyone wants the best deal. But at what cost?

M: The actual employer base would be stuck without BAE. If they ever lost a huge amount of people it would be a hit to the Furness peninsula.

TIU: Like Redcar and British Steel. So what kind of clientele do you have here at Base? I mean, I am a daytime client and would usually have coffee and brunch if out walking or lunch if I have visitors up…

M: When we first set off doing something completely different during the day as to what we did of a night it worked really well because we got a completely different clientele in the daytime. We are on a main walking route so a lot of people pop in for a coffee and cakes or maybe a light lunch. Two different clientele. We do very different things during daytime and evenings. The beauty of where we are here in the park means we are secluded enough that its quiet, not on the beaten track which especially in the evenings makes it a little bit more, not romantic as such but a bit more focused. You are coming here to eat rather than just nipping in. Coming here to have this experience.

TIU : Talking of that experience then, do you have entertainment for the diners?

M: Sometimes. We’ve just had Valentines Day where we had a lad that I went to school with Rueben Tighe come in and sing for us. I’ve known him for a long time and it was really good to have him in doing what he loves alongside what we’re doing. That was really cool. He did Friday and Saturday night I thoroughly enjoyed it and a lot of our customers did too.

TIU: The right mix of environment and event…

M: Well the kind of music that we personally like wouldn’t suit what we do here at all.

TIU: I can tell!

M: This is it, yes!

TIU: Maybe you could hold a heavy rock event?

M: Metal and Meat or something like that?

TIU: The Meat & Metal Fest – it’s coming together in my brain!

M: Very good! I’ll credit you for it!

TIU: I think it would work. So alternative food festivals aside, what kind of future plans do you have for Base?

M: It’s difficult to say. The economic climate and that way that’s going you have to be one step ahead of the kerb. Everyone’s in the same situation. Staffing is bad for all the sectors that’s probably only going to get worse in April when the National Minimum Wage goes up. This was another reason for the change towards the steaks. Trying to open up to a different clientele. We absolutely love the clients we have but to progress we need the growth that we weren’t seeing doing taster menus. With the Steakhouse stuff if people come and enjoy it even if only one or two tables say it was good and then want to then try our taster menus that really is our end goal. Not necessarily go back to solely tasters but realistically its where we would like to be back at. I think in general people are a little bit more cautious about where they spend their money. The taster menu prices showed us less people on more money which doesn’t give you any growth I would much rather have bums on seats.

TIU: It’s keeping the regulars happy but also expanding…

M: We don’t want to alienate anyone who has supported us all the way through since opening. We’ve kept that taster weekend for those who really like what we do and appreciate it. Taster menus are still there. Hopefully we can expand it to two weekends and see if we can attract a few more people and some different faces. We are the only standalone restaurant, as in not attached to a hotel, in the Furness area. Obviously take Cartmel out of that equation because that’s where all the big boys are. But standalone we are the only one who has any kind of national accolade for the food. We’ve held a single rosette for the last four years. They are like the benchmark of culinary excellence and a personal milestone for me that’s where I always aimed. As a chef it’s always onto the next thing. We will probably lose the rosettes with doing the steakhouse but do you have plates on walls or bums on seats?

TIU: But the goal has been achieved.

M: Yes and the plates aren’t going anywhere – no one is going to taken them away!

TIU: You were on TV too, apparently although I admit to having not yet seen it…

M: Good, probably don’t go and look for it! I was on Masterchef The Professionals in 2018 and it was merely a cameo! I didn’t do anywhere near as well as I’d like to have done. I think if I was to give anyone advice it would maybe be don’t go for the biggest competition if you’ve never competed before! Choose the competition. It was eye opening that’s all I can say.

TIU: The Pareto Principle, (80/20 Principle), mentions this – choosing the right competition to guarantee success. It’s pretty useful in business especially, but people use it in all aspects of their lives.

M: It was one of those things where people were telling me I should do it and I thought OK I will stick in an application and then genuinely didn’t think anything more of it. When I got the first phone call I thought someone was winding me but up then it snowballed from there. If I was to ever do something like that again I would focus more on getting it rather than forgetting it. It was four or five months down the line when I got the call about the interview. So yeah I think I would do a bit of mind training as to where I might end up with it.

TIU: My son and I had similar with TV recently. We entered a casting call at half term for a bit of fun. Game of Thrones – The Hedge Knight and a co-lead part so not insignificant. I took his headshot and we sent it off and it was all fun and we forgot it. Two days later the casting director emailed asking for an audition! The part eventually went to a kid with lots of experience but it goes to show that we were not prepared in the slightest and also those open casting calls are not just echo chambers!

M: Wow, that’s incredible!

TIU: If we had been prepared he would have been in acting classes already or just very into drama I guess but I don’t think he is. As an autistic kid I am always encouraging him to try new paths for the future. You have to try everything and be prepared to adapt to changes and it seems like this approach has worked well for you here.

M: We’ve never really wanted to be an exclusive restaurant where its hard to get in and things like that. I understand that’s how you might want it business wise but realistically 90% of our customer base are local and I really like seeing that especially as you get to be a part of their evening. I’ve made some fantastic friends within our customer base – we see them really regularly and its like having an extended family coming in to see you. It’s really cool, quite a strange setup because you don’t expect to make close friends from that.

TIU: In town I’ve seen a few business owners with sets of regulars who are always in and out, chatting. I think I myself am a regular in certain places! Coming back to Ulverston then do you have any favourite places yourself?

M: As a kid I spent a lot of time on Birkrigg Common. I have a very outdoorsy family – always on bikes, mountain boards or doing something similar. My kids now, whether they like it or not, also do that kind of thing as well. Anywhere open, fresh with a good view. Anywhere we can have a picnic, that kind of thing. We don’t get a lot of time off with what we do so when we do, we like to take off.

TIU: My sister wishes to ask if you have taken the Rosemary & Sea Salt chips off the menu?

M: I have.

TIU: Great big audible gasp *

M: Yes unfortunately so!

TIU: Many members of my family are gutted…

M: I can still do the seasoning though so don’t worry about it!

TIU: So if someone was to come in asking for them?

M: The secret seasoning? Yes no problem at all, we will definitely do them.

TIU: What about the french toast?

M: Brunch items change quite regularly – we now do an eggy bread version rather than a sweet version but it is exactly the same thing, so if someone was to come in asking for us to make it, that’s fine.

TIU: So we can still get the favourites we know and love!

M: Absolutely – a secret handshake menu. Can I go back to what you were talking about before recording on allergens?

TIU: Absolutely…

M: It’s something we we pride ourselves on – we can cater for any allergen at all.

TIU: It’s a huge issue for so many people – it robs them of dining out as well as the obvious daily anxiety of trigger foods. I’ve got two completely contradictory sets of blood test allergy results. One points to severe reactions to very widespread ingredients like soy, wheat and nuts. The others show nothing so this is a ongoing daily experiment for me personally.

M: It gets more difficult as you narrow things down. But we do really pride ourselves that we can cover any allergen. I’ve got a really good customer who I am also now really good friends with and she can’t eat onions, garlic or wheat. Anyone who uses jar sauces – they all have onion and garlic. Most things do like seasonings, curries or pasta sauces. All those main bases. So she loves the fact she can come here and enjoy a meal without having any of the repercussions. Building up that trust with the customer – we do know what we are doing and it will be correct. My wife struggles with a lot of dairy intolerance, rosemary, pepper… Hospital tests said they were mild. She had hair testing done and it came back as severe. I won’t go into detail about how she suffers but its nigh on instant. From a dining point of view its really difficult to go out and enjoy somewhere when you have allergies. Even if somewhere claims to be gluten free or whatever there’s always a worry about cross contamination and if you do have a reaction to something how do you know what caused it? Was it the ingredient or was it badly handled? Badly prepared? Luckily for me it was heavily focused on in college, its ingrained from my training. Having to be really careful with knives, washing boards and the surrounding area of the boards… So often you get those with the attitude of, “it will be okay”, but that’s not good enough.

TIU: I am on a crash course of learning about it myself so this is good to know! Food shopping and eating out in itself has become a strange limbo.

M: Eating out it’s a very difficult thing for people with allergies. You can’t know when the kitchen is behind closed doors. There’s a possibility of something being handled or touched incorrectly. I like having the open kitchen that we have at Base – it becomes part of the dining experience. I love it when the meals all go out at the same time and a really loud room suddenly goes quiet as everyone starts eating. You know it’s hit the spot and done well.

Visit the Base Restaurant website

Author: H.J.

Founder & Editor of This is Ulverston.