Feature: You're Umbel-ievable

Sam Ward had worked for Simon Rogan’s Umbel Restaurant Group for 10 years, on and off, in various roles before becoming group MD in 2020. Now overseeing venues across Cumbria, London and Hong Kong, he has well and truly earned his stripes as a hospitality leader. Dine Out editor Genna Ash-Brown caught up with Ward to reflect on the company’s growing success

Business partnerships can be complicated. At their worst, the constant butting of heads can breed hostile ground that causes things to go south fast. At their best, they empower great minds, inspiring creativity and collaboration, while broadening horizons as two or more people work towards a common goal. While the former can lead to a corporate car crash, the latter can result in a professional powerhouse where opportunity abounds. With a working history spanning a decade, Sam Ward’s relationship with acclaimed chef and Umbel Restaurant Group founder Simon Rogan is cruising towards the latter camp – if it isn’t there already.

“Managing the business is a joint effort – not just with Simon but with his wife, Penny too,” he tells me as we chat remotely – me, from my home office in Bristol; Ward from a back-of-house office in Cartmel, Cumbria, where three of the group’s restaurants (and several other arms of the business) are located. “I always wanted to go into business in some way, shape or form – I wanted to be a boss. And you know, I never would have picked Simon as a partner,” he laughs – a running theme in what was a bright and breezy call from the off. “I thought I’d find someone like me. In my head, that was the right thing to do – pair up with someone who agrees with you on everything. Simon and I are very much not the same person, but we’ve got the same core values – many of which he’s helped me to hone and understand.” It’s a classic case of yin and yang: each possesses skills, ideas and perceptions the other doesn’t have, allowing for a complementary working relationship that considerably widens the scope of potential. “He has this incredible focus,” Ward says of Rogan. “He doesn’t understand why you’d ever wait to do something. It’s his action ability that has really helped me. I’m a little bit more cautious and considered, so our approach to decision-making can be quite different. These qualities have helped us at different times – there’s definitely a mutual respect there.”

Home is where the heart is

Ward grew up in Grange-over-Sands, a mile from Cartmel – home to Rogan’s flagship 20-year-old fine dining restaurant L’Enclume, situated in a former 13th-century blacksmith workshop; the adjacent Aulis, one of the concept’s two UK outposts; Michelin-starred neighbourhood restaurant Rogan & Co; and the group’s farm in Cartmel Valley, fondly named ‘Our Farm’. Having got a job washing pots at a local restaurant when he was 12, Ward got hooked on the family atmosphere and team spirit that underpins the industry. He gained experience in catering and pubs throughout his teens, before sparking up an interest in cocktails. So, when he took on a role as bar manager at Rogan & Co in 2008, it wasn’t his first rodeo. But London was calling.

A brief stint at a cocktail bar in Clapham, which soon turned into a nightclub, confirmed that nightclubs were “definitely not” his thing – but who strolls in one Tuesday night? Only the manager of the Ritz Casino. “He got me a job as the commis sommelier at the Ritz Hotel,” says Ward. “The analogy I still use today when I’m training people to manage their careers – which is a big part of what we do here – is that power is nothing without direction. So I was right back down at the bottom of the ladder, having already been quite close to the top. But at least I went to the right ladder. I spent three and a half years learning about wine, running the wine team and wining a few front-of-house awards.”

Sam Ward, managing director, Umbel Restaurant Group

In 2012, family matters meant Ward had to move back up north, where Rogan interviewed him for the role of maître d’ at L’Enclume. “We discussed a directional shift for the venue and it was a huge change in how the restaurant operated. It was very strategic. I just fell in love with the restaurant and the way Simon approached it. There was no pomp or ceremony – I’m not a pomp or ceremony guy, so it works really well for me and I’m grateful to Simon for the opportunity to work like that. I felt from that day that I never went to work again.”

Evolving with the business

Ward speaks passionately about Rogan’s “talent” in the kitchen. Clearly the feeling is mutual – the chef was so enamoured with Ward’s business head that he made him operations director in 2015, before he took the reins as MD. “As Simon grew the business, I grew with it,” he explains.

In his time with the group, Ward has seen the opening of Henrock – a more informal, relaxed restaurant from Rogan that opened at Linthwaite House in October 2019. There’s also Aulis London – a chef’s table concept hidden in St Anne’s Court in Soho, headed up by executive chef Oli Marlow and head chef Charlie Tayler. Ward was also fundamental to the group’s expansion to Hong Kong, overseeing the launch of Aulis HK in 2018, and Roganic in February 2019. Less than 10 months after opening, Roganic was awarded a Michelin star, and has since been recognised with a Michelin Green Star from Michelin Guide Hong Kong Macau 2021.

“We did some pop-ups a few years ago, some in Europe, some in Asia – places like Singapore, Hong Kong and Greece. But a couple of great things happened when we went to Hong Kong – one of our guys knew someone out there who had a restaurant, so we flew over to cook some food and have a laugh for a week. The owners of that restaurant really enjoyed our presence and the guests just loved the food – it resonated with them. Their tills were good, their team was trained and they ran the restaurant the same way we run ours. We worked with them to create a managed franchise deal, essentially. But the only way we know how is to be heavily invested, so we deal with the whole management team there and we swap staff between Hong Kong and the restaurant in Cartmel. We always have people going out there – there’ll be another four or five flying out there in the next six months.”

Investing in the future

The Umbel Group’s commitment to developing the next generation of hospitality professionals is clear and unrelenting. For years, the group has worked alongside the catering faculty at Kendal College. “We’ve always had people from our restaurants doing apprenticeships there. I wanted to set up a training programme pre-pandemic, but Covid obviously put the kibosh on that. But then, coming out of it, we realised we could make it work, and it just so happened to coincide with a time when recruitment was really needed. It was a win-win scenario.”

Chef Simon Rogan

And so, the Simon Rogan Academy was born. The first intake for the initiative drew 60 applications, which the management team had to whittle down to 12. “And you know what? Those 12 apprentices were absolutely brilliant!” he beams. “They do six months in each of our venues, with time interspersed between events, the farm and Home by Simon  Rogan (the group’s award-winning three-course meal kits). We try and get them involved in as much as possible. At the end of the six months in our UK venues, we’ll take them to Hong Kong for a week – so I’m off to a pretty awesome event with them in March.”

Now on its second cohort, the academy is going from strength to strength, proving itself a real asset to the business as the industry struggles to recruit and retain skilled staff. “We’ve been blown away by the kids and how they’ve been advancing. We’ve committed to ensuring they either get jobs with us or somewhere else at the end of it, if they want it. My dream is that the company would be mostly bolstered by people joining at that level.”

When I ask Ward about the group’s future plans, the sparkle in his eye is a telltale sign that, while he’d love to tell me, he can’t spill the beans just yet.

“The only thing I’ll say on record – and I can assure you there are plans in the pipeline – is that our growth model isn’t just to necessarily do the same things we’ve done before. Our growth model is to support not just Simon, but other people and other brands. So we’re going to be doing something we’ve never done before next year. I’m very excited about it.”

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