18 Oct Where Are They Now?

Find out what our past seasonaires are doing now, and how Kaluma helped them to get there.

ADAM VASEY

Head Chef, St Anton, season 2016/2017

In the spring of 2016, Adam Vasey, successful restaurateur and chef, had just closed the well-loved ‘No 4 Peterville’ in St Agnes. With his next project on the horizon, Adam was looking for some well-earned downtime, but as a born-and-bred Cornish lad who had never set foot in the mountains, becoming a seasonaire and moving to the Alps was not part of the plan. However, Kaluma and Adam where introduced via a mutual friend, and so began the next stage of Adam’s life. Fast forward to December 2016 and Adam is firmly rooted in St Anton as the Head Chef of Eden Rock.

Winter 16/17 was the Eden Rock’s first operational season and the property had just been nominated in the World Ski Awards as Austria’s Best Chalet. Therefore, there were a lot of eyes on the property and delivering a first class service to our guests was paramount. Employing a chef of Adam’s calibre was essential; his experience and professional approach was exactly what the operation needed and his style of cooking was precisely the right fit.

For Adam, the relationship was equally as beneficial, transporting him physically and mentally into a different environment where he could develop ideas for his next project; Schooners Cornwall.

“I’ve got Kaluma to thank for a lot of things”, Adam said recently. “In a way my season was instrumental in the development of Schooners. Getting a fresh head in St Anton allowed me breathing space to sow the seeds of what Schooners would become.”

With space for menu experimentation, time for business planning, and the freedom to escape onto the mountain (and subsequently learn to snowboard) Adam found the ‘down time’ (between shifts) that he was looking for, and so during the winter of 16/17, Schooners went from an idea to reality.

Schooners opened its’ doors on Adam’s return to Cornwall in the summer of 2017. Adam’s family owned the beachfront location in St Agnes in the 90’s, where he spent his summers watching his mum prepping lobsters and where he was inspired him to become a chef. When the restaurant was up for sale in 2016, Adam and his business partners Sam White and Sean Lascelles, had to submit their offer in a closed bidding process; “We decided to put in an offer and submitted it with a big smiley face and the words ‘keep it local’ underneath”, he recalled. “The sellers picked us, as they could see we had the local support that a place like this needs to sustain it.” So Schooners returned to the family, and now only two summers later, is a thriving business and well-loved establishment in the heart of the community.

The idea of “Keeping it local” runs deeper than the history of the building, it’s an ethos that penetrates the heart of the business. Excellent quality seafood sourced at the restaurants doorstep forms the backbone of the menu, the informal atmosphere derives directly from Adam’s relaxed personality, and the emphasis on community spirit is echoed in the recruitment of local staff. Whether you are visiting for a three-course evening meal or meeting a group of friends for a beer, everyone is welcome at Schooners.

As a short endnote to the story, it’s worth mentioning that during his time with Kaluma, Adam met a few people who have become instrumental both to Schooners and to the next chapter of his life. Firstly, we can’t mention Schooners without mentioning Val, another of Kaluma’s past employees who Adam describes as his “right-hand man. Val’s been here from day-dot, he’s at the heart of what we do here, part of the furniture”.

We at Kaluma naturally feel a little proud of Adam and how we were able to play a very small part in influencing the next stage of his life. So if you are ever in Cornwall, drop in and say hello; we recommend the Badlands Fish Taco, tried and tested in the Eden Rock kitchen.

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