Michelin Chef Serves Up Breakfast For Ford Owners

HATFIELD, UNITED KINGDOM – Aug 22, 2011: Two-star Michelin chef, Phil Thompson, swapped the kitchens of Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, for an A1 roadside catering truck today (Friday). Together with his mum - former Ford dinner lady Kathy - he served up 100 free breakfasts for Ford owners as part of The Ford Centenary Tour.

For the Ford ‘Fuel-Up Brekkie’, Phil made the bread rolls himself and ordered in his preferred dry-cured smoked bacon. So what makes the perfect bacon butty?

“Freshly baked bread and nicely cooked crispy bacon – not too hard, not too soft,” he said. “This is not what I usually do but it’s great to have mum here helping me out.”

One of the 100 customers to enjoy a two-star Michelin bacon butty was builder Jamie Parnell. “It was a brilliant start to the day,” he said. “It’s unusual to get a free breakfast, especially one as good as this.”

The Ford Centenary Tour is visiting Ford dealers, Ford plants and events all over the UK before culminating at the Goodwood Revival on September 16-18.

Dagenham dinner lady joins her Michelin-starred chef son
The special Ford breakfast was a great chance for 65 year-old Kathy to get together with her famous son. The Canvey Island mother of four worked as a dinner lady with Ford at Dagenham serving meals for thousands of car workers for 43 years. She was thrilled to join her son – one of the world’s top chefs – to serve up bacon rolls for early morning commuters.

For Phil, executive chef at Brocket Hall and the estate's Auberge du Lac restaurant, cooking under the watchful eye of mum was a nerve-wracking experience.

"I'd rather do 78 covers at the restaurant than be shouted at by mum," he said. "She's my toughest critic. She doesn’t like anything fancy – her favourite is steak and chips – so I have to make everything as plain as possible. No garnish, no garlic - and even then I'll still probably get it wrong!"

After joining her mother in the Ford canteens as a 17 year old, Kathy was a favourite with workers at the company’s Dagenham plant helping prepare thousands of meals every day.

Today, daughters Karen and Tracey still work within Ford’s catering division, the third generation of Thompsons serving up lunches and dinners for Ford workers.

"There are not many canteens in Ford I've not worked in,” said Kathy. "Most of the workers started calling me 'mum' and I was cooking for literally thousands of them every day.”