EVEN in Jersey, there are not many people who can commute to work by paddleboard – but Mark Jordan is one of them.
The chef describes the location of his beachside restaurant as “gorgeous” and the “epicentre” of Jersey, with Le Petit Train, jet skis, walkers, runners, boats and Hobie Cats passing each day.
“It’s the only place where I can go from my house in town on paddleboard to work, and I don’t know anyone else in Jersey who can do that,” he said. “That’s what I love about this part of the bay.”
This month marks 15 years since Mark Jordan at the Beach opened its doors. The restaurant has made its owner and namesake one of the most recognisable names in Jersey – but Mr Jordan said he grew up as the “underdog” to his brother, which left him feeling like “a bit of a black sheep”.
Born in north Wales and raised in the Midlands, the chef struggled with concentration during his early school years.
He initially hoped to train in animation, but his career took a different direction after his friend’s mother, a home economics teacher, invited him to try one of her cookery classes.
Although his parents were not initially keen on the idea of a culinary career, he loved the subject and went on to study at catering college in Redditch.
“Within about three months, my gran and grandad moved down to Devon, where Keith Floyd was opening a pub restaurant, and he was looking for staff,” Mr Jordan said.
“So I went to see Keith, and we hit it off, so I ended up leaving college and going down to Devon to live and work at 15 years old with Keith Floyd.”
Mr Jordan completed his college course while working there. But as Mr Floyd – whom he described as the “[Gordon] Ramsay of the 80s and 90s” – developed a growing television audience, he spent increasing amounts of time away from the kitchen.
Jean-Christophe Novelli, a multi-Michelin-starred chef brought to the UK by Marco Pierre White, was recruited as head chef and began working alongside the young Mr Jordan.
The pair formed a “really good alliance”, and when Mr Novelli left to open his own restaurant in Hampshire, he invited Mr Jordan to join him as sous chef.
Within a year, the restaurant had earned a Michelin star, beginning the next stage of Mr Jordan’s career in Michelin-starred kitchens.
He later worked for the Roux brothers, Albert and Michel, and became head pastry chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant before taking charge of what is now the Gilpin Hotel and Lake House in the Lake District.
It was there that he met his wife Magda, who was completing an apprenticeship at the hotel while he was running its kitchen.
Mr Jordan was subsequently headhunted by The Atlantic Hotel in Jersey. He initially turned the offer down but, after three months of correspondence with the general manager, changed his mind and moved to the Island.
He received the Michelin Rising Star award after his first year at the hotel, followed by a full Michelin star a year later.
“It’s funny the way I found out,” he said. “I’d actually driven back to Poland with my wife and kids to see her mum.
“After the drive, I slept because it’s a 20-hour drive, and I woke up with 26 missed calls on my phone. That was the general manager trying to tell me, ‘Mark, you’ve got your star’.”
The idea for his own restaurant came while he was walking home from work at The Atlantic 15 years ago. Mr Jordan walked into the former Bistro Soleil and asked its owner whether he could buy it.
What followed was a “massive undertaking”, including replacing kitchen equipment and converting the appliances from gas to electricity. Mark Jordan at the Beach eventually opened on 11 August 2011.
Mrs Jordan has been involved throughout, handling HR, accounts, front-of-house duties and “literally everything”.
Mr Jordan initially divided his time between his new business and The Atlantic but left the hotel in 2017 to concentrate entirely on his beachside venture. His vision was for a relaxed, fine-dining French bistro by the sea.
“At that point, I decided I just wanted to focus on Mark Jordan at the Beach, and at that time I’d already made history because I was, and still am, the longest holder of a Michelin star in one place in the history of Jersey – the single longest in one establishment, which is not going to be broken for a very long time,” he said.
“I am 55 years old now, and I don’t want a little red book or a an inspector to come and tell me how to cook or how to do dishes on my own. I’ve been doing this for 45 years now, so I just want to cook my own food. And the proof of a good restaurant is how busy it is, and we are really busy.”
Mr Jordan still spends every day in the kitchen, working alongside a “brigade” whose members have remained with the restaurant for years.
“My head chef has been with me for probably 12 years,” he said. “My junior sous chef has been with us for15 years. He was up at the Atlantic, and then he came down here with me. So I’ve got a brigade that’s been with us for ages.
“I also nurture students coming in through [Highlands] College, so I’ve got the last two or three years of ‘Student of the Year’ in the kitchen with me. They now work for me, so we like to keep the new talent coming through, which helps both us and the college.”
Among them is former Student of the Year, Ryan, who is now the restaurant’s pastry chef.
That continuity extends beyond the kitchen. The front-of-house manager has also worked at the restaurant for several years, and customers know staff members by name.
Mr Jordan said the restaurant’s success was not “all about the food”, with familiar, high-quality service playing an equally important role.
“Such a good, family-style atmosphere is really hard to achieve,” he said. “People think you can just take a million pounds and then just expect it to run like this – but you’d be very, very mistaken.
“It’s built on relationship commitment, hard work, and consistency, and it’s very, very hard to pick those up.”
Consistency, he believes, is the hardest part of running a restaurant. Customers can fall in love with a particular dish and return expecting exactly the same experience and quality each time.
Mr Jordan has also built close relationships with local lobster, crab and scallop fishermen, some of whom supply exclusively to his restaurant.
“I have built up 25 years of relationships with these people,” he said.
“I can get my fish suppliers to come out in the evening at 7pm or 7.30pm if I need, which is unheard of generally – but it’s all about relationships again.”
The restaurant has developed a loyal following during its 15 years, but Mr Jordan said Jersey’s hospitality industry had changed considerably over that period, with the lunchtime trade now quieter.
“We really have to be on our game to try and still develop and make the restaurant relevant, so we do change our styles,” he said.
“Obviously when the winter comes, there aren’t very many tourists, so that’s when we rely on our locals – and we’ve got a phenomenal local following.”
Islanders supported the restaurant throughout the pandemic, he added, and there would always be a table waiting for them.
The cost-of-living crisis has created another challenge, with customers having less disposable income to spend on meals out.
“Everybody’s feeling the pinch,” Mr Jordan acknowledged. “The cost of living has gone up; it’s an accumulation of lots of different things which have skyrocketed.
“Maybe instead of coming out once a week, people come out once a month. But they need to know that if they come back to Mark Jordan’s at the Beach, the quality is there consistently.
“That is even more reason to do everything the best you can – if you go down, at least you go down holding your flag, knowing you did your best.”
Beyond the restaurant, Mr Jordan has appeared on television several times, including alongside James Martin in Highlands to Islands, and has cooked on Saturday Kitchen 12 times.
But after 15 years at the beach, he has no intention of leaving. He and his wife continue to work at the restaurant every day.
“It’s my nice little restaurant in a nice little island – it’s home,” he said.
