Meet Gilly ‘The Cook’ Robinson - Yorkshire’s Food and Drink Ambassador

Gilly Robinson has been the unsung hero of Yorkshire food – that is until now. Catherine Scott reports.

For years she was Rosemary Shrager’s right-hand woman.

She set up Malton Cookery School and played a big part in the success of the Malton Lovers Food Festival.

But few people outside the food world will have heard of Gilly Robinson.

Gilly Robinson in Malton, she has been named  Garbutt and Elliott Yorkshire Food Ambassador. Picture: Gary LongbottomGilly Robinson in Malton, she has been named  Garbutt and Elliott Yorkshire Food Ambassador. Picture: Gary Longbottom
Gilly Robinson in Malton, she has been named Garbutt and Elliott Yorkshire Food Ambassador. Picture: Gary Longbottom
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She has been happy to support local chefs, food producers and business and bask in their success.

But now Gilly ‘The Cook’, as she is known, has been recognised for her dedication to the Yorkshire food scene.

She has been named Yorkshire Food and Drink Ambassador in the Garbutt and Elliott Awards announced today.

And the award coincides with the launch of Gilly taking over the Malton Cookery School, which has aptly been renamed ‘The Cook’s Place’.

Gilly Robinson who has taken over the former Malton Cookery SChool which will be renamed The Cook's PlaceGilly Robinson who has taken over the former Malton Cookery SChool which will be renamed The Cook's Place
Gilly Robinson who has taken over the former Malton Cookery SChool which will be renamed The Cook's Place
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“Malton Cookery School was owned by the Fitzwilliam Estate and they paid me to run the courses,” says Gilly.

“Then there was a change and they asked me if I wanted to take it over. It’s a big commitment but I couldn’t bear the thought of it closing or even of someone else running it as I live across the road and it has been such a big part of my life for so long.”

And many of the people that Gilly has worked with over the years, including Rosemary Shrager and Steph Moon, are helping her launch her business which will be more than just a cookery school.

“It will be a meeting place, a venue that people can hire out for events, photo shoots, anything really.”

Gilly RobinsonGilly Robinson
Gilly Robinson
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The Cookery school only moved to its current location a year ago and Gilly hopes to have courses running in a new Covid-secure way by the end of the month.

“The courses will be similar to what we have always done. It will be about good local seasonal produce, waste free. We have had to compromise a bit due to Covid so we can’t be plastic-free at the moment, it just isn’t possible because of need for masks and disposable cups, but we will use them to plant seeds in our edible garden.”

Gilly’s love of cooking came from her grandmother.

“She was a farmer’s wife in Billingham and had four girls. But my grandad died when my mum was quite young so my grandma had to juggle running the farm and bringing up four girls,” says Gilly.

Gilly Robinson  with her dog 'Mrs Patmore'  in Malton, she has been named  Garbutt and Elliott Yorkshire Food Ambassador.Gilly Robinson  with her dog 'Mrs Patmore'  in Malton, she has been named  Garbutt and Elliott Yorkshire Food Ambassador.
Gilly Robinson with her dog 'Mrs Patmore' in Malton, she has been named Garbutt and Elliott Yorkshire Food Ambassador.

“She was a great cook, nothing glamorous, but we always ate really well. My mum was an academic, but I hated school – I am severely dyslexic but no one knew that at the time, I was labelled as being stupid.

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“I did cooking at school and it was the only subject I liked. My mum was determined that I would go to university but I failed all my A-levels and so they sent me to Eggleston Hall at Barnard Castle and I loved it.”

Eggleston Hall was a finishing school which was ironically the location of hit ITV series Ladette to Lady featuring Rosemary Shrager.

“I loved the countryside, the home farm and the home kitchen – I was supposed to stay a year but I stayed a lot longer.”

It was there she honed her catering skills and relocated to Stockholm running a directors’ dining room, which would also see her travelling to America, before returning to the UK and Yorkshire working for both corporate and private clients.

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She worked at Ribston Hall and worked for the High Sheriff and the late Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire Dame Ingrid Roscoe as well as the Bulmers (cider) family.

It was through the Bulmers that Gilly, who by then had married and had three children, met the larger-than-life Rosemary Shrager.

“Rosemary had just come back from Paris to live in Masham and was in the process of setting up the Swinton Park Cookery school,” recalls Gilly.

“She wanted an assistant and the Bulmer family suggested me. I went to meet her and she said she wanted a full-time assistant, but when I told her I had three children she said she put a line through my name as she didn’t think I would be committed enough.

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“I asked her to give me a three-month trial – I ended up being with her for 13 years. We became best friends. We saw more of each other than we did our families.”

When Rosemary decided to move to Tunbridge Wells she wanted Gilly to go with her.

“I had two children at university and one just started A-levels and marriage that was breaking down, I just couldn’t leave,” she says. “But I was the only one of seven staff not to go.” Rosemary left very big shoes to fill and Gilly soon realised that she needed to move on. She went back to private catering for a shooting lodge in Teesdale but then she got a call from the Fitzwilliam estate in Malton asking if she could give them some advice about setting up a pop-up cookery school.

“I went to meet Tom Naylor Leyland and it soon became apparent that they were expecting me to run it.”

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And she did. What started as a two-week pop-up during the food festival became four days a week and has become one of Yorkshire’s most famous cookery schools. Last year it moved from the old chapel to a new home in Market Street.

As well as the cookery school Gilly gets great pleasure from taking young chefs and producers under her wing. She recently helped the owners of the Yorkshire Pasta Company get started.

“I love seeing people’s enthusiasm and helping them by believing in them, sometimes that’s all it takes.”

www.thecooksplace.co.uk

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