Tommy Banks: 'My parents bought a grubby village pub - and then it won a Michelin star'

But 20 years ago, when farmers Tom and Anne Banks bought the rundown village pub, it was a very different story.

“We were running farmhouse bed and breakfasts at the farm as a way of supplementing our income,” recalls Tom, a fifth generation North Yorkshire farmer.

“When the Black Swan came on the market for the third time in three years we saw it as an opportunity to add more beds.

"We really didn’t have a plan for the pub which was really not great at that time. I suppose were a bit naive when we took it on.”

At the back of their minds they were also thinking about their two teenage sons, James and Tommy, as they were more than aware that jobs in rural areas were scarce and the pub could potentially offer them employment.

“I’m not sure we thought of it as a long term plan, none of us had any training,” adds Anne.

James, then 19, worked behind the bar and Tommy, then 17 was waiting on tables, they employed a chef cooking “basic pub grub” who lasted six months.

“When he walked out one of the lads had to go into the kitchen so that we could serve food the next day. I’m not sure how we chose which one, it could even have been the toss of a coin,” says Tom.

That lad was Tommy – a teenager with little interest in learning how to be a chef, he had aspirations of becoming a professional cricketer.

“Lots of people think we bought the pub for Tommy to become a chef, that just wasn’t the case. In fact he really wasn’t that interested in cooking.”

Just two years after they bought the pub, the economic crisis happened and the family realised they had to make some changes.

“Lots of people were doing discounts but we realised people weren’t going to drive out to somewhere like Oldstead for a two for one deal and so we had to do something different,” says Tommy. “So we decided to raise our game.”

They employed chef Adam Jackson and with a young Tommy at his side, the Black Swan changed its culinary offering and in 2010, was awarded three AA Rosettes (it now has four) followed by a Michelin star in 2012.

“It didn’t happen overnight,” says Tom. “The transition from a grubby country pub and trying to make it better was very gradual.”

When Jackson left to set up his own restaurant in June 2013, Tommy took over as head chef and the Black Swan retained its Michelin star making Tommy at the age of 24, the youngest chef at the time to hold the accolade.

But having a Michelin star doesn’t automatically put bums on seats – but it helps.

The Banks family remember only too well the hard times when they struggled to get people out to the tiny village in the North Yorkshire despite its Michelin star.

“Even after we got the Michelin star things were very difficult,” says Tommy. “We are pretty isolated out here and we really, really struggled. We had to run everything on a shoestring to survive.”

“There were nights when Tommy would be upstairs in the kitchen with no one to cook for and I’d be sat in my bedroom doing paper work waiting for the door to open,” says James.

“We even had to sell the cows,” recalls Tom.

Tommy has admitted when he first retained the Michelin star he felt something of a fraud and became determined to develop his own style.

It was another turning point for the Black Swan – being a farmer’s son, he turned to the land for his inspiration and has never looked back.

Now everything at the Black Swan is grown or reared and preserved on the family farm or in its extensive garden, or foraged locally.

This drive for sustainability earnt them a Michelin Green star in 2021 one of the first establishments to receive the accolade.

It was winning the BBC’s Great British Menu in 2016 that really started the phones ringing and allowed Banks to breathe a little more easily and marked another turning point in the history of the Black Swan – it also turned Tommy into an overnight sensation.

"I think people thought I had just burst onto the scene as a success, they didn’t realise we’d had five very hard years before that.”

And it signalled a major change in the Black Swan’s fortunes.

In 2017, TripAdvisor named it The Best Restaurant in the World based on customers' reviews, the first British restaurant to top their list since it began in 2012.

But the Banks family are never content to sit back on their laurels.

When Tommy came to his dad and said he wanted to open a second restaurant this time in York, to create a more accessible offering than that at the Black Swan, some including James, thought it was an unnecessary risk.

But this second restaurant, Roots, was also to win a Michelin star – York’s first.

Once again it was a family affair. James in charge of the exciting drinks offering, dad Tom making a lot of the furniture and the bar with constant support from Anne.

And Tommy is first to acknowledge the blood, sweat, tears and sleepless nights they all put into opening Roots on time with business partner Matthew Lockwood.

Since then the Tommy Banks Group has been formed and includes the Abbey Inn at Byland, where Tommy worked as a pot wash before his parents bought the Black Swan, Made in Oldstead the home delivery business launched during the lean Covid year, Tommy’s Pie Shop and TB Hospitality – an events company which produces top level catering at venues including Lord’s Cricket Ground, Twickenham and Sunderland FC.

The Banks’s are in no doubt this is all possible because of the teams they have at each of their venues.

Last year the Banks’s and Will Lockwood launched Jeopardy, a new company aimed at saving pubs at risk of disappearing and creating well paid hospitality careers for young people.

They opened their first pub The General Tarleton in Ferrensby, a model they hope to replicate across the country.

Tommy recently started a film production company which followed his journey to opening a business and forms part of a one-off stage show at the York Theatre Royal on Friday July 17.

Tommy Banks Spinning Plates sees him share the highs and lows of a life in hospitality, and is told across three intersecting timelines – the last 25 years, the defining 12 months, and the opening night for his latest pub.

They may have weathered some storms over the last two decades but 2026 is proving to be one of the most challenging for the Banks family, as it is for everyone in hospitality, with increase in business rates, National Insurance and the minimum wage.

It is something Tommy is very vocal about, and it is clear his family share his passion. You get the feeling he would like to do for hospitality what Jeremy Clarkson has done for farming. But Tom is as ever pragmatic.

“As a farmer you know you have to weather the storms but things will come back, they always do.”

And while Tommy may have fingers in a lot of pies, the Black Swan remains the place closest to his heart where the journey began.

And while he is the public face, there is no doubt that James, Tom and Anne and their loyal staff, are vital to the businesses continuing success – this is a true family business with the same banter as any loving family.

As Tom puts it. “There is a Black Swan way of doing things.”

Whatever that might be – it is definitely working.