The walking wine guide

He has been involved in the wine business for nearly 20 years and is one of only 180 Master Sommeliers in the world.

His CV includes eight-years as Gordon Ramsey’s executive head sommelier, creating wine lists and training wine service teams for restaurants in Dubai, Tokyo, London and New York, including Claridge’s, the Connaught and the Savoy, and recently appearing on the BBC2 show Michel Roux’s Service.

The programme which aimed to transform eight teenagers from inexperienced waiters into experts of front-of-house service, saw Mr Sayburn passing on his experience at the Hotel du Vin group, which featured in the show.

The 41-year-old works as the director of wines and spirits for the 14-hotel chain, a position he said he could not have achieved were it not for the encouragement of a teacher at Scarborough Technical College.

He said: “I went back to the college as a restaurant supervisor working underneath the restaurant manager Mary Oldfield. I was actually at the college at the same time as James Martin and Andrew Pern although they were on the chef side.

“There was a really good selection of lecturers who were really inspiring. It was Mary Oldfield who got me into the wine side and it was from there I decided I wanted to work in the wine business.”

After two years training at what he says was “one of the best colleges in the country at the time”, Ronan moved to Oxfordshire to work for French chef Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons.

From there he went to work in top London restaurant Pied à Terre where an encounter with the then up-and-coming Gordon Ramsey matured into a working partnership.

“Gordon came in and we talked and he asked me to come and work for him. I worked with him for eight years, his empire really took off and we opened 12 restaurants together. The thing about Gordon is he didn’t know very much about wine – and he still he doesn’t – so he let me get on with it. It was great that he trusted me like that.”

He has worked at many of London’s best restaurants and would like to do more work with Michelle Roux.

As part of Michelle Roux’s Service, Ronan took trainees on a four-day course to Reims, in France’s Champagne region, to teach them about the intricacies of good wine.

“It was quite different for me because I’m always used to teaching people that have previous knowledge and experience of the industry.

“However, when we took them on the trip to France that was fantastic for their development because we had the opportunity to teach them an awful lot about wine and good service. It was good fun and I enjoyed the challenge of that because once they saw the area they really got into what we were showing them.”

When not drinking wine, Ronan, who lives in London with his long-term girlfriend, says he “attempts” to run marathons or can be found deep diving shipwrecks from the south coast of England. That is if he’s not visiting old friends in his home town.

Ronan’s advice for catering students is to be adventurous. “I think they’ve got to be adventurous, even if they want to stay in Scarborough afterwards. They need to go to places such as London to get the diversity and experience of working elsewhere and they need to be prepared to move away for a couple of years at least. Then they can come back if they want to.”