Meet The Team

Richard Hughes, Proprietor: A Profile

Richard has been cooking professionally for over thirty years, beginning his career at The Imperial Hotel in Great Yarmouth in 1977, spending one day a week at college, two days a week on the pot wash and two days a week cooking breakfast!  Richard's career has taken him from the Michelin-starred kitchens of Rookery Hall in Nantwich to the Theatre Royal in the centre of Norwich.  In 1991 Richard fulfilled his ambition of opening his own restaurant, Number Twenty Four in Wymondham, which he ran for some eleven years.  During his time at Wymondham, Richard also taught at the Hotel School Norwich, began his famous Step by Step column in the EDP Norfolk magazine, and in 1994 won a Catey for Menu of the Year.  The outside catering service was an extremely popular part of the business throughout the nineties and, whilst cooking a wedding breakfast at Strumpshaw, Richard passed the very famous Old Beams in Brundall.  Looking slightly sorry for itself, the restaurant was on the market for sale as a private house, but Richard headed back to Wymondham and set about selling everything he had to secure the property in 2002.  The Grade II listed building was renamed The Lavender House and has since been a real highlight on the Norfolk restaurant scene, winning numerous awards, including 2 AA rosettes, another prestigious Catey in 2004, a two times winner of an EDP Business Award and the Work for Schools Premier Award.  Richard is also the author of three best-selling cookery books; Hughes Cooking, The Pigs Book of Proper Pub Food and Step by Step published in 2009.  The restaurant has been extremely busy since opening its doors and, despite all the acclaim, the priority is always the customer who is often celebrating their very own special occasion.  Richard took back the reins of the kitchen in August 2010, and although involved in other businesses (Richard part owns The Pigs at Edgefield, which was recently named Country Life Pub of the Year, and The Assembly House in Norwich city centre), The Lavender House remains central to his life, is the flagship of all his other interests, and his true love!