Isle of Wight-based chef Robert Thompson is to be chef-patron of the new North House boutique hotel and restaurant in Cowes, he has announced on Instagram.

Originally from Bedfordshire, Thompson worked under legendary chef Germain Schwab at Winteringham Fields in Lincolnshire, taking over the kitchen at the age of 23 when Schwab retired.

He moved to the Isle of Wight in 2008 to become head chef at the Hambrough in Ventnor, and opened his own restaurant, Thompson’s, in Newport in 2015. During the Covid restrictions he launched You Be Chef, a successful home-delivery service which has found customers on the British mainland as far afield as London, Cornwall and Scotland.

“The at-home boxes have basically kept my business alive,” he says. You Be Chef is to carry on operating when North House opens.