Meet the pastry queen of the North East, Helen Doyle

Head pastry chef of the 21 Restaurant Group in Newcastle, Helen Doyle, talks to High Life North about her journey in the culinary world, training young chefs and the growing North East food scene.

After joining 21, her husband received life-changing news as he won a competition with the Academy of Culinary Arts and was consequently awarded the William Heptinstall Award. This enables young chefs to widen their culinary skills and experience outside the UK, and Martin was given a bursary to work in New York. 

Terry Laybourne gave them both a year sabbatical to pursue this incredible opportunity as Helen worked in some of the best restaurants in the city, including Daniel, Gramercy Tavern and Le Bernardin. Working in these high-pressure Michelin-starred kitchens was an enriching experience that gave Helen invaluable skills that she would carry with her throughout her career when she progressed into leadership roles. 

“I’ve learned over the years from working in different places and with different chefs, how not to act just as much as how to act. They are both as important to take a step back and realise, “I’ll never be like that with anyone” or “actually, that’s a really good way of doing it.

“The most important thing is communication with your team. I’ve learned that through these places, as well as through 21 Group. They really are one big dysfunctional family, but everybody has the same end goal, which is to do what we are doing well.”

After a long and successful career, Helen’s main focus is now to train the young pastry chefs of the future. 

“I get a real kick out of putting time into the younger generation and seeing the kids do well, who I see a lot of myself in,” said Helen. 

21 Group has an impressive reputation for training chefs, and Helen believes that the most important trait that a junior pastry chef can have is dedication, and the rest will follow in time.

“I just don’t see the point otherwise. There are a million and one things that we could do that isn’t standing on our feet all day, and that isn’t as intense and gruelling,” She said. “I feel like if you’re going to put yourself through that then you should really put yourself through it and submerge yourself in it fully. That passion is really important to me, and have some reason why you are here and why you are doing it.”

It has been an incredibly rewarding and fruitful venture as 21’s Megan Armstrong was crowned UK Young Pastry Chef of the Year as she achieved the highest marks in the UK in the pastry final of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Annual Awards of Excellence. A feat similarly achieved by Sophie Bamford, who was mentored by Helen as she won Young Pastry Chef in 2018.

A large part of the incredible success of the training programme is down to Helen’s decades of experience as a top-level pastry chef. However, another key factor is that 21 provides young chefs with invaluable experiences that will help them in their journey to success in the culinary world. 

“It’s the little things like taking them to London and sitting down and eating in a restaurant that they would have never dreamt of. They could have easily cooked in the restaurant, but sitting there and eating is a completely different perspective,” said Helen.

She added: “It’s not just about the practicality of being in the kitchen, you need everything. You need to be able to eat out and understand the whole picture to be able to be a fully grounded chef.”

Perhaps Helen’s next protege will be her young son Alfie, who enjoys cooking at home with his parents – as seen on ITV’s Lockdown Life Hacks. 

“Sometimes they go the other way and do something completely different, but my gut instinct is that he’ll do something in hospitality,” said Helen. “He has spent his whole life surrounded by food, either cooking it, sitting in a restaurant or going on holiday.”

When discussing the food scene in the UK, the North East is often overlooked. However, with innovative and thriving restaurants like Pine, Hjem and House of Tides, it has a strong case to be in the conversation.

The same could be said about the infrastructure in the North East to provide quality training to promising chefs. Traditionally, chefs would have to relocate to London or Paris to receive the skills and foundations for a successful career, but over the years, the region has turned the tide as it’s unquestionably a hotbed for talent. 

This is something ingrained in the philosophy of 21 Group and Terry Laybourne as they value themselves on growing the North East food scene. 

“It’s incredible. Some of the training has gone into people, and they have moved on and opened their own places or are working for other places in Newcastle,” she said. “If we can give people the infrastructure and the foundations for them to be able to do amazing stuff elsewhere around the city, then that’s pretty impressive.”