Sat Bains on the 'more dynamic and beautiful' RSB 5.0

This potential lack of talent was the rationale behind RSB 5.0: to reduce the hours he and his team worked to five services over a four-day week, meaning Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms now only opens from 5pm Wednesday to Friday and 2pm until close on Saturday. There is one menu and tables have reduced to 11 from 15.

"We've also increased our prices. It's not a huge increase and they're comparable to other two-star establishments. We're navigating ourselves through rocky waters still and trying to run a business. I won't apologise for trying to make a profit because profit means you can reinvest and that's what we've always done. We've been here 22 years now."

The transition has been hard work and scary, he adds. "It's been worrying because we've reduced our covers and completed a refurbishment that has cost us £88,000 – but that has made the restaurant more dynamic and beautiful and more comfortable for our guests and our team."

The husband-and-wife team (Amanda is an equal shareholder and director in the business) are trying to be as methodical as they can, but ultimately, they say you've got to jump in with both feet. "You can't just dip your toe in or rest on your laurels. You have to keep moving forwards," Sat explains.

The couple did their research and completed the refurb in just under one month, ready for reopening in January, with the whole team involved. It's the latest in a series of developments to the restaurant over the years. Sat adds: "We had to make it a really attractive opportunity [to work here], where you can have your mornings free, you can have three consecutive days off, you can have five weeks' holiday a year. But don't get me wrong – when you're here you must work. I'm not interested in mollycoddling chefs; I'm interested in nurturing brilliant talent."

Pizza and wine

Nucleus, formerly a self-contained, six-seat restaurant with its own private entrance within Restaurant Sat Bains, is changing into a residents' lounge in the spring, offering complimentary tea, coffee and snacks for guests, as well as a small library to house Bains's books. There is a new bar and wine station, which has been created by reducing covers in the conservatory and is set to be a large part of the show. "Wine is big piece of what we do and our sommelier, Alessia Ferrarella, has been involved in the design, making this more a part of the story," he says.

The Kitchen Bench and Chef's Table will stay, but some of the team members will now be charged with making snacks, which they will develop themselves and serve directly to guests. The garden will be used more and guests will be offered a complimentary ‘garden course' of pizza, cooked in the open-fire oven. "We'll serve this course in the greenhouse with a glass of wine and our guests can sample produce from the garden on their pizza and enjoy the space," he says.

Sat is looking for a development chef who will work alongside him on the new ideology, looking at the construction of dishes and how they are served. They have also invested in a prep chef to take on some of the workload.

"We're still navigating ourselves through rocky waters and trying to run a business"

All change

The refurb began in the last wave of restrictions late in 2021, and Sat and Amanda took the view that this might be the last really big change they undertake. "While we had the time and the energy, we said, let's do it! The period before Christmas can be a bit of a slog sometimes, so it was something to look forward to. It also means we stay relevant."

Sat says the biggest point of difference at Restaurant Sat Bains is Amanda: "She does all the dotting and crossing. We both know our strengths and we always come to a logical conclusion."

Amanda adds: "Sometimes I can throw a spanner in the works if I get involved creatively, but I always ask the logical questions to pre-empt problems. We always want to excel and be the best in our field, and just because we've been here for 22 years doesn't mean we don't want to be better. Stars are great to say that you're cooking at a high standard and it's great for the team and for morale and ensures a standard for our guests, but you must always keep looking at the restaurant with fresh eyes."

Sat continues: "The refurbishment will make the restaurant just a little smaller and more manageable, giving our guests so much more time and space to enjoy the whole experience, and making it tighter and more efficient, which will allow us a little more flexibility.

"That's part of the plan. Amanda took me out recently for our 22nd anniversary and you need that time away – and I didn't feel guilty.

I was like a big kid and was so full of joy, because restaurants are our game, but I'm not planning to die by the stove!"

"We've got strong managers here as well. I've had John [Freeman] our head chef with me for 19 years, Innes Hayward [restaurant manager] and Alessia for three years and Pedro Torres [assistant restaurant manager] has just come back. We've got between 38-40 staff, and we've invested heavily in their wellbeing. We throw problems down at them all the time, that they always solve – we trust them. That's Amanda's skill: she loves testing the team and making sure we are always on the top of our game."

Amanda adds that in terms of new starters, they need to know if they don't know the answer to a question they can say "let me check my notes."

"I don't always know all the answers myself," she says. "So of course you should ask questions and check notes. Also, because Sat and I are both from working class backgrounds, we both still have our roots, and we like the ethos of a good day's work. I do like to look at problems from the perspective of our guests, which can cause friction with the chefs, but I want to know how comfortable we are making someone or if we are acknowledging someone's birthday, the smell of the candles – the little things."

Work-life balance and mental health

Sat admits another reason for RSB 5.0 was a refresh for him and Amanda. "Honestly – I fell out of love with it a bit. We were too busy. We're not putting all these things in place so we can leave –we want to enjoy it. These changes are a culmination of things.

"We want less noise, I'd like to spend more time with John and master our craft without the noise – that's so attractive for me – and it will be a joy, to see people wandering around the grounds, enjoying the whole experience. The whole place will be part of the food journey."

Amanda agrees: "It's rarely quiet here – there's always something going on and now we have some peace we can work on new projects."

Sat continues: "Amanda and I are in a fortunate position as we haven't got a lot of overheads because we don't have kids, so we haven't got the same overheads as some of our friends: no school or university costs to find. So, we cut our cloth accordingly, the same as everyone else; we want a nice holiday, to be able to go out for a nice meal. We are simple people just like everyone else."

So it seems Sat and Amanda have found a new, more mellow groove. And, having retained their two Michelin stars and turned their focus to the wellbeing of their team, it looks like the path they are following is the right one.

Back to the future

Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms has recently been named Harden's Best UK Restaurant 2022. Ratings in the guide are based on 30,000 reports from Harden's annual survey of 3,000 regular diners.

The Harden's guide says: "Just outstanding in every way. It is a testament to Sat Bains and wife Amanda's hospitality that they have created one of the country's best-rated gastronomic destinations in a former motel amidst the flyovers on the edge of the city. Once you find it, you will keep going back for more – superb cuisine and correspondingly varied wine list, full of surprises."

Peter Harden, the co-founder of the guide, commented: "Sat Bains has been a leader of the national restaurant scene for more than a decade now, and his lockdown curry service is a great example of the resilience and creativity shown by the sector in the face of the pandemic – qualities the best restaurants will need as we emerge from this national trauma."

Aim for the stars: what previous employees have to say about Sat Bains

"Sat is one of the best chefs and business people I have ever worked for. The lessons he taught me daily have been invaluable to my success as a chef and restaurateur. One thing that I remember him saying was ‘never believe your own bullshit'. This has always stuck in my head and it really keeps you grounded."

Paul Foster, chef-owner, Salt, Stratford-upon-Avon

"Sat is, and always has been, a leading figure in our industry. I had the pleasure to be a part of his team at Restaurant Sat Bains and it was a truly pivotal moment in my career. He has a constant focus on extracting every drop of flavour from every single ingredient. This is exactly what chefs strive to achieve, but rarely come close to obtaining at the level Sat can. I now take the same obsessive mentality and apply it in the development of my dishes each day at Aimsir"

Jordan Bailey, chef-patron, Aimsir, Kildare

"I worked for Sat for three years as his sous chef and he taught me how to think outside the box and to consider the ingredients. He taught me to work in a different style and to never stop evolving. He made me determined to achieve my goal. He's unbelievable and Amelia and I wouldn't be where we are now without him."

Gareth Ward, head chef and co-owner, Ynyshir, Machynlleth

Momma Bains: a pandemic crisis brings a solution

Sat Bains wasn't just formulating the new incarnation of his restaurant while Covid rampaged across the country, he also took the time to formulate Momma Bains, a Punjab street food business, where he teamed up with his mother to ship thousands of samosas and curry kits up and down the country.

"When the lockdown first happened in March, we kind of chilled in the garden with gin and tonics but then the rumours started," he says. "No one knew what was happening: first we weren't opening, then we were, then we weren't – it was unsettling and chaotic.

"We launched Momma Bains, but we struggled to get packaging, things that we didn't anticipate – that was stressful too. If it hadn't been for Momma Bains we wouldn't be here – we were screwed when the pandemic hit. But unlike what a lot of our friends did – and did very successfully – we didn't want to do a delivery box service.

"Personally, I just couldn't see it – so thought about it and we got talking to a friend of ours about samosas and about mum, and we realised that what was missing during the pandemic was family, closeness and togetherness. I've been so fortunate to have family on tap. I've grown up in a Punjabi community so family meals are so important and mum's samosas were perfect for this.

"We spoke to Mitchell at True Foods and he worked with us to make up the curries like mum would make, batching them up into portions. Mitch, is a legend and he helped us get the business going – that's how it was born.

"We started selling just samosas via the Cod's Scallops fish and chip shop in Nottingham and Rick Stein's fish and chips shops in Padstow and Fistral Beach. We'd supply them with frozen samosas and they'd cook them and serve them with some chutney to their customers. Then we started doing curry boxes every two weeks – they were fantastic and doing this saved Restaurant Sat Bains from running out of money."

The team at the restaurant helped in producing the samosas by reformulating the kitchen process: they weighed the samosas for consistency and were able to prepare four or five a minute.

"We all learned new skills, the ones we were making were fantastic and it was great to be using a part of my culture that I'd never used, I've always thought it was lazy to fall back on this type of food. I've learned that people love curries – it's been quite fascinating, and we've got 13 curries in the library now. "

The two businesses will continue to run side by side. Bains currently distributes the samosas to seven fish and chips shops around the country and to Kerridge's Fish & Chips in Harrods, and the business strengthens the restaurant's revenue stream in autumn and winter.

Says Sat: "It's fantastic to have opened a new business during a pandemic."