Bob pops into the town

AFTER seven years slaving away in the kitchen, any chef would surely chomp at the bit to use a three-month refurb as a get-out-of-work free card and jet off to balmy climes.

But not James 'Bob' Parkinson, the workaholic behind award-winning Cirencester deli Made By Bob. Faced with the prospect of a 12-week lull (on the restaurant front anyway - the thriving and rather time-consuming catering side of the operation would still have pushed full steam ahead), he nabbed the empty unit behind the eatery at the Corn Hall, brought in a building crew and ten days later unveiled his new pop-up deli cum juice bar at the end of September.

"It was quick turnout," he shrugs with a cheeky smile. "We don't do things by halves here. I wanted to do a bit more raw, a lot more salads so that worked out well. The idea was not to clash with what we were doing before. It's different, simple and relaxed."

The seed for a stand-in deli was sowed in August at the Wilderness Festival, where Bob was hired to cater for exclusive guests and VIPs .

Left in sole charge of illustrious guests' supper, he created an entire gourmet village complete with Spanish and Thai bars, a pizza station and a juice corner - his first foray into the detox trend.

"My wife does a lot of juicing at home but I'd never tried it before at the restaurant," adds Bob who, after years of being nicknamed ‘Jimbob’ by friends, adopted the moniker. "The juicing is a reflection of what we do. Everything we do is fresh and seasonal – you can taste every last bite - and the juice bar fitted with that. I think when we reopen we will introduce the juicing to the restaurant.”

Back home in Cirencester, in the days leading up to the deli's closure, he tested his small range of juices on customers. He couldn't press the fruit fast enough. The idea for a Made By Bob pop-up, takeaway and juice bare was born.

Of course, the vagaries of construction caught up with him and despite his ingenuity and wily cheats - he recycled the Wilderness Festival food stations' corrugated iron sheets and sheathed them around the bar, injecting a more offbeat Aussie coffee shop vibe - the deli was still a building site on September 12 aka inauguration day. Unfazed, Bob plodded along, and the pop-up finally opened its doors on September 21, nine days behind schedule.

"You know how it is... It takes time. It's a pop-up but we wanted it to look right,” insist the 40-year-old. “You just work hard like you always do; you have to do it," he adds with the serene conviction and quiet determination of a man who knows exactly what he wants.

While other children dreamed of being policemen, race car drivers or premier league footballers, Bob had far clearer ambitions and would inform anyone within earshot he would become a successful chef.

True to his word at 16, he enrolled in a youth training scheme, attending college every other week and working full time as a commis at Prestbury House near his hometown of Cheltenham.

A surprise meal at the acclaimed Bibendum on his 17th birthday thrust his fledgling career in a lofty direction.

“My mum took me to Bibendum in London for my birthday; we had a tour of the kitchen and I met the head chef, Simon Hopkinson. He said, ‘Leave your name and address,’ and he called me that night and said, ‘Come and work here for a day.’ I did and he offered me a job. He was very much my mentor. It was hard but it was never boring. The menu changed every day so you learned a lot very quickly.”

Bob continued his schooling at the Michelin-starred Fulham Road restaurant under Steven Bull before trundling off down the street to Fables, a French restaurant.

He later followed a friend to Australia where he joined Thai authority David Thompson at his Darley Street Thai restaurant in Sydney. There, his now storied love affair with Thai cuisine blossomed.

Back in London, he teamed up once more with Thompson at his new Thai eatery Nahm. Soon the Belgravia restaurant was awarded a Michelin Star, making it the first Thai in Europe to receive the accolade.

Ready to put the wheels in motion on his dream of opening a deli-restaurant, an opportunity finally presented itself in 2008, in the form of a crumbling unit complete with corroded pipes dangerously dangling from the ceiling in Cirencester’s Corn Hall.

A year later Made By Bob was up and running.

“I love delis,” he says. “It’s about meeting people and the theatre. Taking the plunge and going for it has been the highlight of my career. There is no-one to blame but yourself so it keeps you on your toes.”

Like the original Made By Bob, the pop-up stocks an array of local cheeses, charcuterie and ingredients as well as Bob’s own range of condiments and chutneys. The juice bar serves drinks all day, from the nourishing breakfast smoothie to the refreshing watermelon, cucumber and mint juice.

Due to restricted kitchen space, the team only serve a limited range a hot dishes – all prepared off site at Made By Bob's catering unit in Fairford - favouring quick and easy food to go, sandwiches, paninis, terrine and platters.

But never fear, his famous fish soup still makes an appearance on the lunch menu.

Space constraints have not stopped Bob and his sous chefs from playing around, albeit in a more modest way, blending world cuisines, with a touch of Moroccan spices here and Thai flair there. But as ever, his fare is simple and unpretentious.

That being said, Bob plans to diversify and soon. He already has his heart set on firing up paella out on the pop-up terrace and even wheeling in his pizza oven to whip up a feast of bruschetta.

"It's exciting," grins Bob. "We're always changing and trying new things. It's another string to our bow."

The pop-up opens is based in the Corn Hall, 26 Market Place, Cirencester. It is open Monday to Saturday from 7.30am to 5.30pm. For more information call 01285 641818.