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Hadleigh Nub News delves into Robert Carrier, American chef, and his relationship with Hintlesham Hall.

Robert Carrier McMahon OBE was an American chef, restaurateur and cookery writer. Born in Tarrytown, New York, he regularly stayed at weekends with his French grandmother who taught him how to cook. This included making biscuits and butter-frying fish.

This early experience with cooking left its impression and, in 1957, he began writing food articles for Harper's Bazaar. This was followed by stints with Vogue and the Sunday Times. This brought him fame, culminating in his first cookery book selling over 11 million copies.

He soon opened his first restaurant "Carrier's" in 1966 in Islington and developed a chain of cookshops, the first being in Harrod's.

With all this fame and notoriety, you would not have expected to find his calling in the countryside.

Hintlesham Hall [Photo credit: Hintlesham Hall]

In 1971, when reading Country Life, he found a full-page advertisement for Hintlesham Hall and decided to buy it for £32,000.

His initial plans for the hall was to renovate it as a country retreat. However, as he bought it unsurveyed, he soon realised how vulnerable and derelict with rotten floors and ceilings the hall was. He then decided to save it all as soon as possible, employing sixty people to help save it.

He opened Hintlesham Hall as a hotel in 1972, followed by the revival of the Hintlesham Festival.

A few years later, Carrier invested £300,000 converting the outbuildings into a modern cookery school. The school attracted many people from around the world but Carrier was disappointed that they came due to his fame rather than the school itself. He soon became disillusioned by teaching.

In 1982, after retiring from life in the limelight, Carrier decided to close the Michelin two starred Hintlesham Hall. He sold it the following year to English hotelier Ruth Watson and her husband.