Paul Zolik - Head Chef

 "Born in London, somewhere in the Balham/Tooting area in the 1960's."

For the first 18 months of his life, Paul Zolik lived in London before his father made the decision to move to Berkshire, in the country, for a better life.

Starting from humble beginnings and after trying out several part time jobs including paper rounds, being a market worker and box maker he secured a job in a small, quirky Bistro style Restaurant washing plates. The Bistro was run by an Austrian Chef with a fiery temper but great sense of humour, who frequently got over-excited and threw ingredients around the kitchen. It was here, one day, when the other Chef was off ill that Paul was instantly promoted to Salad Chef. Paul picked this up quickly; sparking his passion for food and so began his culinary career. He found food preparation easy and developed a thirst to know more. So, after leaving secondary school, he decided to join Reading College on a cooking programme.

It was through this programme that the spark became a fire and the wheels of his career were set in motion.

Paul’s career spans many fine establishments, from that fiery Austrians Bistro to the Royal Berkshire Hotel, Ascot, to the Cairns International and the Pacific Hotels in Cairns Australia, to the 5* Bath Spa Hotel and back home to the Coppid Beech Hotel in Bracknell, Berkshire.

We asked Paul to describe his cooking style. “Having always actively seeked out real cooking, whether modern, rustic or ethnic, my aim is to keep improving, learning and creating food that is well flavoured, balanced and interesting. The market continuously changes but by teaching and staying true to how to make many old favourites I hope to inspire another generation of chefs to care about food. Control of calories and a good balanced diet have now became a popular subject, so by learning and teaching how to cook with, and use ingredients that are not so well known to coincide with this trend, is also one of my goals. The style of my food has always had a broad base to draw from, so I have always been evolving and developing, but now in recent years, more and more restraint and refinement has become the norm.”

Hear more about what Paul and the Coppid Beech are doing...

At Rowans restaurant we are proud of our food, so please visit our "In the Press" page to see all our recent published Restaurant reviews and clippings...

Rowans Restaurant in the Press

Perhaps you would like to see an example menu?

Rowans A 'la Carte Menu by Head Chef Paul Zolik

Why not book a table and taste it for yourself?

Call 01344 303333 or Contact us

Rowans Restaurant at the Coppid Beech Hotel | Bracknell, Berkshire | 01344 303333