Raymond Blanc, Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay – Steve Bulmer has worked with some of the world's best chefs.

But he is at his happiest when passing on his expertise to others, and is relishing his current role as cookery school chef tutor, at Chewton Glen's The Kitchen.

"It's been fantastic," he says of the position he took on 11 months ago.

"I was at Swinton Park Hotel in the Dales for five years, having taken over from Rosemary Shrager, who set up the school. I did shooting days and game. The chef who was running the school, who James Martin got in, was playing tennis and fell over the tennis ball and broke his hip.

"I got a phone call and said would I like to come down here? I've worked all over the place and I thought 'a new county, it would be lovely to come down by the coast'."

Father-of-two Steve, who also helped set up Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons‎, after working with the Frenchman "on and off for 16 years", is embracing coastal life, increasing the number of fish and shellfish courses on offer at The Kitchen, alongside lessons in Italian and Asian cooking, baking and barbecuing, to name a few.

"We have a full scope of courses to suit absolute beginners to master chefs," he explains.

"James Martin endorses the school for us and he does two courses a month. I'm just putting on two different courses from his new book. James gets us all sorts of great chefs in – Paul Ainsworth is coming in; we've had Tom Kitchin; Tom Kerridge; Jason Atherton."

The courses consist of either a full day, half-day or an evening, when a group of mixed ability chefs will come together to learn techniques from a professional chef.

"I show them as many techniques as I can," says Steve, "it's the techniques they come back for. We have 12 sections, so you work by yourself – you don't have to share. We have a lot of people come from Bournemouth, London and Birmingham, but the majority of people are local.

"I'm trying to design courses which are not too arty farty. Our executive chef, Luke Matthews, does a course which is a Chewton Glen Classics course and I'm working on a lot of modern stuff as well as old classics.

"We do a lot of corporate events as well – because we have 12 sections, we can have up to 24, they double up. And we do kids' courses.

"We do tailor made courses as well. We ask people what they want."

Steve, who lives just down the road in Barton-on-Sea, also has a background in foraging, and is enjoying being able to make use of the "fantastic" gardens, greenhouses and even the wildlife on offer in the grounds of Chewton Glen.

Steve, who can also add appearances on Ready, Steady, Cook and a job at Nobu among his career highlights, followed the Michelin star route, which he claims he "fell into at an early age", and travelled the world during his chef's training.

But admits he always found himself joining staff committees, rallying staff when they were down, organising parties for employees and troubleshooting.

"I like that," he smiles, "and I've always loved the teaching side."

"I do soldier rehabilitation stuff for Help The Heroes. I used to take seven veterans for a week, train them for a week and then put them into a restaurant to learn from a well-known chef. They came back a week later and had a competition. I want to do more of that.

"I've also trained, over the years, about 14 young lads from deprived backgrounds. I trained them up, took them to Raymond. Two years with me then I would send them to Raymond or Ramsay. They then took them on, then their career was off. One of them is now a chef at Necker Island."

He's certainly achieved a lot, but Steve remains modest about his career.

"I've been very fortunate in that I love my job," he shrugs, "I think, if you enjoy it, it just bounces off."

The Kitchen, Chewton Glen 01425 282212 chewtonglen.com/the-kitchen/