The Pig near Bath chef Kamil Oseka grew up in a culinary family in Poland. Often cooking at night to avoid attention from Communist police, he learned many skills of preserving and pickling. Whole pigs were purchased and cooked, preserved or smoked in various manners to last as long as possible. Living on his grandparents small holding outside Warsaw during the summer, he looked after the animals and tended to the extensive vegetable plot. The woods nearby were where he learned to forage. It was only natural then that Kamil would attend culinary school, in fact he attended three, constantly increasing his knowledge and management skills.

In 2006 Kamil came to the UK and worked at the Sandbanks hotel in Poole as a chef de partie for 2 years. In 2008 he moved to the Harbour Heights hotel as Sous chef. It is here that he began working with James Golding who became the Head Chef at The Pig. After working for two busy Italian restaurants he was approached by James to become sous chef at The Pig in Brockenhurst. Kamil excelled here and the skills he learned as a youngster blended perfectly with the philosophy of the Pig.

In 2014 Kamils skills, attitude and hard work were rewarded  as he was appointed head chef of The Pig near Bath, the third in the group of this highly successful group founded by Robin Hutson. Kamil works closely with the Kitchen Gardener in Bath to ensure that the philosophy of plot to plate continues in Bath. He has also found the diversity and number of producers in this corner of the Mendips truly exciting. Of course, he continues to smoke, cure and pickle as much as he can….

Kamil is doing preserving demo’s in the Demo Teepee at 10.30am on Saturday 16th September and in conversation with Jim Buttress and Ollie Hutson in the Great Hall on Saturday afternoon. Free to Festival visitors.