The new dream team at Farlam Hall

As she enthuses about how they achieved their first Michelin star (“emotional”), had 70 per cent of their guests over Christmas and New Year immediately rebook for the following year saying they didn’t want to leave (“so touching”), her passion for hospitality is infectious.  

It’s a story oft told about how she and award-winning Michelin starred chef Hirishikesh Desai moved to the luxury Farlam Hall from the Gilpin Hotel and Lake House last year. Not as well known is that her time at Gilpin, first as finance director then as MD from 2021, was the first time she had worked in hospitality.  

“My background has always been accounting and finance and as I’ve progressed I’ve come to love business in its entirety,” she says. 

She started in her role as finance director at Farlam Hall near Brampton in April 2023. She says the first year there was “transformational”. They achieved a Michelin star, three AA rosettes and developed the Enkel bistro alongside the Michelin cuisine at Cedar Tree. The changes have seen their bookings increase by 92 per cent year on year. 

“It feels like we’ve climbed Everest in the last 14 months!” she says. “The first year was about building the foundations of something that’s going to have some longevity, I’m not into boom-and-bust type of business. My whole career has been about building businesses but in a really good, solid way. Slow and steady so you have a good structure,” she says. 

“There was almost more pressure on Hirishikesh because he’d had a Michelin star and he knew he had to deliver on this. When you look at what Hirishikesh has achieved no wonder people don’t really know who I am… I prefer to be in the engine room making sure all runs smoothly,” she says. 

“Officially I am financial director but I do tend to call myself director these days because I cover a lot of areas. We do it together but ultimately he has final say as chef patron/MD. However I bring with me that wealth of business experience and different businesses as well.” 

The pair had worked together at Gilpin. So after Hirishikesh was approached by Farlam’s American owners Joseph Walter and Kathy Mares they then contacted Karen. “We were both looking for a new role but this came out of the blue,” she says.  

“We achieved a lot at the Gilpin at a testing time for the whole country,” she says, talking about being appointed MD during the pandemic. “Then the time came that I knew I was ready for something different as did quite a lot of people who worked there, everybody for their own individual reasons. It seems like such a long time ago now but both Hirishikesh and I were heading off in our own directions. Fast forward and we end up here at Farlam Hall which is absolutely amazing.” 

(Image: Farlam Hall)

Hirishikesh is quoted as saying in another magazine interview, “I think 2022 was a turning point in a way. The potential to push to the second star was huge but at the same time, I wanted to be on a  director level. So, I can make the decisions. Crockery, glass, style of service, style of food. The Gilpin was a family business and they made some of those decisions.” 

Karen says: “I met with the Farlam Hall owners on Zoom and then we met face to face and they seemed kind, genuinely nice people I felt I could work with. The brief we had was ‘We know we have something special.’ They had redeveloped the bricks and mortar and basically wanted us to bring it to life with an emphasis on great food, great wine and hospitality. They are excited about what we are doing here.  

“As a product it was there to grow, nurture and do it in a way that Hirishikesh wanted to do it and I was there to support him. From a team point of view we were welcomed with open arms and that was amazing.” 

Karen says staff retention is key and they will often send staff to different Relais Chateaux hotels (Farlam Hall is part of the sales and marketing consortium) so they can train with other teams. She says the kitchen team is strong but they do need front of house, acknowledging that Farlam’s location means that hospitality staff may need to move to the Carlisle area. “The more visibility you have though helps with recruitment,” she says, talking about their many awards. 

“It’s very difficult when you come somewhere… it was quiet and we were brought in to raise the profile but there were regular guests and will those guests still want to come? And yes, they do! The people who have been coming for years are saying it’s gone to another level and then there’s people who haven’t been for 20 years and they love it and then there’s guests who know who we are and they are coming. We are seeing this from further and further afield, people seeing the accolades, what they’re seeing in the national press. It was a little bit sleepy when we arrived and it’s waking up out of its dormant spell,” she says. “We feel as though it’s like a decompression chamber for people coming here, all the cares get left at the door.” 

The pair have relocated to the area and Karen is now in the process of purchasing a property. “I’ve never really relocated before and it’s been lovely,” she says, talking about how she has spent most of her life in Lancashire.  

She was brought up in a village near Southport where her drive and enthusiasm was evident from a young age. “When I was little I was middle of the road academic wise but on sports day I would shine. I used to win everything. I was always very sporty and I think that’s probably where that drive to achieve comes in. Sport always used to inspire me, athletics, Wimbledon… I was always driven to win and Hirishikesh is the same with his cricket. It’s part of the DNA when you are like that naturally,” she says.  

Her first job after leaving school was as a receptionist at Huntapac Produce. “I hadn’t found anything that interested me so I didn’t want to study anymore, but when I found finance and accounts I studied a lot. I ended up running the payroll at the company, it was a family-run business at that time,” she says. After a short stint at a business in Southport she started doing her accountancy exams in the evenings, had her two children – “I am very proud of both of them” she says – and then when her then husband’s family business, Alan Baybutt and Sons, started expanding she worked there part time initially and then full time, whilst also heading up the Producer Organisation they were a part of.  The business grew salad crops on more than 1,500 acres for major supermarkets, at one point supplying all the celery to Asda supermarkets in the UK.  

She was there for 14 years before the couple decided on a change of direction. “I have always been driven and felt too young to retire,” she says, talking about her decision to apply for the role of finance director at the Gilpin. 

“Coming to Farlam Hall though has been transformational in every sense. Everybody in the team is excited to be on the journey with us. Hirishikesh does the creative side of it and I reach out to commercial partners to work with. We’ve done Taittinger events, Porsche sponsorship, BMW and Laurent Perrier are knocking on our door now… for us it’s like ‘Wow.’ From my side that’s the development that I do with the business and reaching out to people who can help deliver experiences for the guests. 

“It’s been epic and I wake up in the morning excited about what we are doing and that’s what I have always been like. I couldn’t be happier, what we have done, what we are doing in the short and long term. It doesn’t feel like work. For Hirishikesh and I we live it, eat it, breathe it. If you’re passionate about it you can’t switch off at 5pm, not if you want to achieve something. It’s a choice, a lifestyle choice. Anyone who wants to be at the top of their game, to be the best you accept that with that comes the input that’s required for that.” 

She sees parallels between sport and business, in terms of work ethic, leading a team and getting the best out of individuals and seeing their strengths and areas of improvement. She uses the sporting analogy in terms of them achieving their first Michelin star. “I could see the creativity coming out of the kitchen and logic told me Hirishikesh would perhaps get one but you don’t know… so the emotion of getting that star was off the scale. A week after I think it hit both of us, that wave of emotion. It was the response from the industry and the guests I think that was what really brought it home to us. We are both quite sporty people and I always compare it to like an Olympic athlete who dares to dream but in that build up you are not thinking about the end, you are thinking about what you need to do to get there, the day in, day out. It’s only afterwards when you’ve achieved it and it was raw emotion and we both broke down the week after,” she says. Needless to say, they are now aiming for two stars. 

“I have a picture in my gym at home and it’s Martin Johnson lifting that Rugby World Cup in 2003. Looking at someone like that and you know that has been hard work, he has not done that by sitting back. When I’m on the treadmill I look at Martin and say ‘Okay, here we go Marti,'” she says, with a twinkle in her eye. “That epitomises it, you’ve got to work hard… and we’ve got more to do.”