You don’t need to know James’ background, he was a kid in a muddle with a few misdemeanour’s under his belt who had found himself in the care of Anderida Adolescent Care, a specialist care setting for young people with a history of failed placements. But while James’ upbringing had been difficult and while he suffered knock backs often through no fault of his own, he had passion and enthusiasm by the bucket load. I was one of his carers and youth workers for a couple of years and while I may be writing a piece in part from the perspective of someone marketing an organisation, most of me simply wants to pay tribute to a lad who worked hard whilst faced with some all too familiar hurdles along the way.

The social care industry has doubtless taken a battering over recent times through mistakes and negligence by just a tiny sample of individuals within the line of work and when sharks smell blood they move pretty quickly. Moral panic is high on a lot of media’s agenda and when it gets its teeth into something, the black and white press can turn any difficult to manage situation into a story of failure and thoughtlessness on the part of those responsible. James however may be one of those stories that stand up to the relentless storm as it rains down soaking the industry and those voiceless individuals as they work day and night to help those that need a support network in order to survive.

Throughout James Julian’s time in care he was hard on himself about what kind of a person he was – he was, in my opinion, his own biggest critic, but while this is often seen as a fault it may be the reason that he pushed himself harder and further in all that he did. He threw himself into basketball. He played it, loved it and it wasn’t long before he found himself playing for the local side and then the Brighton U18’s team. He went back to school and grafted for his GCSE’s and was offered a place at college despite coming out of school at an early age. He started expressing himself through rapping; and when I say “expressing himself,” we’re not talking the kind of rap that you might hear about nothing in particular from a wannabe one man crime spree, but what he found to be the root causes of his problems, reminding himself in his words of what he can achieve and what he could become. But, it was his cooking that James found the source of his biggest passion.

“By the time i’m 30 i’ll have my own restaurant,” says James Julian

It seems a long time ago now when James would insist on his carers ingesting his unresearched concoctions of wild flavours, and if I’m honest, some of them were actually quite nice, but James thoroughly enjoyed being in the kitchen and rustling something up and once that blue touch paper had been lit, there wasn’t much that could stop him.

As James approached the end of his time at Anderida he enrolled on a catering course and would bring his work and ideas home and his culinary expertise started to evolve and his food became progressively more delicious as he immersed himself and quickly picked up key skills and developed a good palate.

James went on to live in his own place, carried on at college whilst working and picking up experience in various kitchens. Effectively James “held it down,” he stayed focussed and kept his passions alive whilst life continued to throw it’s ups and downs “It can be tough living on you own,” says James “Getting up, motivating yourself and remaining focussed is the toughest hurdle to overcome.” Anderida continued to see James on a regular basis through an outreach programme to help James in any way that they could; more often than not it would be to take him to the supermarket to stock up on fresh supplies and as is the norm the outreach became less frequent until James was happy to go it alone.

A little while ago, I received a call whilst in the office from a man asking for the unit manager, she was unavailable at the time so I asked if I could help and I was delighted to hear that it was James with a “bit of good news.” James had been finishing at college and had been named The Colleges Most Promising Chef of the Year. “It was announced on the last day of college so it was all a bit emotional, but once it had sunk in I realised just what an honour it was. College was a great experience,” he said.  His catering talent was also deemed as being of a such a high standard that he and some of his college team were entered into The Nestlé Toque D’Or, a contest for catering teams from colleges to create a fictional restaurant, brand it, run it and create dishes for it. The contest rewards the next generation of industry talent and is recognised as one of the most challenging competitions in the industry. Previous celebrity chef participants include Anton Mosimann, James Martin and Jamie Oliver – all representing some of the finest talent in the profession and James and his team got through to the Grand Finals in Birmingham. The project culminated in a presentation and in true gregarious fashion, James stepped up to the plate and did a rap about his food that impressed the judges and caught the eye of one judge in particular; amongst the well respected and Michelin Star decorated panel was TV Chef , James Tanner whom, after the competition was over, James took it upon himself to approach. James Tanner was so impressed with James that he offered him a trial at his restaurant in Plymouth, The Barbican Kitchen. James went to stay down there for a few days and has been offered a full time job and understandably, he is over the moon and already planning for the future. “I’m 19 now but by the time i’m 30 I should have my own place (restaurant). Mentors at college have instilled in me the necessity for planning in this industry and I owe that to Val Rodriguez and Ron Lee of Sussex Downs College. My Mum and Dad have always been there for me everyday and for that i’m thankful and my Sister has been an inspiration: she’s articulate, she works hard and she has seen out her education, but now she’s starting to say that about me!“

Perhaps the cherry on top of all of this, a local radio station, Sovereign Radio organised a local hero awards where James was awarded “Young Achiever of the Year” for all of the above. He was unable to attend due to work commitments but his two very proud parents collected the award on his behalf.

Mr and Mrs Julian Collecting Award on James’ Behalf

I’m not writing a piece on a famed Gordon Ramsey type here. James isn’t quite hosting his own show and cruising in a Benz just yet but we have here a small scale success story that who knows, could develop – I always thought that he had the charisma and enthusiasm to become a TV chef, but James would probably have me for saying that! I do know that, thanks to James’ desire, ambition and flair and a well grounded support network of committed individuals he will be alright though, “Anderida helped me find out who I was by giving me the freedom and avenues to discover what I’m all about. They gave me great encouragement and helped to motivate me whilst always offering me support. I wouldn’t be where I am today without that support.” But you won’t find this on the front page of your tabloid tomorrow morning, will you?

Ross Lewis, Anderida Adolescent Care