A chef with a Premier League promotion and the X Factor judges’ houses on his CV has returned to his roots with a patisserie down the road from his primary school in Cardiff. If you live or work in Station Road in Llandaff North then Valentin’s Cakery will have become a familiar sight over the years. But the shop is about to get a makeover under the new name of Chapter 22 Patisserie – at the hands of a brand new owner.
After a career spanning three decades which has had him cooking for a Championship side that won promotion to the Premier League, serving meals to the Wales football team’s young guns, and flying out to France to cook for Simon Cowell’s X Factor hopefuls Craig Marc has returned to his Cardiff roots and set up shop.
He said: “I’ve been a chef for 17 years, done some amazing things, and hit heights I never thought I’d hit. But I plateaued a bit, got a bit bored, and thought I needed a new challenge. I started making cakes in lockdown – everyone went a bit crazy over it on Facebook and I was getting orders. It got to the point where I thought: ‘I need to take that risk and start my own venture.’ So I did. Since I’ve opened up my new shop it feels like I’ve come back to my roots. The community is so supportive and there are loads of old friends dropping in.”
The 34-year-old opened Chapter 22 Patisserie on February 7 this year – and his culinary journey started in south Wales, too when he was working in the Vale Resort and met the Wales football team’s private chef.
Craig said: “I got talking to him and he asked if I wanted to go to Macedonia with one of the youth teams because he couldn’t go. I was like: ‘F**ing right I’ll do that!’. I took a week on the sick because I couldn’t get the week off. It was a bit naughty but I got really good feedback and ended up getting to travel all over.”
This line of work would soon take him across the border to England in 2013 where he took his skills to the Championship, landing a job with Queens Park Rangers FC. “There was an extra level of pride working with the Wales team but it didn’t quite cap the feeling of working for QPR,” Craig said.
“I’d never moved out of Wales. Doing that – leaving my home country and my comfortable surroundings to start an adventure on my own with a football club – was out of my comfort zone. I grew as a person and it’s turned me into what I am today. I’m grateful for that opportunity.”
QPR’s dressing room at the time was home to some big names. Craig reminisced: “Working with Harry Redknapp, Rio Ferdinand, Joey Barton, all these people who I idolised as a kid, getting to see those faces every day was just mad. Seeing Rio Ferdinand just blew my mind as a lifelong Man United fan. It was then that it hit, what I was doing.
“When I first started Joey Barton didn’t take well to me. But by the time I left me and Joey were on first-name terms, good mates. You have to get to know the players. Steven Caulker still asks me to go to his house every year and cook for him.
“It’s not easy to land those jobs but when you do the praise you get is amazing. Getting the compliments I used to get off them… I asked Rio Ferdinand what kind of food he used to get at Man United and he said it was exactly like mine. It was nice to know I was producing the same kind of food that gets world-class teams to where they get to.”
Cooking for footballers was a big leap from Craig’s early work as a banqueting and wedding chef. He said: “When you first start, and there are 50 people in total including players, backroom staff, and physios, you think about how you’re going to remember all those orders every day.
“But they literally order the same thing every day for the whole season. [Former Cardiff City, Chelsea, and Leeds United striker] Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink took over as manager after Harry Redknapp left. Jimmy’s omelette every day would be smoked salmon and avocado. He’d have that every single day. It’s crazy – they are literally so strict with what they have every single day.”
Craig was sat in the stands when QPR beat Derby County 1-0 at Wembley to seal promotion to the Premier League. As the man behind the team’s diet is he willing to take any credit? He answered: “I wouldn’t want to say that. But when I was sat in Wembley and Bobby Zamora scored the winning goal I couldn’t believe I was a part of it. Getting promoted to the Premier League – it was a crazy feeling.”
The glamour of the ascent to the Premier League isn't the only star-studded job he's had but leaving behind his role in football was hard. “I didn’t anticipate that when you get jobs like at QPR you get hit with a bit of depression when you stop," he said. "It’s an amazing height to hit and trying to hit those heights all the time as a chef is quite difficult.
“But I’ve done well and landed a few amazing jobs. I ended up in the south of France two years ago working at Simon Cowell’s X Factor judges’ houses chateau cooking for a bunch of millionaires. That was through Facebook as well because I’ve gained some quite good recognition on there now. That was another wicked experience.
“I’ve always been artistic – even when it came to cooking steaks and stuff it was never just your average meal, it was always a little bit artier. For me I was heading towards pastry because of the ingredients you get to work with and all the colours. Putting that artistic flair onto a plate is easier with patisserie.”
Since coming back to Cardiff there has been no shortage of big names either. “I almost feel bad name-dropping but I’ve only been in here a few months and got an order for Charlotte Church’s daughter’s naming ceremony cake,” Craig enthused. “I’d only been an official shop owner and cake-maker for two months. To cook a cake for a celebrity is what I want to be doing. I want to hit the same heights I did when working with footballers in the patisserie world.
“It’s been ridiculously busy. I haven’t had a day off in a month and a half but that’s part and parcel of opening a business. There will be a lot of long days and unsociable hours but I’m ready for it all. I’ve got quite a good social media presence so there are quite a lot of people who just pop in to say hello, which is nice, and this is just the start. I’m looking forward to refurbishing the whole place and building a good brand here.
“I will have a team once I’ve refurbished and officially opened the shop as I have plans to turn it into a full-blown patisserié. But at the moment it’s just me. I’d like to open my second patisserie in 2023. That’s the goal. I’d love to outgrow this shop and expand. The name Chapter 22 came to my mind because it’s the year 2022 – the year I’ve decided to go all-in on my vision.”
