From Hull’s Hessle Road, Barry answered an ad in the Hull Daily Mail on leaving school and got his first job in 1963 at the age of 15 as an apprentice chef in the Skyline restaurant. Barry loved his job in the Skyline however, contracted for 40 hours a week, he usually worked up to 60 hours a week and was told by the finance department that no overtime was paid.

State-of-the-art kitchens allowed Barry and his team to cook for up to 1000 people between the Skyline Ballroom Restaurant, the Cafe de Paris, and the staff canteen. Barry told us about the revolving dance floor and longest bar in Hull in the Cafe de Paris, and the mixed cuisine he prepared, including Russian potato salad, meatballs, piped mashed potato, magnificent trifles, and fancy melon cocktail in champagne glasses sprinkled with coloured sugar.

Transcription

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