Photography by Phillip Barrett, Jr
Chef Colin Ivan Lloyd, Chef de Cuisine of Hotel Roanoke’s 4-diamond Regency Room, enters the Virginia Room. He is tall, handsome, and speaks authoritatively in a deep English accent. Idris Elba comes to mind.
“I was so fortunate to know from an early age what I wanted to do,” he says. “So many people spend years not knowing what their work should be. I discovered my path when I was 12 years old.”
Lloyd was born in 1960 in Nottingham, England (“The Land of Robin Hood”) to parents from the Caribbean. One summer his school vacation stretched into six weeks of boredom, bike riding and soccer. Lloyd recalls vividly the exact moment his future course was set.
“I was riding my bicycle down a street past The Sherwood Rooms banqueting suites (a well-known British sports club/rock music venue located at Greyfriar Gate in Nottingham), “and I noticed a door that was standing open. I can still remember it so clearly. There were stairs going up, and I could see all these pans hanging in a kitchen. I said to myself, ‘I wonder if they need some help up there?’ So I went up the stairs…Chef Dusty was piping egg whites to bake into meringue swans. He said I could help out if I got my parents’ permission. That was it. I knew what I wanted to do from then on.”
Lloyd worked for Chef Dusty thereafter on weekends and holidays. Lloyd graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Culinary Arts/Restaurant Management from Nottingham Clarendon College. His training steeped him in preparing French cuisine, “the mother of all fine cuisines,” he said.
His own mother was an influence, too. “She was a great cook and I loved her Caribbean traditional dishes. I also love Thai food. And I love that America has created a hybrid cuisine out of all the cultural influences that are here.” He appreciates that many American restaurants have evolved a remarkable degree of sophistication in the past decade. “I think it’s the influence of all the cooking shows people are watching on television.”
His favorite food is pizza. “I love pizza, especially when it’s made in a wood-fired stone oven, from fresh ingredients and a perfect crust recipe.” He got a far off look in his eyes remembering eating in Atlanta and Charlotte at Noble’s. That was an “amazing experience.”
His choice of lifestyle has allowed him to experience life all over the world. After England he lived and worked in the Caribbean; Mexico; Atlanta (for three years as executive chef at Emory University); New Orleans (at historic Brennan’s restaurant); and in Bermuda, where he worked 10 years at the award winning Greg’s Steakhouse in Hamilton Beach. “At Greg’s you’d see celebrity guests like Michael Bloomberg and Steve Harvey.”
Photography by Phillip Barrett, Jr
His wife and son live with him in Roanoke, his wife’s family home. She works for Virginia Tech’s human resources department and his son attends a private school. Salaries for top chefs are lower in Roanoke than Atlanta and other major cities by approximately 20 percent, “but I knew that coming into it, and it’s OK. You can do well here,” he admitted. The lower cost of living and the high quality of life make up the difference.
Lloyd acknowledged the work of Hotel Roanoke’s overall restaurant director, Executive Chef Steve deMarco. The Regency Room is the fourth restaurant Lloyd has seen grow into four-diamond status. Restaurant line work can be “excruciatingly hard,” especially in an extremely busy historic icon like Hotel Roanoke. The kitchen here is big and open, with five lines working constantly. Chef Lloyd’s own team of five is carefully chosen and trained to work in concert to produce the Regency Room’s fine French-influenced southern dishes. Twice a year he plans a new menu. The spring 2019 menus is due to launch in a few days.
Beyond basic experience with cooking, he said, “I look for a particular personality when filling a position on my team — someone with a love of food and willingness to learn. Attitude is everything. I can train the guys beyond the basics. Consistency of excellent product is what we must achieve. You’ve been to restaurants, I’m sure, where the food is great one time and then average or poor the next.” In building a team with the right personalities, it’s also important how they get along with, and support each other. “We strive to create a great work environment, because as he says again, “working as a chef can be excruciatingly hard. But when it all comes together…ah, it’s tremendous.”
He becomes animated as he discusses the art of managing his team within the work environment. “I see myself as a teacher. I am proud to have very low turnover of team members. Once you have worked in a place like this, with its great reputation and you’ve been able to please your guests as well as the multiple owners of Hotel Roanoke, then you got the credentials and experience to be successful anywhere,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to my stay in Roanoke. It’s growing, and it’s full of wonderful people with real genuineness. The pace of this city is wonderful.”
Photography by Phillip Barrett, Jr
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