[3] Frances trained in hotel management at Bradford College, and went on to work at The Box Tree restaurant in Ilkley.

She later called the marriage "a disaster",[4] and after they divorced in 1984,[1] she started to work as a cook in a pub and then began a catering company.

[4] During this period, she would close the restaurant on Sundays and go to visit Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, who she later called a "huge mentor".

Yorke Arms has been closed as a restaurant since July 2020 amid COVID-19 pandemic and planned to be reopened as a private country house for hire.

[7] Atkins launched a catering project Paradise Food with her two former Yorke Arms colleagues[8] of over 20 years, chef Roger Olive and manager John Tullett.