London Celebrity Chefs

When it comes to eating out London has more than its fair share of restaurants where the chef is as well known as the celebrities who dine there. Being a well known chef is akin to being a premiere league footballer. With the notoriety that a successful TV show brings the most popular chefs soon achieve celebrity status. The truly canny among them can build a brand worth millions on the back of their ability to cook. Any celebrity chef worth his own television programme has carefully considered his public persona, from the ‘mad scientist’ Heston Blumenthal to the sweary ‘f word’ chef Gordon Ramsay. The fun comes when you go to their restaurants and judge for yourself whether they live up to their superstar billing.

Heston Blumenthal

The mad scientist of haute cuisine, Heston Blumenthal experiments with food, textures and tastes as if he were in a laboratory. He is famous for combining unusual flavours: snail porridge anyone? And for using unconventional cooking techniques - his egg and bacon ice cream is made using a dry-ice machine. For years Londoners lamented the absence of a restaurant by Heston Blumenthal in the city. Instead, they were forced to travel to Berkshire, to the Fat Duck at Bray, to find out what all the excitement was about. But finally, in 2011, Heston came to London with his first restaurant for city folk, Dinner, at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel in Knightsbridge. Head chef Ashley Palmer-Watts is the one diners at Dinner will see in the kitchen but it's Heston's reputation that is at stake. It's very much 'Dinner by Heston Blumenthal'. Heston has been on hand to help devise the menu, inspired by historic British dishes, and there are the Blumenthal touches at every turn - your pork chop comes with 'pointy cabbage' and your ribs with 'mushroom ketchup'. Dinner is most definitely not the Fat Duck in the city, there are 'safe' options on the menu for a start. But with Heston’s name above the door you can expect the unexpected.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

Jamie Oliver

The 'Naked Chef', Jamie Oliver, has come a long way since rolling up on his Vespa in those early TV appearances. He has influenced government policies with his campaign for improved school dinners, set up several restaurants including Fifteen, Jamie's Italian, Recipease and Barbecoa, and appeared on countless television programmes both in the UK and abroad. Whether escaping to Italy or taking a roadtrip around America, tackling the obesity issue or raising the profile of the struggling British pig farmer, Jamie has been busy, with TV cameras broadcasting his food revolution. More than a celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver is a brand and one with a social conscience. You only have to look at his 'Dream School' - helping youngsters get an education - to see that his influence goes beyond the kitchen. Combine all this with his cheeky sense of humour and infectious enthusiasm and you have arguably the most accessible celebrity chef in London.

Fifteen
Recipease
Barbecoa
Union Jacks
Jamie's Italian:
Canary Wharf
Kingston
Covent Garden
Westfield Shepherd's Bush
Islington
Threadneedle Street
Westfield Stratford

Gordon Ramsay

From appearances on his hugely successful TV shows (Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen not to mention The F Word) Gordon Ramsay can, on first impression, come across as a hot headed chef with a foul mouth. That may be true but it hasn't stopped him becoming one of Britain’s most successful restaurateurs. A hugely talented chef, Gordon earned three Michelin stars at the age of 34 with his restaurant, Gordon Ramsay, on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea which it still holds today making it London's longest running restaurant with this highly coveted accolade. Some of London's most high profile restaurants come under the Ramsay stable including Gordon Ramsay at Claridges, Petrus and The Savoy Grill as well as maze and maze Grill, Plane Food at Heathrow T5 and the York & Albany. He also owns two pubs, The Narrow
in Limehouse and The Warrington in Maida Vale. His autobiography, Humble Pie, reveals a heart-warming story of the council estate boy done good, leaving home at 16 to escape his violent father and, through grit and determination, becoming one of the UK's best known chefs.

Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay at Claridges
Petrus
The Savoy Grill
maze
maze Grill
Plane Food at Heathrow T5
York & Albany
The Narrow
The Warrington

Gary Rhodes

Gary Rhodes may not like the term 'celebrity chef' - he prefers 'professional chef', if you don't mind - but that doesn't stop him being one. Renowned as a controlled chef with a love of British cuisine, Rhodes has helped revive traditional recipes your mother used to make. Cooking up a storm on the small screen for over twenty years, Rhodes is famous for his TV appearances and his books - from the early Rhodes Around Britain to the latest Gary Rhodes 365. One year. One book. One simple recipe for every day. If you need further convincing, the proof is in the pudding and you can sample his signature bread and butter dessert at one of his two London restaurants - both are Michelin starred so you really can't go wrong. A dizzying twenty floors up, Rhodes 24 offers breath-taking views of the City as well as the very best in fine dining and slick service. At Rhodes W1 in Marble Arch the menu is equally seductive with dishes like steamed turbot and crisp pork belly given the attention to detail for which Rhodes is famous. If you've got cause to celebrate, eating out at a Rhodes restaurant will certainly make the occasion a memorable one.

Rhodes 24
Rhodes W1

Anthony Worrall Thompson

A prominent presence on cookery programmes since the 1990s, Antony Worrall Thompson's CV includes such legendary London eateries as Menage a Trois (famed for only serving starters and puddings), Drones in Belgravia and Woz - which was "like coming to a dinner party". In between appearances on TV shows like Ready Steady Cook, Saturday Kitchen and MasterChef Worrall Thompson has written numerous books as well as maintaining a long running recipe column for The Sunday Express. After hitting a rocky patch in 2009 Antony is back on our screens and back on the restaurant scene. Of his three restaurants one, Kew Grill, is in London and it's the place to go if you want retro grill style cuisine using quality, locally sourced ingredients.

Kew Grill

Marco Pierre White

Dubbed the 'enfant terrible' of the UK restaurant scene in the 1980s Marco Pierre White has a reputation as a volcanic, volatile chef - even famously reducing his protégé Gordon Ramsay to tears. Now he has left all that moody brooding behind and is more concerned with delivering affordable food for real people than competing for Michelin stars - or so he says of his Bernard Matthews collaboration. Not one for the notoriety that TV brings - "you can't be a chef and appear on television all the time" - he has achieved fame without hosting a cookery programme. Instead, the public spats with fellow chefs, and fall outs with Gordon Ramsay and Albert Roux, have helped to vent the flames of publicity. But let's not forget that it was White who at 28 became the youngest person to be awarded three Michelin stars. And he is still consistently voted one of the top chefs in the country by his peers.

Marco
Wheeler's of St James'
Frankies:
Knightsbridge
Chelsea/Stamford Bridge
London Steakhouse Company:
Kings Road
East India House

Fergus Henderson

For dedicated meat lovers, Fergus Henderson is the man who championed a new food movement called 'nose to tail' eating. These confirmed carnivores make the pilgrimage to his St John Restaurant near Smithfield on a regular basis, savouring the succulent pigs trotters. Never has roast bone marrow looked so appetising. Using every part of the animal, Henderson takes what was previously discarded as off-cuts and serves it as the main course. In short, he has revolutionised the way we look at meat. Two years after their restaurant was awarded a long overdue Michelin star Fergus and his business partner Trevor Gulliver opened the St John Hotel just off Leicester Square, reviving what used to be the legendary Manzi's fish restaurant into a restaurant with rooms - giving diners somewhere to retire to after a long lunch. They also own the less formal St John Bread and Wine in Spitalfields Market and the St John Bakery which can be found under the railway arches in Bermondsey. But if you want to sample a fresh-from-the-oven loaf you'll have to get there early - they only stay open until the bread runs out.

St John Restaurant
St John Bread and Wine
St John Bakery
St John Hotel

Raymond Blanc

The lord of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, French chef Raymond Blanc proves you don't have to be a hot headed prima donna to succeed as a celebrity chef. The Michelin starred chef is more likely to offer gentle words of encouragement to his protégés than lambasting them.
At his Oxfordshire retreat, the restaurant features seasonal food sourced from the organic gardens surrounding the manor house. If you like what you taste you can sign up for the cookery school on site. Or you can teach yourself with a little help from one of Raymond's numerous cookery books; the latest - Kitchen Secrets - ties in with his popular BBC series of the same name. Whether choosing the winners of The Restaurant - 'The Apprentice' with food - or showing us how service should be done, Raymond comes across as a loveable perfectionist with a warm personality that has won him legion fans. In London, his restaurant Brasserie Blanc is one of a chain of high street brasseries dedicated to casual dining; "if the Manoir is a delicate waltz then the Brasseries are the Can Can" so says Monsieur Blanc.

Brasserie Blanc

Michel Roux Jr

Coming from the Roux dynasty, Michel Roux Jr was, quite literally, born into the restaurant business. With the Roux name comes the clutch of Michelin stars - Le Gavroche became the first UK restaurant to hold three Michelin stars in 1982 - and the reputation of a family credited with popularising French cuisine in Britain. Albert and Michel Roux (senior), collectively known as the Roux brothers, set up a Roux empire including La Gavroche, which Albert's son Michel Jnr now runs, and the Waterside Inn at Bray, run by Michel's son, Alain. And so a new generation of Roux cousins continue the pursuit of perfection that the Roux brothers began back in the 1950s.
Michel Jr is the most 'visible' of the Roux family of chefs today with numerous cookery books and a high profile TV presence including appearances on BBC programmes Masterchef: The Professionals and his own Michel Roux's Service, highlighting the role of the front-of-house staff.
His London restaurants include Le Gavroche - now with two Michelin stars - Roux at Parliament Square and Roux at The Landau.

La Gavroche
Roux at Parliament Square
Roux at The Landau

Tom Aikens

Dubbed 'Teflon Tom' for his ability to endure the toughest of times - the 2008 recession was not kind to him, or his suppliers - Tom Aikens still manages to keep his loyal customers in culinary raptures with his French influenced style of cooking. He was a mere 26 years old when the Michelin men first awarded him a star in 1996 when he was (a very young) head chef of Pied à Terre. He subsequently set up his own Tom Aikens restaurant in 2003 which was duly awarded the Michelin star of approval just a year after it opened - and it was given a 'rising two-star' status in 2008. It's not just the judges behind the Michelin Guide who are convinced of his "originality and skill" in the kitchen. Aikens' eponymous molecular restaurant has won just about every award going including five rosettes in the AA Restaurant Guide, three stars in the Egon Ronay Restaurant Guide and was pronounced 'Newcomer of the Year' at the Cateys (the hospitality industry's equivalent of the Oscars) when the restaurant first opened. If you prefer something a little less formal, less fussy, you can still sample Tom's signature style at the more casual Tom's Kitchen (a favourite with Wills and Kate). Yes, you are still in Chelsea but Tom's Kitchen couldn't be more different to the original restaurant, delivering bistro style food from a full English breakfast to steak and chips, served until 11pm. We can look forward to seeing more of Tom's Kitchen with further branches set to open over the next few years - as many as eight are planned - with a second one already up and running at London's landmark Somerset House where Aikens runs all three catering outlets.

Tom Aikens
Tom's Kitchen
Tom's Kitchen Somerset House

Atul Kochhar

The first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star, Atul Kochhar has lent his culinary expertise to London eating institutions such as Tamarind and then Benares, the world renowned restaurant that he owns today. He started his cooking career at The Oberoi group of hotels in India in the early nineties and worked his way up through the five star ranks before opening Tamarind in London in 1994. He received his first Michelin star in 2001 and, by this point, he had also released several successful recipe books including 'Indian Essence' and 'Fish, Indian Style'. His third book 'Curries of the World' is due for release in 2012. Kochhar also has hugely successful restaurants in Dublin and Hampshire. He has appeared on several television series, most recently the second series of Masterchef Goes large and the first three series of BBC2's Great British Menu. He is a regular culinary shows such as Saturday Kitchen, Food Poker and Saturday Cooks and even had his own programme - 'Atul's World of Spice' was on the Good Food Channel in 2010. During his time on Great British Menu, he beat renowned chef Gary Rhodes to the South East nomination. In March 2010, he received the TMG Cordon Bleu Award at Benares in recognition of his services to bringing South Asian cuisine to the forefront of the British culinary scene.

Benares