How does it feel for The Ritz London to be named the Best Restaurant in the UK?
Truly amazing. I couldn’t believe it when we got down to the last few restaurants on the list. I’ve worked in this industry for over 50 years; I’m an old guy but this sort of thing keeps me young. The morning after the awards (which took place earlier this week) we opened a balthazar of Bollinger (equivalent to 16 standard champagne bottles) with all the staff. It was a special moment and a great morale boost for the team. We’re a busy, world-famous restaurant but it still means a lot. We have enjoyed a sudden influx of bookings, especially long-term ones for things like birthdays and anniversaries.
“We’re a busy, world-famous restaurant but it still means a lot”
What’s it like to oversee the cuisine at one of the world’s most iconic hotels?
I feel a big sense of responsibility but it’s a responsibility that I enjoy. I have spent nearly all of my career working in famous London hotels (prior to taking the reins at The Ritz Williams was chef at Claridge’s and The Berkeley). I come from a humble background in the Northeast. I did an apprenticeship but left for London when I was just 17 because I wanted to cook posh food. I remember walking into Claridge’s as a young man and thinking ‘this is where I want to be’.
The London restaurant scene was very different back then…
Yes. In the 1970s if you wanted a great meal, you generally had to go to one of the grand hotels. With the exception of Mirabelle (long closed), there were no standalone restaurants serving a high level of cuisine. Now there are hundreds of restaurants in London and the rest of the UK serving wonderful food. People are very serious about the quality of food and experience they deliver in this country. We are no longer the laughingstock of Europe.
How has the experience at The Ritz changed since you took over the kitchen in 2004?
It has changed a great deal. When I started here the food was presented quite rustically, which I thought was a poor fit for the room (with its towering marble columns, gilded frescoes and neoclassical statues, the dining room at The Ritz is considered to be one of the most beautiful in the world). The room is the most powerful thing here - everything else must follow it. Over the past 20 years we have evolved the experience by bringing in beautiful silverware, china and glassware that matches the elegance of the space, and refining the cuisine.
Recognition has come quite late for The Ritz (the restaurant was awarded two Michelin stars earlier this year) and for you personally…
The Ritz is a worldwide icon but yes, sometimes you feel like you have been overlooked. But while we have moved things on a lot here it has been a slow process. When you are an employee at a hotel and responsible for many different things such as events and room service, change takes time. The shackles came off around 2012. It’s not just about changing dishes — you have to be able to sell them at the right price. The food is still classic, but we have evolved, as every restaurant must. I’m old but there are lots of brilliant young people here that help me freshen things up.
“The food is still classic, but we have evolved, as every restaurant must”
Tell us about your core team
My three right hands have all been with me for well over a decade — executive sous chefs Deepak Mallya and Ian Musgrave and head pastry chef Lewis Wilson. They are all modernist in their approach but respect the classic way of cooking. If you serve the wrong thing in this dining room, it bounces back on you. It must always be grounded in classicism. Probably the biggest change that has occurred over the past 20 years or so is that the food has become lighter. People couldn’t eat the food that was being served in London when I started out.
Why did you decide to place the emphasis on tableside service when that approach had largely fallen out of fashion?
Because it’s such a wonderful fit for the room. When I started here in the mid-2000s they were only really doing crêpe suzette tableside. Crucial to the success of that aspect of the restaurant is that we have refined how these dishes are served in the dining room. Back in the day you’d give the front-of-house team a roast chicken and tell them to get on with it. Tableside service was difficult and often messy - chefs would basically give front of house the food and tell them to get on with it - but now we think very carefully about how it all works and pre-dress the plates in most cases. Some of my favourite dishes here are served tableside now, including poulet en vessie (Bresse chicken with black truffle cooked in a bladder) and canard à la presse.
“The young guys work a little bit more than me. I think that’s fair enough”
You’re just one person. How do you ensure high standards in a kitchen as large and busy as that of The Ritz?
We still adhere to the party system that Escoffier established all those years ago — where you have a saucier, garde manger, larder chef, poissonnier, entremettier, pâtissier. The beauty of the system is that each individual item or dish is a certain section’s responsibility. I would liken myself to a conductor in an orchestra in that I don’t play an instrument as such. I’m not cooking or running the pass. I taste things. I check things. I whisper in one of the guys’ or girls’ ears and give them some encouragement when there’s a rush on. I’m the old man of the kitchen. I’ve seen it all. I love how the kitchen operates, and I don’t like missing a service, but I don’t stay late at night very often. The young guys work a little bit more than me. I think that’s fair enough.