Restaurateurs
Jyotin, Karam, and Sunaina Sethi
Having now acquired a total of seven Michelin stars, JKS Restaurants remains the high-end restaurant group to emulate in the capital. Founded by siblings Jyotin, Karam and Sunaina Sethi (hence JKS), the group’s portfolio includes Indian restaurants Gymkhana, Trishna, Brigadiers and the most recently launched Ambassadors Clubhouse. The trio also back some of London’s biggest cooking talents with the chefs on its books including James Knappett (Kitchen Table), Nieves Barragán Mohacho (Sabor) and James Lowe (Lyle’s). They also operate a number of more casual - but equally successfully - mini groups including BAO, Hoppers and Berenjak.
Simon Rogan and Sam Ward
Simon Rogan celebrated two decades of L’Enclume in style a few years back when his Lake District flagship restaurant went from two to three stars. The Southampton-born chef has inspired a generation of chefs with his distinctive, naturalistic approach to cooking and - together with his long-standing managing director Sam Ward - has created one of the UK’s most impressive fine dining groups. Umbel Restaurant Group holds a total of eight Michelin stars and operates six restaurants in the UK and ae further five restaurants overseas.
Nico Simeone
In less than a decade Scottish-Italian chef Nico Simeone has launched no fewer than 15 Six by Nicos, an aspirational fine dining restaurant concept that changes its approachably-priced six-course tasting menu every six weeks. Simeone’s Sixco restaurant business also operates several offshoot brands including patisserie and café concept Valaria and charitable restaurant Beat 6. Earlier this year, Sixco announced plans to expand further across the UK and also launch its first international venture in Dubai following ‘robust’ financial results.
Marcello Distefano
San Carlo managing director Marcello Distefano joined his father Carlo’s restaurant business shortly after finishing university and has played a key role in expanding the premium, multi-brand Italian restaurant group over the past two decades or so. Key brands include Cicchetti, Fumo, Signor Sassi and the eponymous San Carlo. Founded in Birmingham but now based in Manchester where it has a high concentration of restaurants, the group operates 24 sites in the UK, eight sites in the Middle East and a single site in Bangkok. There are currently plans afoot to take the business to Germany and the US.
Angela Hartnett
Wales-born half-Italian chef Angela Hartnett opened Murano in 2008 shortly after cutting the apron strings with her mentor Gordon Ramsay. The success of the Mayfair restaurant - it has held a Michelin star since 2009 - has seen Hartnett create the more casual Cafe Murano, which has three central London sites, and she also operates a seasonal restaurant at the Le Portetta hotel in Courchevel. The famously no-nonsense chef has cemented her status as something of a national cooking treasure with her Dish Podcast, which she co-hosts with broadcaster Nick Grimshaw.
Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver
It’s difficult to think of a single London restaurant that has been more seminal than St John. Opened in 1994 - Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver recently celebrated its 30th birthday with a menu that offered food at 90s prices - the Clerkenwell venue helped popularise nose-to-tail eating. Three decades on, the restaurant continues to have a marked influence on restaurant and pub menus. The scope and footprint of the St John business has increased significantly in recent years, with the pair now operating three restaurants and three bakeries in London and a winery in south west France.
Adam Handling
Adam Handling started his cooking career at Gleneagles at just 16 and struck out on his own a decade later. He now operates two restaurants - his London flagship Frog by Adam Handling holds a Michelin star - two pubs and a bar. Known for his pretty, finely-tuned British food, Handling is leading the way on sustainability with all of his restaurants going to great lengths to lessen their impact on the environment.
Claude Bosi
Born in Lyon and trained in some of France's very best places to eat including L’Arpège and Restaurant Alain Ducasse, Claude Bosi is one of London’s most successful chef restaurateurs with both his Claude Bosi at Bibendum and Brooklands by Claude Bosi holding two Michelin stars (the latter received the plaudit just a few months after opening at The Peninsula). He also operates the more casual but similarly accomplished Josephine Bouchon with his wife Lucy and has partnered with Samyukta Nair to open Socca in Mayfair.
Rick Stein
One of the UK’s most beloved celebrity chefs, Rick Stein has been lighting up TV screens since the eighties (he first appeared on the late Keith Floyd’s show) and has more than 25 cookbooks to his name. His restaurant empire is concentrated in Cornwall - Padstow is famously jokingly referred to as Padstein because of the number of ventures he has there - but he also operates eponymous restaurants in Marlborough, Sandbanks, Winchester and Barnes. Stein runs the business with the help of his ex-wife Jill and their three sons.
Chris Ammermann, Laura Harper-Hinton, and Miles Kirby
New Zealanders Chris Ammermann, Laura Harper-Hinton, and Miles Kirby joke that they should have copyrighted the concept of relaxed, all-day dining. Though it sounds far from revolutionary these days, when the Antipodean-style restaurant/coffee shop hybrid opened its doors in 2010 it was one of a handful of London venues that made a good fist of selling food and drink throughout the day. Fourteen years later, Caravan operates nine London sites, a further site in Manchester and a successful online retail business.
Endo Kazutoshi
A third-generation sushi master, Endo Kazutoshi made his solo debut with Endo at the Rotunda in White City in 2019 and secured a Michelin star just six months later. Post pandemic Kazutoshi - who is now part of Misha Zelman’s Creative Restaurant Group - has increased his reach in the capital significantly with three further London openings including Kioku by Endo at The OWO. Earlier this year, Endo at the Rotunda relaunched following a refurbishment and a ‘period of culinary reflection’.
David Carter
David Carter may only have four restaurants to his name - SMOKESTAK and Manteca in Shoreditch and the more recently launched OMA and AGORA in Borough Market - but has still managed to mark himself out as one of London’s most talented operators. The former Roka and Gordon Ramsay Group employee is something of a polymath - his background is in front of house but he’s handy in the kitchen too and plays a key role in menu development - and is not afraid to take creative risks, resulting in restaurant projects that perform the rare feat of being zeitgeist-y while also having long-term appeal.
Rainer Becker
London’s restaurant scene would look very different if Rainer Becker had not set up shop there in the early 2000s. Along with Nobu and Hakkasan, his Japan-inspired Zuma and Roka restaurants created the blueprint for high-end Asian dining and have both gone truly global with his Azumi restaurant group now boasting a total of 40 sites. A big reason for the German-born chef restaurateur’s success is his decision to retain an unusual amount of control, with all sites directly managed by Azumi.
Raymond Blanc
With his trademark savoir-faire and charm, Raymond Blanc (or RB to the many chefs that have passed through his kitchens) is one of the most recognisable and respected chefs in the country. Completely self-taught, his influence on the UK food scene has been honoured with both an OBE from Britain and the equivalent of a knighthood from France, and his Oxfordshire restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons has held two Michelin stars since 1984. He continues to be involved with Heartwood Collection, the operator of Brasserie Blanc and the fast-growing Heartwood Inns, and has been president of the Sustainable Restaurant Association since 2012.
Ruth Rogers
Ruth Rogers co-founded the River Café in 1987 with her late friend and business partner Rose Gray. The Hammersmith restaurant is a London institution that has played a big role in how Italian food is understood on these shores and a perennial favourite with A-listers. This is underscored by Rogers’ Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast, which has featured the likes of David Beckham, Mel Brooks and Gwyneth Paltrow. Her Michelin-starred River Café - which recently launched a more casual café moments from its original location - has also trained up a generation of cooks including Jamie Oliver, Theo Randall and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Gordon Ramsay
Ramsay has long been one of the world’s most successful chefs, but through the continued growth of his restaurant business he is now also one of the world’s most successful restaurateurs. With the aim of eventually establishing a ‘billion-dollar dining proposition’, his influence now spans much of the globe with sites across Europe, the Middle East, the US and Asia. Next year will see him further bolster his UK estate too with the simultaneous launch of five different restaurant spaces within 22 Bishopsgate in the City of London, including a second, smaller iteration of his three Michelin star flagship Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.
Tom Kerridge
As the owner of The Hand & Flowers, the only pub in the UK with two Michelin stars, Tom Kerridge is one of the UK industry’s most successful chefs. His convivial personality has helped cement him as a household name, while his talent behind the stove has led to the establishment of a successful restaurant business that spans several sites across London and Marlow in Buckinghamshire. These days, Kerridge also uses his vast platform to inform people about the struggles of the industry including the plight of pubs or restaurants amid the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Yotam Ottolenghi
The popularity of Israeli-born but now London-based chef Yotam Ottolenghi and his many cookbooks is such that ‘to Ottoleng’ has become a verb in many a dinner party-throwing household. His wider operation, meanwhile, which encompasses five delis and the standalone NOPI and ROVI restaurants, a development kitchen, a catering service, and a comprehensive online retail offer, has been highly successful and, with an aim to now expand globally, could soon be commensurate with its founder’s status as one of the world’s bestselling cookbook authors.
Thom and James Elliot
One of the major success stories of London’s Neapolitan pizza movement, Thom and James Elliot have grown Pizza Pilgrims into a successful national brand in recent years and have established a solid presence beyond the capital with restaurants in Cambridge, Brighton, Leeds and Cardiff. Despite the growth, the pair have never lost sight of what makes their restaurants work, with most sites having a USP of some sort beyond the pizza – extracurricular activities such as arcade machines and foosball tables. The pair are also now focused on growing their sustainability credentials, with Pizza Pilgrims having recently obtained B Corp status.
Nisha Katona
One of the UK’s most successful female restaurateurs, Nisha Katona has grown her Mowgli Indian restaurant group into a national brand with more than 20 restaurants and more openings planned every year. An industry trailblazer, Katona, who gave up a 20-year-career as a child protection barrister to launch Mowgli, is also a judge on BBC’s Great British Menu, holds an MBE, and has released six cookbooks to date. Her business also operates a charitable arm, The Mowgli Trust, which has so far donated over £1.6m.
Prue Freeman
In the 12 years since she launched Daisy Green with her husband as an open-air coffee hut outside the Gherkin in the City of London, Prue Freeman’s restaurant business has become a major player in the capital’s brunch scene. The antipodean-styled group now has a collection of 17 restaurants across the capital, the majority operating under different names - Glamarama Green, Timmy Green, Ziggy Green; you get the picture – and has built a shining reputation for its welcoming environment, flavourful food and cheerful service.
Paul Ainsworth
Best known for his flagship No6 restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, Paul Ainsworth made his name working under the likes of Gary Rhodes, Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing, but has now firmly established himself as one of the UK’s top chefs. His Cornish restaurant empire, which also includes Caffè Rojano in Padstow and The Mariners pub in Rock, brings in scores of diners from across the country and beyond each year, while his recent cookbook was recently named a Sunday Times bestseller.
Mitch Tonks and Mat Prowse
While much of the seafood consumed in the UK continues to be sourced from overseas, chef Mitch Tonks has spent years gamely trying to shine a spotlight on British produce through his Dartmouth restaurant The Seahorse and also with fish-focused restaurant group Rockfish, which he founded with Mat Prowse. The group has also established a thriving online seafood market featuring a virtual fishmonger and seafood counter serving a selection of frozen fresh fish caught off British shores including dover sole, turbot, lemon sole, and hake.
Zan Kaufman
The brains behind one of the golden generation of street food concepts, New York native Zan Kaufman launched her Bleecker Burger brand in London back in 2012 and has gone on to establish an eight-strong estate across the capital. Bleecker’s success was something of a precursor to the popularity of the smash burger that is starting to dominate London’s burger scene, built on a winning, no-frills formula of patty, bun and cheese.
Tom Barton and Philip Eeles
Few have had such a significant impact on the UK’s burger scene as Honest Burgers founders Tom Barton and Philip Eeles. One of the principal restaurant brands to emerge from the ‘better burger’ movement, Honest Burgers has established a national presence since opening its first restaurant in London’s Brixton back in 2011. From the beginning the group’s ethos has been centred on ensuring the quality of its produce, particularly its beef. In recent years this has led to the launch of its Honest Farming initiative, which directly supports regenerative farmers and invests in ‘climate smart’ agriculture.
Karan Gokani
No one has arguably done as much to bring Sri Lankan cuisine into the mainstream as Hoppers founder Karan Gokani. His three-strong London restaurant estate has long been a favourite with diners in the capital and now he’s shared the secrets behind the restaurant’s dishes in his Hoppers cookbook, which has been published in territories across the world and turned Gokani into a household name with foodies globally.
Will Beckett and Huw Gott
The duo behind steakhouse brand Hawksmoor have created one of the UK’s most respected restaurant groups, with sites across London as well as in Ireland, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Liverpool. The company is a leader in areas including sustainability and in 2022 was the first UK restaurant business to become a Certified B Corp. The pair now have the States firmly in their sites, with restaurants opened in New York and Chicago and more on the cards.
Jason Atherton
With a restaurant empire that spans the globe, Jason Atherton has launched nearly 40 restaurants in his prolific and successful career. Last year he finally achieved his dream of winning two Michelin stars at his Dubai restaurant Row on 45 and is looking to repeat the feat in London with Row on 5. Atherton is currently expanding heavily across the capital, launching five projects in as many months, which also include brasserie Sael in St James’s and Three Darlings in Chelsea.
Jamie Oliver
The Naked Chef might not have the restaurant presence he used to have in the UK, but he still carries significant clout both on these shores and globally. Last year’s launch of Jamie Oliver Catherine Street in Covent Garden generated a lot of interest and next year he will open a cage and cookery school on Oxford Street. On an international stage Oliver continues to spread his name with a global estate of around 70 sites in 20 markets. Moreover, plans are afoot to get the Jamie Oliver group to 200 sites by 2027.
Charlie Carroll, Oisin Rogers, and Ashley Palmer-Watts
Charlie Carroll, Oisin Rogers, and Ashley Palmer-Watts make a formidable trio and their Soho pub and restaurant The Devonshire has been one of the buzziest and well received openings of the past decade. Each has form - Carroll is founder of steakhouse group Flat Iron and an investor in London restaurants including Brutto, Bouchon Racine, and Rambutan; Rogers has led some of London’s busiest pubs over the past two decades, and Palmer-Watts was a long-term right-hand man to Heston Blumenthal. The latter is also working on opening his first solo project, a multi-faceted venue in Surrey.
Jeremy King
As founder of London restaurants Le Caprice and The Wolseley and a saviour of The Ivy, Jeremy King is regarded as restaurant royalty by many in the industry. An acrimonious departure from his then Corbin & King restaurant group hasn’t curtailed King’s restaurateur instincts, and he has since gone on to re-open Le Caprice as Arlington as well as launch American-inspired The Park in Bayswater. There’s more to come from him, too - next year King will bring Simpson’s in the Strand back to life and has hinted that other projects might also be in the offing.
James Robson, Will Murray, and Jack Croft
The triumvirate behind London restaurants Fallow, Fowl, and their most recent, Roe in Canary Wharf, have been turning heads in the capital for the past few years thanks to their unpreachy approach to sustainability and their ability to turn the erstwhile sleepy St James’s Market into a buzzy dining destination. The group recently hired former The Ivy Asia operations director Julia Gilbert as its new managing director and is actively seeking sites for a third ‘signature’ concept as well as to open more under the Fowl brand.
Victor Lugger and Tigrane Seydoux
The French duo behind Italian restaurant group Big Mamma have made quite a splash since touching down on these shores with the opening of Gloria in Shoreditch in 2019. Their Instagram-friendly restaurants have moved the needle in restaurant interior design and harnessed the power of social media in a way that had been previously ignored by the industry. Having put down a strong marker in the capital the group will soon expand into Birmingham and then later Manchester and will also grow its global presence following investor McWin acquiring a majority stake in the business.
Shamil and Kavi Thakrar, and Brian Trollip
Cousins Shamil and Kavi Thakrar founded Dishoom in Covent Garden in 2010 and haven’t looked back, having created the most well-known and respected Indian restaurant business in the UK. The brand has a cult following and is as known for its quality of food and routinely long queues as it is for how it treats its team, with the company regularly appearing on the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For list. The Thakrars, alongside long-term Dishoom employer and recently promoted CEO Brian Trollip, have built a formidable brand that looks set, at some point, to cross the pond, as a most recent collaboration with New York restaurant Pastis hinted at.
Brian Hannon, Ben Chapman, and Tomos Parry
With their Super 8 restaurant group Brian Hannon, Ben Chapman, and Tomos Parry have created some of the capital’s best and most lauded restaurants in recent years, including Kiln - a former Best Restaurant in the UK - Mountain, which currently holds the number two spot in the list of the UK’s Top 100 Restaurants, and Brat, which has held the same position in the past. The trio’s ability to tap into the zeitgeist twinned with an obsession for detail when it comes to sustainability, provenance and quality have made them best in class. There’s more to come, too, with another London restaurant, this time championing Middle Eastern food, believed to be on the cards.
Samyukta Nair
The queen of Mayfair restaurants, Samyukta Nair has created her own mini empire in the posh London postcode with her restaurants KOYN and KOYN Thai, Socca - launched in partnership with top French chef Claude Bosi, Jamavar, Bombay Bustle, and MiMi Mei Fair. Known for her eye for detail and the resulting beautiful dining rooms, Nair is making her mark on London’s fine dining restaurant scene like no other and has more Mayfair restaurant plans in the offing with the imminent opening of casual Italian restaurant Nipotina.
Scott Collins
As the co-founder of MEATliquor Scott Collins blazed a burger trail that is still being felt today when he championed the US-style burger in this country. His anarchic style, sense of fun and a willingness to try new things has made him one of the most recognisable people within the London restaurant scene and beyond. Collins is soon to announce a new project in Covent Garden that will no doubt have an impact on the capital’s bar and restaurant scene.
Adam and Drew Jones
Brothers Adam and Drew Jones opened their first Tattu restaurant in Manchester’s Spinningfields in 2015 and have since launched the Asian dining brand in Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh and London. Not content with being leading lights in the Asian restaurant space in the north of England and beyond the pair have since branched out into Greek cuisine with the opening of the ambitious Fenix in Manchester and are now trying their hands at Italian-American cuisine with the opening of Louis, also in Manchester.
Jake Kasumov and Marco Mendes
The duo behind restaurant group MJMK are slowly building a formidable restaurant group in the capital that includes Portuguese piri-piri chicken concept Casa do Frango, which now has four sites. They have also partnered with Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes to open Lisboeta in Charlotte Street and with Mexican chef Santiago Lastra for his Michelin-starred KOL in Marylebone and his more casual Mexican restaurant Fonda in Mayfair. The duo are also working with husband and wife team John and Desiree Chantarasak to open a permanent site for their debut restaurant AngloThai in Marylebone this winter.
Sam Hart, Crispin Somerville, and Anna Watkins
The Harts Group trio oversees some of London’s most respected restaurants, including Barrafina, Quo Vadis, Parrillan, and El Pastor. CEO Hart has more than 20 years’ experience in hospitality while Somerville is managing director of El Pastor, Quo Vadis, and bar brand The Drop having joined the group in 2016, and Watkins is managing director of Barrafina Group. Between them they oversee a portfolio 13 sites and counting.
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