8 minute read
A day in the life of Jason Atherton
He’s just graced our screens with his TV show The Chef’s Brigade and is about the launch his biggest project to date - overseeing all the food and drink at Mayfair’s Biltmore hotel. Adam Hyman joins Jason Atherton for a day to see what the chef gets up to when he’s not at the pass of one of his many restaurants
I’ve been told to meet Jason Atherton at his gym. I’m waiting for the chef in BXR – the glossy gym up the road from Chiltern Firehouse which you see people splashing over Instagram. The pre-work gym rush hour has just finished and the place is scattered with lean and tanned people who clearly don’t need to be in an office by 9am. It’s a Monday in early August and we’re here to box.
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Atherton arrives dressed in Thom Sweeney trousers, his chef ’s whites and a tailored khaki jacket, with a Louis Vuitton weekend bag. A quick change into his gym gear and we make our way to the members’ area of the Marylebone fitness studio and into the boxing ring. Atherton’s coach is the former professional boxer Kevin Mitchell. Skipping ropes are handed around and we go straight into a warm up.
This is a regular routine for Atherton – he trains here three to four times a week when he’s not travelling. Not only does it keep him trim but, as Mitchell says to me when we shadow box in the ring, he works with a lot of professionals at the top of their game, like Atherton and they use this hour in their diary to destress. To focus on something that isn’t work-related. It’s a distraction.
While Mitchell has me doing situps, Atherton is in the ring boxing. The chef is competitive. When he messes up a move, you can see his disappointment. He’s constantly striving for perfection, both in the kitchen and in the ring. The day we meet, the second episode of The Chef ’s Brigade is airing the next night. I watched the first episode the night before meeting Atherton. The programme – in which Atherton and two of his chefs train up a brigade to compete against some of the best restaurants in the world – is not only good TV but it brings to light Atherton’s demeanour. Firm but fair. He’s running a business and it’s very much a team game. Expectations are high from customers, especially at his flagship Pollen Street Social, and the team need to perform. This is what you sign up to when you enter the world of Michelin cooking. It strikes me that the programme is a little like boxing – you play by the rules, but if you let your guard down, then you’ll be knocked out. Our session ends with some sprints before we shower, change and grab a protein shake. Atherton’s driver meets us to take us to our next stop – his newest and biggest project to date - in Grosvenor Square in Mayfair. We hop out of the black S-Class Mercedes that takes our bags onto Pollen Street Social and walk around to the entrance to the soonto-open Biltmore Hotel, just off South Audley Street. The hotel, which was formerly the Millennium, has been fully refurbished and Atherton has been brought in to run all the food and drink.
As we walk past builders finishing off the final touches, Atherton shows me the Betterment – his restaurant at the hotel. As well as this, he will
be running the hotel bar, afternoon tea and the ballroom. It’s the chef ’s largest project to date. He admits to me there’s a lot riding on it. It’s why he’s currently here in London and not on holiday with his wife Irha and their two daughters.
After a quick debrief with some of his team, including a final check on lighting, he shows me around the kitchens. Atherton was brought into this project late in the game. He explains how a lot of the backof-house was already finished; they had to change so much as it hadn’t been designed to deal with all the different elements of running a 24/7 operation. As we weave behind the scenes and into the customer-facing spaces of the hotel – there’s a theme that Atherton is keen to make clear. He wants everything to be affordable. He cites the Wolseley and their approach to breakfast. Guests can go in for a slice of toast and coffee and spend a fiver. He doesn’t want the usual Mayfair hotel approach
to breakfast – where it will set you back £40. The same applies to his bar. Cocktails will be more around the £15 mark as opposed to £25. He wants Mayfair locals to use it as a regular place to pop in for a mid-morning flat white, lunch or a pre-dinner martini, and for a younger crowd - who are coming west for the night as a special occasion – to have something that does not intimidate or put too big a dent in the wallet.
Throughout the day, affordability keeps cropping up with Atherton; it’s something that’s clearly at the forefront of the chef-restaurateur’s mind. It gets mentioned in meetings with the GM at City Social about their cocktail lists and making sure they remain on the affordable.
Before dinner service when we sit down with the sommelier team at Pollen Street Social, we run through the prices for wines by the glass. Despite operating dining rooms in the most expensive parts of London and being used to feeding the rich and famous throughout his restaurants around the globe, Atherton is taking a refreshing view on pricing. It’s that fine balance between quality products and value.
After looking around the two private dining rooms at the Betterment, we take a short stroll through the sun-dappled streets of Mayfair, crossing Berkeley Square to swing by Atherton’s favourite tailor Thom Sweeney. The tailors – who
dress Dermot O’Leary and David Gandy among others – have a store on Bruton Place, just up from the Guinea Grill and Umu. Thom Sweeney is designing the uniforms for all the male employees at the Betterment (it’s Stella McCartney for the women).
Over a chilled bottle of San Pellegrino, Atherton browses some of autumn/winter jackets, as well as the latest season’s CQP sneakers, before paying for his latest purchaes and checking dates of when his next suits will be ready to be picked up. While I take a look at some of their knitwear, Atherton signals it’s time to go. We walk the short distance to Pollen Street Social – Atherton’s flagship Michelin-starred restaurant. As we arrive, he’s greeted by the receptionist and his trusty lieutenant Mike West, who has worked with Atherton since the Gordon Ramsay days, waiting for us to hold a meeting.
We run through the timings for the Betterment – checking diaries for
signing off everything and working out when they actually get into the restaurant to start practising, before the friends and family dates. Atherton and West run through the crockery, the stemware, the reservation systems. It’s a reminder of the huge task of opening a restaurant.
As the clocks strikes midday, the first of the Pollen Street Social customers arrive into the restaurant. Despite it being a Monday in August, the restaurant is nearly full for lunch. The room is a nice mix of suits and tourists. Atherton changes into a pair of designer sneakers – his brogues were pinching - and works the pass for a couple of hours until the final table has been served. He checks everything that leaves the kitchen, from the bread to the desserts.
Once the pass has been cleared, we grab a table outside No.5 Social for quick lunch of steamed fish and green vegetables in the sun. As we eat, restaurant regulars passing by stop to say hello and congratulate
him on the new TV show.
Despite it being Mayfair, there feels like an element of community down Pollen Street, with Atherton at the heart of it - when it comes to feeding them, at least. We discuss the Mayfair dining scene and the current state of the market before we head back over to the flagship.
An afternoon of back-to-back meetings, including one with a well-known champagne house for a collaboration, reminds me that Atherton is more than just a chef. He’s that rare breed of a businessman who can also cook. It’s clear that he has a strong grasp of the financials of his business and I get reminders throughout our day that as well as making his customers happy, he’s running a large business.
As the restaurant team start their briefing for the evening and they gear up for another busy shift, I say goodbye to Atherton. He’s staying at his flagship restaurant – he’s got some regulars in tonight that he wants to say hello to, including the CEO of Cartier.
And tomorrow? He tells me that he’ll work the pass for dinner at City Social – that’s not before a day of boxing and meetings all over again.
