Three Michelin stars are every chef's dream: Brett Graham, who has just been awarded with them at The Ledbury, doesn't take full credit: "It's not my award, it's the award of the whole team."
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"It's something surreal," exults Brett Graham, chef patron of The Ledbury in the Notting Hill district, who has just been awarded three stars. "We had no idea it would happen, even though we knew we had been visited several times recently. But they hadn't told us anything. It's an absolute surprise, but I also think that in the last 18 months, we have improved a lot. It was great to celebrate with some of the people who had worked with us and had come to eat with us over the years."
The three stars, he stated according to Restaurant Online, had never been a specific goal: the effort had always been to maintain high standards and do everything possible to improve, especially in such a tough period for the restaurant industry. This means that the length and intensity of the tasting menu had grown, thanks to the genius of head chef Tom Spenceley; while the general manager Jack Settle and sommelier Jan Van Heesvelde continued to do their best. "My lead team, and actually my entire team, was the key to this decision by Michelin. It's not my award: it's the award of the whole team," he insists.
The immediate result was a flood of hundreds of bookings, which also saturated traditionally weaker days, such as Tuesday and Wednesday. "This was a problem for a restaurant like The Ledbury, especially because we are open only seven services a week. If our rooms do not fill up, finances get stressed. We could increase the number of services per week, but it should be a group decision. People have a family and a life beyond work. The restaurant does not exhaust everything"
