John Burton-Race returns to London for new Notting Hill restaurant
The 54-cover restaurant is replacing Georgian restaurant Colchis on Chepstow Place. It will offer a contemporary European menu and will be headed up by Burton Race’s long-time protégé chef Stephen Humphries.
“The restaurant scene in London just gets better and better, and I am thrilled to be returning to the capital at such an exciting time,” said Burton-Race. “With The New Angel Notting Hill, we are hoping to create a venue which is both a destination, and a neighbourhood restaurant, serving simple yet creative dishes made with beautiful British ingredients.”
Full details of the menu at The New Angel are yet to be released, but dishes are expected to be ingredient-led and seasonal; complimented by a varied wine list with plenty of French bottles. Humphries, formerly of Sanctum on the Green and Le Gavroche, will head up the kitchen brigade, with a small, separate bar offering space for an additional eight customers.
Michelin man
TV chef, restaurateur and sometimes controversial media personality Burton-Race began his culinary career as an apprentice at the Wessex Hotel in Winchester, working his way through the tough hierarchy of a kitchen brigade at restaurants such as Quaglino’s and Chewton Glen before being taken under the wing of Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, where he was promoted to Sous Chef.
He achieved his first Michelin star whilst working at Blanc’s Le Petit Blanc in Oxford in 1996, before going on to achieve two stars at his own restaurant, L’Ortolan in Berkshire, mirroring this achievement in London in 2000 with the JBR Restaurant at the Landmark Hotel.
The 57-year-old bought the original 'The New Angel' in Dartmouth in 2005. It was awarded a Michelin star a year later, but the chef's estranged wife famously closed the restaurant in 2007, while he was in Australia taking part in reality TV show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! The Dartmouth venue was subsequently bought by entrepreneur Clive Jacobs in 2007, before being sold onto Alan Murchison’s 10 in 8 Fine Dining Group in 2010 and being renamed Angelique.
In 2012, Burton-Race partnered with fellow TV chef Jonathon Davies to create The Restaurant Experience – an interactive restaurant ‘chosen by the people for the people’. The restaurant failed to open, however, and The New Angel will be Burton-Race’s only restaurant business.
The New Angel in Notting Hill will open under a soft launch from 22 April. Colchis is expected to re-open in a new location soon.
