Details of the 'next generation' picked for The Power List: Restaurant magazine's 100 most powerful people in the restaurant industry.
Isaac McHale. The head chef of The Clove Club is part of a team that runs one of the most exciting restaurants in London, one which has grabbed the attention of many of the world’s top chefs, who regularly seek it out on their visit to the UK capital. With a second restaurant on its way, McHale is one step closer to chef super-stardom.
James Lowe. Lyle’s in Shoreditch is home not only to James Lowe’s brilliant cooking, but also that of a plethora of upcoming international chefs thanks to The Guest series that it runs. This has helped make Lyle’s the epicentre of exciting global cuisine in this country and has marked Lowe out as one of cooking’s new trailblazers.
Mikael Jonsson. The uncompromising Swedish-born chef behind Hedone is a formidable talent in the kitchen. His decision to dramatically reduce the Chiswick restaurant’s covers and scrap printed menus will allow him to achieve even dizzier culinary heights. Could Jonsson finally win his second star in the 2017 Michelin Guide.
Peter Sanchez- Iglesias. The chef behind Casamia is a culinary force to be reckoned with. His, and late brother Jonray’s, decision to move the business from Westbury-on-Trym to central Bristol already looks to be paying dividends and over the coming months Sanchez-Iglesias will open two new restaurants, a forward-thinking pizzeria and a tapas bar.
Michael O’Hare. The enfant terrible of the northern restaurant scene is unquestionably one to keep a very close eye on, with his Leeds restaurant booked solid and plans afoot to open several more restaurants with GG Hospitality in Manchester. If The Man Behind the Curtain is anything to go by, Manc restaurant goers are in for a treat.
Tom Sellers. Tom Sellers has never hidden his ambitions to be regarded as one of – if not the – best chef in the UK and he has no intention of slowing down in his pursuits of this title. As well as his Michelin-starred Restaurant Story he oversees the menu at The Lickfold Inn and the newly opened restaurant Ours and has ambitious plans for more restaurant projects this year.
Jonathan Arana-Morton and Alison Rooney. The Breakfast Club may have only eight sites, but founders Jonathan Arana-Morton and Alison Rooney are at the helm of an all-day brand that sits atop Alix Partners’ Profit Tracker List, with a compound annual growth rate of a whopping 147 per cent over three years. If you live in a decent-sized town the chances of being near a Breakfast Club in the next few years is pretty high.
Mark Birchall. Mark Birchall opens his much anticipated debut solo restaurant in the redeveloped Moor Hall this summer. He has serious pedigree, having won the prestigious Roux Scholarship and worked alongside Simon Rogan at L’Enclume for nine years, during which time it won a second Michelin star and was named the UK’s Best Restaurant in the Waitrose Good Food Guide.
Shamil and Kavi Thakrar. When Shamil and Kavi Thakrar opened the first Dishoom in Covent Garden in 2010, few would have thought that their restaurant, based on the old Irani cafés of Bombay, would be such a hit. Six years on, however, and the cousins have helped modernise the Indian restaurant genre and successfully bring the cuisine of the subcontinent into the casual dining space. With four substantial sites in London collectively serving a huge number of customers from breakfast through to dinner on a daily basis, the pair has had a major impact on the capital’s dining scene. Their influence is set to grow with restaurants opening this year in Manchester as well as Edinburgh.
Andy Oliver, Mark Dobbie and Tom George. The Som Saa founders aren’t the first to introduce UK diners to much more casual and authentic Thai cooking, but with their Spitalfields restaurant opening this month they are the first to do it in a prominent London location. The success of their temporary site at Climpson’s Arch and the speed at which they raised £700,000 in crowdfunding are signs that this trio is really going places.
