He will join from a role at the Michelin-starred Scottish hotel Isle of Eriska, where he has been head chef for two years. Leonard has also cooked at two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles.
His appointment comes after The Burlington switched to a four-day working week to improve staff work/life balance earlier this year. The restaurant has increased its brigade from 11 to 15 chefs, who now work a reduced 48 hours a week for the same rate of pay.
Leonard will start at the restaurant in Skipton, North Yorkshire, at the end of July.
“I’m so looking forward to working at one of Yorkshire’s most iconic venues, and as a Yorkshire man myself, I am excited to be returning ‘home’,” says Leonard.
“I aim to make The Burlington one of the most talked-about restaurants in the UK. My style of cooking is light, non-fussy and natural; freshness and quality are key, so I am blessed to have such a wonderful rural location for the sourcing of the required ingredients needed to deliver my approach.”
Leonard is passionate about home-grown produce and foraging, and set up his own kitchen garden on Eriska, which supplied 95% of the hotel’s vegetables.
He replaces outgoing head chef Paul Evans, who joined The Burlington from Lords of the Manor in the Cotswolds last July.