The high-reaching Notting Hill venue – which is owned by Graham, Phil Howard and Nigel Platts-Martin - has been closed since the first lockdown due to concerns over social distancing.
It will initially launch offering a tasting menu only. The restaurant will initially be open Tuesday to Saturday evenings only but will offer lunch on Fridays and Saturdays from March.
The menu will still comprise around eight courses but will increase from £165 to around £185 to reflect the fact that costs have increased dramatically for restaurants over the last two years.
The prominent corner restaurant is in the process of being given a major makeover by Rose Murray from These White Walls and will relaunch with a more contemporary, naturalistic look and feel.
Graham says that temporarily removing a la carte and significantly reducing the number of services a week will allow the team to better look after its guests but that the experience will be pitched at roughly the same level as the first iteration of The Ledbury.
“Though in many ways this is a continuation of what has come before I see this is the start of a new journey for us. The old The Ledbury is no more, and we have a new sense of direction and purpose,” Graham told BigHospitality.
Launched by Graham in 2005, The Ledbury is one of the UK’s most vaunted restaurants. It has held two Michelin stars since 2010, appeared on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and has topped the Estrella Damm National Restaurants Awards list of the UK’s top 100 restaurants a total of three times.
Responding to rumours
The Australian-born chef has responded to rumours of The Ledbury becoming a brasserie and - more recently - that Graham would be ‘more in the role of owner than chef’ while simultaneously pushing for three Michelin stars, describing them as baseless.
“I have not spoken to anyone. It’s completely made up. How can you switch from cooking every day to being an owner while trying to get three stars? It doesn’t make any sense,” he says.
Bringing the brigade back together
A number of The Ledbury staff – both recent and historic – will return, including restaurant manager Jack Settle and assistant restaurant manager Jeremy Harvey.
A key new hire is former Kitchen Table head chef Tom Spenceley as head chef (the restaurant’s former head chef Jake Leach is now head chef at The Harwood Arms in Fulham, which is owned by Graham and fellow chef Mike Robinson).
A reworked dining room
As part of the refurbishment the number of covers in the dining room will drop from 55 to 45, partly to make way for a centre table for staff to use during service.
The table – and some of the restaurant’s other artworks - will be designed by Based Upon.
Arvind Vadgama – who has built many of Nigel Platts-Martin’s restaurants including Harvey’s in Wandsworth and La Trompette in Chiswick – is overseeing construction.
Initially being tasting menu only will help The Ledbury to use more whole animals, something that Graham is very passionate about.
“Using whole animals is difficult at this level. But we’re going to work very hard to use all the secondary cuts and make them delicious,” he says. “We have a lot to learn but I’m also passionate about educating the team and our guests. Chefs need to be more flexible when it comes to their ingredients to support artisan farmers.”
Graham has been rearing and supplying venison to top restaurants for around five years but over lockdown has branched out into pigs, beef and poultry. Projects include bringing in Iberian pigs to cross breed with Duroc; finishing old Jersey cows; and turning two-to-three-year-old ducks that have been used for egg production into top quality meat for charcuterie production.
Graham is currently supplying many of the UK’s top restaurants including Jeremy Chan at Ikoyi, Mark Birchall at Moor Hall, Isaac McHale at The Clove Club and Matt Abé at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.
Central to the chef's approach is the rethinking of feeding regimes, with animals fed on home-grown produce rather than ingredients sourced from overseas.
The restaurant is expected to relaunch on 28 January for friends and family dinners with the public likely to be able to eat there from early February.
"We're working on a new menu for our opening that remembers our favourite combinations and lots of new ones,” says Graham.
A full interview with Graham will be published next month.
