Tell us about Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal
The restaurant is independent, we lease the space from the hotel. We are a little business inside a big hotel. Opening a restaurant is no small feat financially and emotionally, especially an ambitious fine dining restaurant with 30 seats and 20+ staff. I had many years under my belt of being in this game and it was a culmination of my experience that made me able to do it. We serve an eight-course tasting menu that changes regularly.
How would you describe its style?
I’ve always wanted it to be an elegant restaurant. It’s my interpretation of a great French restaurant where you can eat delicious things in a beautiful setting. It has perfectly ironed tablecloths but it’s not stuffy; it’s a place where you can laugh, drink too much, and make a bit of noise but also eat great food. There’s nothing too complex about it.
You launched in 2022. How have things gone?
The opening was very challenging. The stove arrived two weeks after we opened, so for the first two weeks we had to cook out of the hotel’s breakfast kitchen. You can plan all you want but what can go wrong often will go wrong. But I have [head chef] Pierre Minotti, who has been 10 years by my side and it’s great having someone watching your back.
Michelin gave you two stars just months after opening. How did that feel?
It was an amazing surprise, I thought it was too soon for us to get two stars. It’s natural that Michelin was looking at what we were doing. Most years of my career has been in that environment. Before here I was at The Greenhouse (in Mayfair) and [the inspectors] get to know you. When I announced the new restaurant, it was going to be on their radar, which doesn’t necessarily make it easier as they have certain expectations of you. But it’s the world we know and fortunately what we like they seem to like. What we do here was an evolution of The Greenhouse and Michelin understood what we were trying to deliver.
How helpful have the stars been?
It was a huge help. We were not massively busy to start with and everyone is fighting for that niche clientele at that end of the spectrum so getting two stars was very helpful. We’ve been riding the wave ever since. We want it to be successful and profitable and in this environment it’s a never-ending game of improvement. We just want to be better every day.
You’re known for your beautiful plating. Is it a part of cooking that is very important to you?
I love that aspect of what we do. To make delicious food is one thing - my mum makes delicious food - but we want to take that a step further. It’s about the crockery we use and how we present the food on the plate. We can take the same dish and not quite throw it on the plate but serve it simply and it would taste the same, but at this level the guests want to be impressed and a lot of that is down to the plating. Once we have figured out how to make an ingredient shine the job is to make it striking.
How do you regard the current climate for fine dining?
There will always be a place for fine dining, but it is getting increasingly tough. There’s a mid-range [of restaurant] that’s really dominating at the moment. I wouldn’t want an 80-seat fine dining restaurant right now, that would be a challenge. I’m glad we opened a small place. Also, the competition is so tough - every week great restaurants are opening in London, which is a blessing and a curse. It makes people more passionate about food and go out more, but it also makes the scene more competitive. There are only so many diners to go around. You can’t rest on your laurels and get away with something substandard.
Some of your two-star peers have introduced à la carte. Is this something you’ve considered doing?
We’ve thought about it. I know going à la carte would help with certain clientele, but they might not be the people we can express our experience best to. We need to stick by our guns and people have to submit to that experience, which is hard to do in a three-course format. I like having eight different moments to impress people.
Of which dishes are you most proud?
The menu evolves constantly. Me and Pierre get bored very quickly, which is good for the guests who come back often although sometimes they want dishes that they had last time that aren’t there anymore. There are two dishes that have stayed on from the start. One is hunter chicken, which is a dish from The Greenhouse that you can have as a supplement. Lots of guests order it because they had it at The Greenhouse, and it’s nice to continue that. The other is a pate de campagne, which is our version of a bistro dish. That’s the baby of the menu.
You made the headlines last year over your solo diner policy…
We never had a strict solo diner policy. We have 11 tables and if we put a solo diner on every table we have 11 covers; if we max out our covers, we have 34. If there’s one table left and it’s a four top and you book it for one person we need to cover that cost, it’s just business. But to assume we have some sort of policy is to take it out of context.
Did it affect business?
There is a dining community out there that likes to dine by themselves which maybe took it negatively, but it didn’t have much of an impact. It was extraordinary the amount of press it got. We get a huge number of solo diners and we have always accepted them and take extra care of them.
Is the dream to achieve three stars?
It has been a dream since I entered this world and worked for Alain Ducasse [at Adour in New York]. Michelin is especially relevant for chefs of my age as we grew up with the guide, it was a reference point for an exceptional restaurant. Three stars has always been the dream, it continues to be the dream, and hopefully one day it will become a reality.