Tell us about Starling
It’s a neighbourhood restaurant that serves sustainable and seasonal British food. It’s got 40 covers, with four stools at the bar that are unbookable but are the best seats in the house because you can see the kitchen. The kitchen spills into the restaurant, and then it flows into the bar. There are 30 covers in the main body of the restaurant and then there’s an additional area that we call the front room that has 10 covers.
What appealed about Esher?
The big thing in Esher is Sandown Racecourse and we are right at that end of town. There’s an awful lot of traffic; it’s a big thoroughfare and from our point of view that’s great because we are visually prominent on the high street. It’s very affluent but we are very price conscious, we are trying to keep Starling really good value for money. There are not loads of restaurants around here given the affluence of the area but there are a few - the Victoria at Oxshott is five minutes away, and Ashle Palmer-Watts is opening a place in Cobham, which is the next town five minutes down the road.
What’s on the menu?
The format is quite informal. The menu starts with snacks such as steak tartare hash browns, truffle cheese crumpet, and hog roast fritters (pictured), which have been really popular. We’ve got a selection of steaks and mains such as duck with cherry ketchup, which has been selling well. Dishes will follow the seasons, so our tomato salad will move into something more autumnal soon. There’s also a mushroom ‘risotto’ dish that has come over from Kerridge’s Bar & Grill. When I left Kerridge’s all my dishes came off, so I bought a couple over, mainly because we didn’t have anywhere to develop any dishes.
And it features your Great British Menu winning dishes?
The Great British Menu dishes have been very popular, that’s one thing that caught us out last week. We are selling a huge amount of scallops (Beardshaw’s A Moon Shaped Pool dish) and Balloon Girl (a raspberry cheesecake chocolate torte). At the moment most people are eating three courses; the ratio of desserts is quite high, and I think that’s because we are new. Normally you run at 40% of people ordering desserts, but we are around 70%.
Have you always wanted to run your own place?
Most chefs do ultimately. I was with Tom a long time but there was always this trajectory that I was on. I started at The Hand & Flowers with Tom having just won Great British Menu in 2010, and in 2011 we won the second star, which was mental. After that the restaurant was super busy, and then in 2013 I went over to The Coach, which opened in 2014. It was as early as 2016 that he approached me about London, and we had a few bumps on the way. We nearly went into Brown’s Hotel and were all employed by Jumeirah at one point but that fell through. We got to Corinthia London in 2018 and then we had a pandemic to get through. Then I started doing Great British Menu in 2021 and 2023 so there was always something keeping me in the group. But I’d got to the point where now I’ve got a profile of my own. The time is perfect to do it, so here I am.
How big is the team?
In the kitchen there is me plus three other chefs, but I probably want one more. I wanted to hold fire on that fifth position, but the numbers are looking really good. Front of house, there is a team of six, including general manager James Shaw. James was assistant general manager at The Coach and went to The Pem as head sommelier and before becoming assistant head sommelier at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, so he has really good experience as a sommelier and manager. Most of the team is young, keen, and local – they have a good attitude and are keen to learn and be part of something. One has worked in hospitality before but not at this level, the others not at all. But the most important thing for us is that people are nice and friendly and create a warm environment.
What is a tough decision to leave the Tom Kerridge group after being there so long?
I had actually spoken to Tom pre pandemic that at some point this is what I wanted to do, but then that went out of the window. It wasn’t the right time, inflation was way out of control, and I also wanted to leave Kerridge’s in a good place, so I put it in hold for a couple of years. It was a decision that took a long time, but it wasn’t a hard one, it was just very well thought through. Also, it was done with Tom’s support; he’s been great throughout the process and has given me guidance.
Has your experience working with Tom helped with the launch of Starling?
This is actually my fourth opening, because as well as The Coach and Kerridge’s Bar & Grill I also launched The Butcher’s Tap & Grill in Marlow, so I know about all this stuff that is happening at the moment. You are chasing your tail for the first week because you don’t know what anyone is going to order. It never goes completely smoothly but as long as you’re at a certain level all of these things eventually get ironed out.
You haven’t been open long. Is everything fully up and running?
We are looking to develop our lunch menu. Trade is very evening heavy, so we need to get people aware of what we’re doing at lunchtime. At the moment we have a very simple 1/1/1 menu du jour for £25 - last week it was gazpacho with melon, cucumber, mascarpone and pesto; the main course was honey glazed bacon with deep fried quail’s egg and girolles; and a crème brulee for dessert – but I’d like to expand it to 2/2/2 to get more people in at lunchtime. It’s probably an 80:20 split dinner to lunch at the moment, so there is a lot of growth to be had at lunchtime.
3 High Street, Esher, KT10 9RL
