Star chef Jason Atherton opens Kensington Street Social in Sydney
Keeping track of how many restaurants Jason Atherton, 44, has requires constant vigilance, but the chef doesn’t yet have to stop to think. “Eighteen,” he says promptly when asked where the tally stands.
Atherton was Gordon Ramsay’s brightest protege until a parting of the ways five years ago over money. Since the opening of his first restaurant in 2011, Atherton’s empire has expanded so fast he could soon eclipse Ramsay, who has 30 restaurants worldwide.
Where Ramsay is a ball of energy and shouty charisma, Atherton is calm and contained. He is lean and gym-fit, arriving at his company HQ in London with his hair slicked back, a gold watch on his wrist. Even when he is irked by a question, he is exquisitely polite.
Ramsay has 14 London restaurants; Atherton has seven, including Michelin-starred Pollen Street Social, where he still cooks daily when he is not lapping the globe visiting his establishments. Two of his other restaurants in the capital also have Michelin stars. Another, in Ian Schrager’s Edition Hotel, is a magnet for celebrities.
The Atherton empire boasts eight restaurants in the Far East and one in Dubai. This year, with The Clocktower, he has successfully taken Manhattan, a city where Ramsay’s restaurant eventually failed after initial success. This month he opens a Japanese restaurant in London and he has produced a tableware range (with department store John Lewis) and a men’s fragrance.
Also, Atherton is opening a restaurant in Sydney. Buzz surrounds his first Australian venue, located at The Old Clare Hotel development in Chippendale. On Wednesday, Atherton throws open the doors of Kensington Street Social in partnership with Loh Lik Peng, director of global boutique hotel and restaurant group Unlisted Collection. The largest venue within The Old Clare Hotel, Kensington Street Social seats 120 and will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, showcasing a relaxed all-day menu of British-Mediterranean share plates (see breakout).
Is he in danger of spreading himself too thin? That, he says, with a flicker of restrained irritation, is “a very British question”. Richard Caring, who owns a string of restaurants and members’ clubs, including the famed London venues Ivy and Annabel’s, “could own 1000 restaurants and it doesn’t really matter because he’s a restaurateur. The minute a chef does more than one restaurant it ‘starts to dilute the brand’. Who’s more qualified to open a restaurant: myself or Richard Caring? On the financial side, he’s a billionaire; I am not. But on the knowledge side, he can’t even stand in the same park as me. And my passion for this industry is unsurpassable.”
Critics of Ramsay say that the massive expansion of his interests weakened the restaurants because he could no longer monitor everything with his legendary eye for detail. “There is a difference, and this is not knocking Gordon,” says Atherton. The difference is much of Ramsay’s time is consumed by TV. Forbes estimates Ramsay earns $US60 million ($84m) a year, mostly from TV shows in the US. “You can’t make that money from restaurants, I don’t care how successful you are.” Atherton has tried television, but has no plans to do more. “I would not be able to operate the restaurants I operate at this level and devote my time to TV,” he says.
He draws an analogy with the role of Alex Ferguson when he was manager of the Manchester United soccer team. “He wasn’t kicking the ball in the net, but the influence he had on that team was second to none. I know right now at 9.40am what is going on at Pollen Street. I can walk in and know whether it’s behind or on top of its game.”
He believes he has “pretty much” the right balance in his working life. “But other things suffer. I have a lot of great friends I don’t see any more. My family, I barely ever see them. It’s a difficult one. Who has the perfect work-life balance?”
It was during a spell working in Dubai that he met his wife, Irha, who is from The Philippines. She runs the head office and they have two daughters. “Marriage is like a restaurant,” says Atherton. “You have got to look happy, you have got to change the menu, got to talk about stuff, work together on stuff. There will be times when it is not great and times when it is amazing. So many people throw in the towel at the first hurdle.”
Atherton was born in Sheffield, grew up in Skegness and left school with almost no qualifications, but became “obsessed” with food and headed to London. He worked for some famous chefs, including Marco Pierre White, and toiled for free in Ferran Adria’s kitchen at El Bulli to gain experience. Then he met Ramsay, who gave him his own restaurant to run and a share in it. He always speaks generously of his old boss, and points out that Ramsay still oversees a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Chelsea. “He’s fantastic at what he does.”
Atherton has a policy of setting up his best chefs with restaurants and a share in the business. He says a lot of chefs have been “stitched up” by “cowboys”, restaurateurs who exploit their drive and ambition to make money and then cash in, leaving them high and dry.
Just 25 per cent of his staff are British. Do young British people have his appetite for hard work? “The new generation of people coming through want to work less, earn more money and have more leisure time, which I am all for because back in my day it was a bit too intense. But it was what you did. You did six days a week, 18 hours a day.”
Atherton has ambitions to add to his three Michelin stars and has been looking at a possible restaurant site in Miami. He says he has “more drive than ever”. But he also has a fantasy about cooking “when I’m old and grey. Irha and I are building a house in The Philippines. We joke that when we get old we’ll open up a restaurant there with just one table. We’ll put on the internet, ‘Tonight we’re going to be open and what we cook is what you eat.’ I need to cook.”
- The Times Magazine
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Atherton wants to keep it simple
Jason Atherton is sizzling hot property, but that doesn’t mean his new Sydney restaurant is formal and expensive. Instead, Atherton says Kensington Street Social, his 19th restaurant, located in a brewery turned boutique hotel in hipster-chic Chippendale, is all about clean flavours, cool food and value.
“I’m not coming here to open a super high-end restaurant; my food is very simple,” Atherton assures his local band of loyal gourmands. “I want this restaurant to be a simple place where you can come several times a month, whether in jeans, flip flops or a suit, and have good fun with friends eating some really cool food.”
Atherton shies away from labelling the style of food he’ll serve at his new venue, located in the Old Clare Hotel alongside SiIvereye and Automata. While in England he is known as the epitome of cool “modern British” cuisine, here he is unsure what to call his food of all-local and seasonal ingredients. “Personally I’m not really sure it even matters,” Atherton chuckles.
“What I say to my guys [chefs] is that there are only two types of food — good food and bad food — and I want them to work hard to make certain everything is really good. Even if it’s just a simple salad, make sure it is one with an amazing dressing.”
Atherton, a judge on the British version of My Kitchen Rules, has been busy visiting farms and sourcing local ingredients, which he judges as second to none.
He expects to visit every three months, for a fortnight each time, to adjust Kensington Street Social’s all-day sharing menu in consultation with executive chef Rob Daniels. Daniels, a Sydneysider, has worked with his boss for 12 years, first as a sous chef in his acclaimed London restaurant Maze, and later as head chef at Maze One & Only in Cape Town.
“[Rob] married my pastry chef, had a baby and moved back to Sydney; so he was the perfect head chef to bring in because he knows me, my food and how I like to cook,” Atherton says. “I’ve had many Australian chefs in my brigade over the years, including Rob and pastry chef Adrian Crabb, so it seemed like a natural step to come to Sydney and get the team back together.“
Highlights from the menu include English breakfast tea and toast, a play on tea and toast with wild mushroom tea served in a teapot with relish and bone marrow toast and a sea urchin risotto.
Atherton is not a restaurateur who serves the same dishes across his empire. While he’s looking forward to reinterpreting a few of his English signatures using unusual Australian ingredients, he shies away from anything formulaic.
“Each restaurant must have its own individuality; it’s not about me writing a menu, dictating what will be served and going home — the last thing I am about is having chain of identical restaurants all serving the same dishes,” he assures cynical fans. “That’s boring and just about making money. I’m not like that, I’m doing this because I’m really excited to be in Australia, working among a really talented bunch of chefs in Sydney, and with great local produce — and having fun creating 30 dishes that we are really happy to serve.”
CHEF’S FAVOURITES
Serves 4
700g top-quality beef mince
Olive oil
2 Spanish onions, about 500g, peeled and sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
50ml balsamic vinegar
8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
4 slices of mild cheddar cheese
4 brioche burger buns
2 large dill pickles, thinly sliced
Divide the beef into four, then press each portion into patties. Arrange in a single layer on a plate, cover with cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Heat a heavy-based pan with 2 tbsp oil. Add the onions and a generous pinch of salt and cook over medium-high heat for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions begin to soften and colour.
Once golden, turn the heat down and cook for another 15-20 minutes until soft and sticky. Stir frequently. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook until reduced to a glaze. Leave to cool.
Preheat the oven grill to the highest setting. Grill the bacon for 2-4 minutes until crisp. Remove and leave to cool slightly. Set the oven to 200C.
Heat a wide ovenproof frying pan over high heat with 2 tbsp olive oil. Season both sides of the burgers with salt. Fry them for 2 minutes on each side until golden brown.
Place two bacon rashers and a slice of cheddar on top of each patty, then transfer the pan to the hot oven. For pink burgers, cook for 2 minutes; for well done, cook for 8 minutes.
Slice the burger buns, spread the onions and gherkin slices on the bottom half, followed by the burgers and bun lids. Serve immediately.
Clam chowder with chorizo and cherry tomatoes
Serves 4
500g clams
Olive oil
2 sticks of celery, diced
3 shallots, finely diced
1 head of garlic, halved
100g tomato paste
1 large bunch parsley, chopped
200ml white wine
200ml chicken stock
100g butter
3 sprigs of thyme
Cherry tomatoes and chorizo, to serve
Wash the clams under cold water. In a medium saucepan heat a little oil and add the celery, shallots and garlic. Cook until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the tomato paste and parsley and stir for 30 seconds.
Add the clams and the white wine, cover, and cook until most of the clams have opened, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and discard any unopened clams. Pick the clams out of the shells, keeping a few for presentation.
In a separate pan heat the chicken stock and juices from the clams until reduced by half.
Whisk in the butter, remove from the heat and add the thyme sprigs. Allow to infuse for 10 minutes, then remove.
To serve, divide the clams and stock between serving bowls and garnish with the clams in their shells, the cherry tomatoes and chorizo pieces.
Baked vanilla cheesecake with lemon balm
Serves 8
100g digestive biscuits
50g unsalted butter
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
180g caster sugar
500g cream cheese
180ml double cream
1 lemon, zest and juice
½ vanilla pod, scraped
40g cornflour
500g strawberries, hulled
Fresh lemon balm or basil, finely sliced, to serve
Icing sugar, to serve
Grease a 20cm springform cake tin. Seal the biscuits in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin or the bottom of a pan.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the crushed biscuits.
Stir until well mixed, then press it into the tin in an even, compact layer. Place the tin in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and sugar until it has doubled in size. Then add the cream cheese, double cream, lemon juice and zest, vanilla seeds and cornflour and mix until firm.
Pour the cream cheese mixture onto the biscuit base and bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top. Carefully remove cheesecake from the tin and leave to cool.
To serve, place the strawberries on top, scatter over lemon balm or basil and dust with icing sugar.
Source: The Australian, Sue Neales, Damian Whitworth, 9th January 2016
