It was going to be unlike any other interview I’ve done, and not just because it was Jason Atherton, a Michelin-starred chef with a growing number of restaurants around the world, including the acclaimed The Pig & Palm in our own city. The man behind the brand is an extraordinary person, and not just for the prestige that comes with the status. In fact, if anything, the accolades have even kept his feet even more firmly in the ground. According to Jason, everything he’s done and will do is because of a simple passion: “I love, love, love what I do. I love to cook, and I will always cook for the rest of my life. It’s really important to me that I am still cooking.”

Jason Atherton relaxes at The Pig & Palm (photography Chester Baldicantos)

Let’s backtrack on Jason Atherton’s footsteps, to six years ago when it all started. He opened Pollen Street Social, his first restaurant, in London, and it was awarded its first Michelin star that same year. Since then, he’s opened 17 restaurants across the globe. “It’s more than just ‘chef-ing’ now, I guess,” he admits. “We are The Social Company. Armed with different sub-brands, we do a lot of things—we help Westminster college, we design plateware and bar tools. I guess you can say we are a multi-brand operations.” That explains the 1400 employees.

It leaves one to wonder: how do you grow that fast in six years? He reminds me that he was the development director of the Gordon Ramsay group for 11 years. “I owe the ‘taking off’ to him,” he explains. “I was already doing with him what I am doing now, only this time it’s for my own company.” He, of course, credits a lot to his former mentor, who he says knew exactly what he wanted to do from the start. “He opened his restaurant and got his stars, and then he said, I want to be on TV. He was on some of the most watched British TV shows. After that, he says he wants to be on TV in the US, and now he’s one of the most recognized chefs in the world. It’s amazing.”

That kind of drive is something that Jason’s clearly adapted himself, and it’s something that he feels he could most attribute for his success. “I was a dreamer, and I was determined. When I worked with Marco Pierre White, I wasn’t the best. There were way better chefs than I was. But I was there every day, doing my job the best way I could, day in, day out. I kept sticking to it because I knew one day something good would come out of it. There has to, right?” he says. “I’ve always looked to the world like an Olympic athlete. You can get to the top with a little bit of talent, but you need a whole lot of determination. And that’s what it was. I’m not an overnight success story.”

Roasted venison breast with lavender, honey spiced beetroot and roasted mini potatoes (from the Jason Atherton website)

Jason is disarming that way. He’s the first to point out he’s not a genius, but he understands what people look for in food that’s contributed to his success. “I had a little bit of talent in cooking over the years, and I’ve developed a way to put food together in which a lot of my contemporaries have not been able to do,” he shares. “Especially in London. I really understand the palate of the London Westerners.”

The Jason Atherton story gets even more interesting—and detailed—when he found himself in a bit of a problem when a potato recipe he was trying out in The Clocktower, his New York restaurant, wasn’t working as well as it did in London. He reveals that a large space in his headquarters is dedicated to a test kitchen, where a group of chefs spend days experimenting with and perfecting recipes that they could then send to their restaurants around the world. In the case of the potatoes, the variety of potatoes available in the US just weren’t working for the recipe—which had originally been made with London’s King Edward potatoes. Eventually, he decides to send two of his test kitchen chefs, who ended up sourcing potatoes from different states until they could find a match. “For two weeks, were problem-solving the potato. We were getting deliveries of potatoes from everywhere to get that perfect chip,” he shares. This just goes to show that Jason is committed to achieving detailed results—but wow the food cost on just those potatoes must have come quite high?

“It is very important to me to get the product and the output right,” Jason continues. “I’d rather have a 50% food cost of a business and make a little bit of money, and we can sustain it for now, than a 7% margin on a good food cost on a restaurant that’s losing money. The food and bar margins may be correct, but if the food is bad, the drinks are bad and the service is bad, you don’t have a business. In the end, you’ll just have a great percentage of nothing. I always say to my boys, you can’t take a percentage to the bank.” It’s a great lesson for restaurateurs starting out, a breakthrough even.

At this point, the cards are all laid out on a the table. There’s no secret formula, just perspectives of getting things done. The question gets thrown out: how much of the mingling part of the business does he actually enjoy? “We do a lot of events in the UK, where it involves us meeting such interesting people. So meet the Beckhams, Jude Law, Benedict Cumberbatch. So they come to the restaurants, so I say hello. I mean, it just doesn’t work if you’re in the kitchen all the time. I wear many hats,” he replies.

But, he continues, “When success happens to you and you don’t have family roots, you can get carried away, especially in a city like London. I get tons and tons of invitations. I come back from a trip with a stack of envelopes on my desk, and I could be out every night in a different party. When you start to believe your own bullshit, then all of a sudden your life begins to wobble because you’re not paying attention to the things that got you there in the first place. I’m very conscious about that. It’s important to pick and choose.”

The bar area at Pollen Street Social, the restaurant that started it all. (photo from the Pollen Street Social website)

With so much achieved, we have to wonder, what comes next? “My work goal is to make Pollen Street Social a two Michelin-star restaurant,” he answers, but reveals that he plans to work on something very close to his heart. “When I first moved to London, there was a youth hostel called the PM Club. It was funded by the government, and it was a community of chefs, waiters and sommeliers. You could stay there and you could meet all these people from the industry. I wouldn’t have made it without the PM Club. The government had stopped the funding for this, but I want to be able to rebuild it for the city, for future chefs.”

To these future chefs, he leaves these words of wisdom: “Everyone wants to be a celebrity or famous—be careful what you wish for. If you want to be a chef, be a chef for the right reasons. Be a chef because you love food. There are very few that become superstars, but it’s important to be yourself. I’ve seen so many great chefs wash away their career chasing being famous and not concentrating on what they are putting on the plate. It’s what you’re putting on the plate that will fill your restaurants. And that really puts life in perspective.”

Originally published in Zee Lifestyle, February 2017