Archive for year: 2014

Anthony Demetre

Anthony started his culinary career pretty late by chef standards. His first love was to join the Royal Navy in the fleet air arm division and hopefully train as a naval pilot; however this was cut short due to a recurrent knee problem originally sustained in his school days.

With his naval dreams scuppered it was Anthony’s grandparents who navigated him towards a career in food. Both his grandmother and grandfather were of Greek origin and huge food lovers, in particular his grandmother who was an excellent cook. Having spent his adolescent years watching and helping his grandmother in the kitchen, this inspired Anthony to peruse to cooking as a career.

Having learnt his craft working in some of the world’s leading restaurants and being taught by some of the best chefs including Marco Pierre White and Pierre Koffman a turning point in Anthony’s career came in 1999 when he was appointed chef/director of Putney Bridge restaurant in South West London. It was here that Anthony met his now business partner Will Smith, then restaurant manager of Putney Bridge. Within a year of opening, in January 2000 Putney Bridge and the team were awarded a Michelin Star followed by four AA rosettes for food and service.

An ongoing ambition of Anthony’s was always to open his own restaurant and in 2006 this was realised when he and Will opened their own restaurant Arbutus in Soho, London.

Centred on an informal ‘Bistro Moderne’ Arbutus was instrumental in changing the perception of dining out, demonstrating that accomplished cooking does not always require a fine dining setting and heavy price tag.  This contemporary formula has led to Arbutus receiving countless awards including a Michelin star in its first year.

The following year in 2007 Anthony and Will went on to open Wild Honey in Mayfair, London which continued the ethos of affordable and affable dining and also won a Michelin star within a year of opening.

2010 heralded the opening of Anthony and Will’s third restaurant, Les Deux Salons in Covent Garden which is very similar in style and format to the grand brasseries of Montparnasse in Paris.

Aside from his restaurants, Anthony has also written his first cook book ‘Today’s Special’ which exemplifies his approach to modern day simple dining. He has appeared many times on the BBC, taking part in the Great British Menu series and Saturday Kitchen live alongside James Martin.