My favourite restaurant: Angela Hartnett, chef-patron at Murano restaurant
Angela Hartnett, born in Kent, grew up with an Italian grandmother who instilled in her a passion for food. Aged 18 years old, Harnett moved to Italy to work as an au pair and after graduating from Cambridge Polytechnic she got her first job in Barbados at the Tamarind Cove hotel.
Back in the UK, she spent time in the kitchens at Aubergine, cooking under Gordon Ramsay and helping the restaurant earn a Michelin star. She later worked at Zafferano, L'Oranger where she worked under Marcus Wareing, and next at his Petrus restaurant where she became head chef and saw the restaurant earn a Michelin star.
In 2001, Hartnett went on to launch Amaryllis in Scotland, Gordon Ramsay’s Verre in Dubai, and MENU and The Grill Room at The Connaught in 2003. That same year she won Square Meal Guides' BMW Best New Restaurant award and in 2004 her own Michelin star. Two years later Hartnett opened a new restaurant in Boca Raton, Florida. Today she runs Mayfair's Murano, her own Michelin-starred restaurant, whilst overseeing the menus at the Whitechapel Gallery and Limewood Hotel in Hampshire. She has written two cookbooks, Angela Hartnett's Cucina: Three Generations of Italian Family Cooking and A Taste of Home: 200 Quick and Easy Recipes and has appeared on TV alongside Gordon Ramsay in Hells' Kitchen, on Tonight with Trevor McDonald and on Great British Menu. In 2007, she was awarded an MBE for services to the industry. Here she tells us about her three favourite London restaurants.
Why? You can get such lovely things there and it’s just around the corner from my house.
What do you eat there? Lamb with green sauce and bread and Eccles cake with Lancashire cheese.
Who do you take? My friend Salvatore and my sister.
Find it: 94-96 Commercial Street, E1 6LZ; stjohngroup.uk.com
Why? It’s a great place to dine in a group.
What do you eat there? Raw mackerel, ginger, white soy or cod, cocoa bean, bacon.
Who do you take? Other chefs. I often go with Neil Borthwick and Colin from Merchants Tavern.
Find it: 36-38 Lordship Lane, SE22 8HJ; toastdulwich.co.uk
Why? The tapas is amazing.
What do you eat there? Croquetas, hake with aioli…
Who do you take? It’s where I took Thomas Keller.
Find it: 104 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3UB; josepizarro.com/restaurants/jose
Merchants Tavern, a collaboration between Angela Hartnett, chef Neil Borthwick, and Canteen founders, Dominic Lake and Patrick Clayton-Malone, will open on October 8 at 35-42 Charlotte Road, EC2A 3PG; merchantstavern.co.uk
