Michelin-starred chef William Drabble has worked in some of England’s most influential Michelin-starred hotels and restaurants.
He joined St. James’s Hotel and Club in central London as executive chef and launched the hotel’s Seven Park Place restaurant on September 1, 2009. The following year, Seven Park Place gained a Michelin star which has been retained ever since.
We sat down with the culinary heavyweight to find out a little more.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, including where you are today, professionally, and what got you here?
So, I was brought up on the Wirral until I was nine and then moved to Norfolk. I guess this, along with stories from my grandmother about cooking in big houses led me into cooking in some way shape or form.
I trained at Norwich city hotel school which, at the time, had some fantastic teachers.
After college, I moved down to the grand hotel in Eastbourne and worked at the Mirabelle restaurant. Then I moved to London and trained at the capital hotel in Knightsbridge.
I then travelled around France for a little, whilst seeing their culture and love of food and how it was a way of life in France.
I returned to London and worked at chez Nico at 90 Park Lane where I worked my way up to junior sous chef. After that, I went and worked with Tom Aikens at Pied a Terre as a sous chef. A year later, an opportunity came up for head chef at Michael’s Nook hotel in the Lake District, it had a good reputation and the owner Mr Gifford was willing to take a chance on me even though I was only 26. It paid off, I started in August and in January we received the hotel’s first ever Michelin star making it the highest-rated hotel in the lakes with one star and four AA rosettes.
In the July of that year, I got approached to come back to London to take over the Aubergine in Chelsea after Gordon Ramsey’s departure. I started on the first of September and we got the Michelin star in January which I retained for the 10 years that I was there.
In 2009 I came to St James’s Hotel and Club and we opened the restaurant Seven Park Place in September, and the following year we gained a Michelin star for the restaurant which we have retained ever since.
What or who inspired you to become a chef?
Tasting food straight from the garden and hedgerows, along with stories from my grandmother who worked at Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire.
Who has been your biggest influence to get you to where you are today?
All the chefs I have worked with have influenced me in some way, Philip Britten at the capital used to drag us down the veg market at 5am to hunt out the best fruit and vegetables. Tom Aikens – sheer hard, hard, work, determination, and the ability to extract every ounce of flavour out of everything.
What’s your signature dish?
I don’t really have a signature dish, we have some fantastic ingredients and the dishes change with the seasons.
What are the most important considerations when crafting your menu?
A good variety of fantastic seasonal ingredients that taste great, changing some of the dishes often enough to keep the regulars engaged.
Do your personal preferences influence the menu at all?
Absolutely, I cook from my heart and what I feel is right.
How would you describe your cooking style?
Honest and unfussy, based around the seasons. If it’s in season, it’s at its best.
Do you have a favourite time of year or set of ingredients that you look forward to working with?
In the summer, my cooking style tends to be lighter, with more olive oil, lots of vegetables, tomatoes etc. In the winter, the flavours become stronger and more intense.
What is your favourite ingredient to create with?
Anything that has a great flavour, my menus do tend to have quite a lot of seafood on them, scallops, lobster, langoustine, turbot, john dory, and seabass, all straight from the coast.
What would you be doing if you weren’t a chef?
Something practical and creative, I couldn’t sit in an office all day long, day in, day out.
What is your favourite dish to cook at home?
Sunday roast with loads of vegetables
When are you happiest?
At home… Being with family.
At work… At the end of a busy service and everything has gone well.
What is your favourite piece of kitchen equipment?
The induction range in the kitchen. When we got rid of the gas, and it was installed, it reduced the temperature in the kitchen dramatically and the temperaments of the chefs.
When you’re not in the kitchen where can you be found?
At home with my feet up or pottering in the garden.
What’s your favourite takeaway or comfort food?
Chinese or a good fish and chips at the seaside.
Where is your favourite place to dine?
Somewhere relaxed with good food and good company.
What do you think is the most overhyped food trend?
Food trends drive me mad. Good food is good food. If something comes along and stands the test of time, it’s because it’s good. The rest just fade out of sight.
How did the lockdown restrictions affect your work?
It was soul-destroying at times, to be honest. Just before the pandemic hit, we had spent a lot of money on increasing the size of the restaurant and building a team to improve things and grow the business, then the pandemic hit, and we sadly lost a lot of staff.
At the end of the pandemic, it was a total rebuilding process which has been made a lot more difficult by Brexit as all the staff have vanished.
What differences do you find working with local produce as opposed to non-local produce in terms of what you can create and flavour?
What do you call local? I try to work with as many suppliers as possible within the UK, I go to visit them and understand what they do and the passion that they have for their product and how they have produced it / looked after it. We try to relay that information back to our customers.
By having that relationship, you can also get them to try things out for you which sometimes ends up being a bespoke product just for you.
How do you go about menu planning? What’s the process from picking the ingredients to getting them fresh into the kitchen and into dishes?
Talking to all of the suppliers and finding out what is at its best at that point in time, instinct then puts the dishes together, you cook it from your heart, and then you create the recipes for other people to duplicate.
How would you describe the food you create at Seven Park Place to someone who’s never experienced your kind of food?
Honest flavours, great ingredients, tasty, unfussy, satisfying and great value for money.
What’s your favourite flavour combination?
White truffle… With eggs, pasta, or risotto.
What is the USP of your restaurant?
We are in one of the best addresses in London, the building and club part of the hotel has a huge history. We have a great art collection all over the hotel.
It’s discreet, we serve the highest quality ingredients in comfortable surroundings in the bar and the restaurant, and we are great value for money. Some customers say they don’t want to tell other people about us because they want it to stay a secret.
What do your future plans entail?
Carry on enjoying what I do.
Factbox
Address: 7-8 Park Pl, St. James’s, London SW1A 1LS
Phone: 020 7316 1600
Website: stjameshotelandclub.com/en/restaurant-seven-park-place
