Harry Cummins

Starting in a kitchen at 15 sets a pace that is hard to fake later. For Harry Cummins, that early entry into the trade reads as a long apprenticeship in repetition, timing, and pressure management, with each kitchen adding another practical layer to the work. The line from cook to chef here is built through service, pastry, and project work rather than a single fixed path. London first put Harry Cummins inside Jamie Oliver's Fifteen in London as a cook, a role that meant learning in a fast, purpose-driven environment.

In 2014, he moved into the pastry kitchen at El Celler de Can Roca as chef in the pastry kitchen, where pastry demands close control over timing, texture, and finish. From 2012, he was also cofounder at Paris Pop-Up in Paris, adding the responsibilities of building and shaping a project alongside kitchen work. Those roles describe a career built in layers: London to Paris, cook to pastry chef, kitchen work to cofounding.

Today, Harry is owner and chef of La Mercerie, chef of Livingston, and chef of Pétrin Couchette bakery, three positions that show range across restaurant and bakery formats. The through-line is operational as much as creative: managing pace, setting standards, and keeping the work legible from service to oven.

In the present tense of the trade, Harry Cummins works across more than one kitchen, and that spread is part of the method. As owner and chef of La Mercerie, chef of Livingston, and chef of Pétrin Couchette bakery, he is moving between formats that ask for different forms of control while still demanding the same baseline of discipline. The value is in continuity: a clear hand on the food, the room, and the daily rhythm.

Among Harry's signature dishes, Kalamansi limoncello babas is notable for its direct use of acidity and sweetness inside a classic format. The baba gives structure; the kalamansi and limoncello give lift. It is a dish that works through contrast, using a familiar shape to carry a sharper, brighter profile without losing the comfort of the form.