Holly Hayes

The Climb

At Jing Li in Fuzhou, Holly Hayes cooks to a brief that stays close to the food: simple and comforting. That kind of register asks for control rather than display. It favors warmth over excess, clean flavor over clutter, and dishes that hold their shape without losing ease at the table.

Today

At July in London and Jing Li in Fuzhou, Holly Hayes works in kitchens where restraint has to be made visible through finish. The tool she names is a microplane, and the use case is precise: nutmeg, horseradish and garlic at July. That tells you the scale she is working at. In this style of cooking, small adjustments carry the weight; the grater becomes part of the texture of the dish, not an accessory to it.

Signature

The dishes associated with Holly Hayes sit at two ends of the same logic. Deep-fried wine lees-marinated eel brings fermentation, heat and crunch into one plate, while braised pork trotter noodles lean into slow-cooked depth and the steadier kind of comfort. Together, they show a cook who can work with contrast without pushing it past balance.

In Their Words “A microplane! It’s in constant use for nutmeg, horseradish and garlic at July.” That answer points to a way of thinking that values form, surface and repetition. Sculpture and ceramics both depend on control of material, and the remark reads the same way: practical, shaped by hand, attentive to what happens when a surface is worked closely.

Recognition

The public record around Hayes is centered on her role as chef at Jing Li. That is recognition of a functional kind: the kitchen itself, and the repetition of work there, become the evidence.