John Burton-Race

The Climb

Training at Saint Mary's College, Southampton gave John Burton-Race the starting point for a career built kitchen by kitchen. From 1983, he worked as sous chef at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, a period that placed him inside one of the country’s most admired dining rooms and helped set the standards that would follow him. In 1986, he became chef-owner at L’Ortolan in Berkshire, a role he held until 2004 and one that established the long-running ownership stretch that often defines a chef’s most consequential work. The next major move was chef-owner at The New Angel, formerly the ngel, in Dartmouth, Devon, from 2004 to 2010. The restaurant changed name, but the essential work stayed the same: Burton-Race at the pass, setting the pace and holding the line in the kitchen. Since 2017, John Burton-Race has also been chef-patron of John Burton-Race Restaurant with Rooms. That role adds a more personal address to the work, but the through-line remains practical: repeated returns to service, to sequence, and to food that is meant to read clearly on the plate.

Today

Now executive head chef at The Nook On Five in Cheltenham, John Burton-Race is again working in the pressure of a busy kitchen, where timing and discipline are unavoidable. Speaking about that return, he said, “I had a dream which was basically to stop pissing around and get back into the kitchen because that is and always has been my passion.” The language is blunt, and so is the point: the kitchen is the centre of the work, not a backdrop for it.

In Their Words “I've always cooked and since giving up the New Angel down in Dartmouth about four and a half years ago I’ve been doing lots of stuff all to do with food mostly.” The statement keeps the profession in view even between posts. Leaving a restaurant did not mean leaving the trade; food stayed the constant, the thread between one kitchen and the next. “I had a dream which was basically to stop pissing around and get back into the kitchen because that is and always has been my passion.” It is direct in the way working chefs often are when the language is stripped back to the job itself. For Burton-Race, the kitchen is not symbolic; it is where the work belongs.

Recognition

John Burton-Race has received Michelin Guide — Michelin star. John's honors include Michelin star, Two Michelin stars, Restaurant of the Year (England), Chef of the Year, Grand Prix de L’art de la Cuisine, and European Chef of the Year. Taken together, they mark a career that has been recognised at the highest level, while Burton-Race has continued to speak in the plain language of fundamentals: basics, direct flavour, and the work of the kitchen.