Jose Pizarro

Coming Up

Training in some of the top restaurants in Spain gave Jose Pizarro the base that runs through the rest of his work: discipline, precision and a respect for the shape of a dish before it reaches the pass. From there, he moved into Head Chef roles at El Mesón de Doña Filo and later worked as chef at Eyre Brothers, Brindisa and Gaudi in London (from 1998). That sequence shows a chef building range without changing lane, then later taking on the role of chef / owner at Little José in Canary Wharf, London. The same pattern continues across the projects associated with his name. Today, Jose Pizarro is founder / chef of José Tapas Bar (since 2011), founder / chef of Pizarro Restaurant (since 2011), chef / owner of José Pizarro at Broadgate Circle, chef / owner of The Swan Inn (since 2019), co-creator of two restaurants at the Royal Academy of Arts (since 2021), and owner of Iris Zahara (since 2022). Those roles place Spanish cooking in different settings, from a tapas bar to an art institution, while keeping the work anchored in the same register. The through-line is consistency of method rather than repetition of format. Across restaurants and openings, Jose Pizarro has carried Spanish cooking into London and adapted it to different rooms, audiences and rhythms without losing the shape of the original food. The result is a career that has spread across the city and beyond it, but still reads as the work of a chef built on craft first.

Where They Are Now

Jose Pizarro is chef and owner of Jose Pizarro Broadgate in London. He is also a regular guest on TV shows and at festivals around the UK. Those two details describe the present scope of his work: one fixed restaurant in London, and a public schedule that keeps moving between screens, stages and festival sites around the UK. The kitchen remains the base, but the reach extends into wider food culture through repeat appearances and live events.

In Their Words “I decided to come to London to discover different types of cuisines from all over the world.” “I grew up on a farm where my dad used to plant all the vegetables and breed animals.” Read as a pair, those lines sketch the two ends of the same craft education. London is framed as a place to encounter other cuisines and widen the field of reference; the farm is the earlier setting, where vegetables were planted and animals bred, and where food was tied to daily labour and seasonality before it became restaurant work. It helps explain why Jose Pizarro’s work can move from Spain to London, and from one venue to another, while keeping a stable sense of where the food comes from. From El Mesón de Doña Filo to Eyre Brothers, Brindisa and Gaudi in London (from 1998), from Little José in Canary Wharf, London to José Tapas Bar (since 2011), Pizarro Restaurant (since 2011), José Pizarro at Broadgate Circle, The Swan Inn (since 2019), the co-created two restaurants at the Royal Academy of Arts (since 2021), and Iris Zahara (since 2022), the span is wide but the logic remains consistent. That consistency is the point: a chef who came to London to look outward, who carries a farm upbringing into public-facing restaurant work, and who has built a career by applying the same discipline across multiple addresses.