Jun Tanaka

Coming Up

Technique at The Ninth is built on restraint, with Jun Tanaka’s 2015 opening in London setting the frame for a cooking style that reads as disciplined rather than decorative. The Michelin star that followed in 2017 sits alongside a quieter aim: as Tanaka puts it, the restaurant is “a relaxed neighbourhood restaurant that serves French food with distinctly Mediterranean influences, designed for family-style sharing.” That description does the work of a kitchen brief. It points to food that comes to the table composed, confident, and unshowy, with ease measured rather than improvised. “I wouldn’t say the dishes are simple, but the aim is that they should taste effortless.” Training in serious kitchens gave Tanaka’s career its shape: progression, repetition, and exacting standards. From 1990, the apprenticeship at Le Gavroche placed him in a system where every movement counts. The subsequent posts — Chef de partie at Chez Nico and The Capital, then Chef de partie at Les Saveurs — built experience across kitchens where pace and discipline matter. He went on as sous chef at The Restaurant, Harvey's, and The Oak Room, before becoming junior sous chef at The Square. The route is linear, but that is the point: a chef learning the brigade from within, step by step, while absorbing the details that hold a dish together. Leadership widened at Chavot, then expanded further at Pearl Restaurant and Bar, Renaissance London Chancery Court Hotel in London (2004–2012), where Tanaka served as executive head chef. That period also brought television work: host at Cooking It from 2006 and resident chef at Food Poker from 2007. The screen roles extended his reach beyond the pass, but the register stayed the same — controlled, exact, and legible to a wider audience without being simplified. Since 2009, Street Kitchen has added a different format to Tanaka’s work, and since 2015 The Ninth has been the clearest expression of his restaurant cooking in London. Alongside those roles, his regular appearances on Market Kitchen, Daily Cooks Challenge, and MasterChef: the Professionals place a working chef in public view without changing the underlying method. The through-line is consistency: restaurant work, mobile format, and broadcast all carried with the same measured composure.

Where They Are Now

The Ninth has been Tanaka’s base since 2015, and the cooking there is organised around clarity, flavour, and shared service. The neighbourhood restaurant format is not treated as a concession; it is the structure through which the food speaks most clearly. In that setting, restraint is not a soft word. It is the way the plate stays legible.

Signature

Langoustine ravioli, The Ninth Barbecue Box, and black truffle pasta kit point to three modes in Tanaka’s cooking: precision, generosity, and the ability to build a dish that feels complete without excess. The set is telling. These are recognisable forms, shaped with a disciplined hand, and they carry the balance Tanaka returns to across his work: comfort, but controlled.

In Their Words “We’re a relaxed neighbourhood restaurant that serves French food with distinctly Mediterranean influences, designed for family-style sharing.” “I wouldn’t say the dishes are simple, but the aim is that they should taste effortless.”

Honors

Michelin star (2017) and Grand Finale of Chopped Champions winner mark different kinds of recognition, but both sit cleanly within Tanaka’s career. The star confirms the consistency of the restaurant work at The Ninth; the Chopped Champions win points to the same quick-thinking discipline under pressure. Together they reflect a chef whose work reads as controlled in the dining room and decisive when the clock is running.