Phillip Kaye

If one person has shaped the casual dining experience in this country more than any other then Phillip Kaye is the man. He is the “godfather” of group restaurants in the UK and like all good godfathers he has remained involved and guided his charge’s path right up to this very day.

It is amazing that Kaye has remained at the top of his game for so long. His first foray into the sector was the birth of the Golden Egg restaurant group, with his brother Reginald in the early 1960s.

These were the first group of restaurants to appear on the high street and combined a separate coffee bar and inexpensive casual dining. Initially, their bright colour schemes and individuality broke with the conservatism of what had gone before. The early Golden Egg’s design had tremendous impact on others entering the market and helping to advance restaurant design from itsvacuum in the early 1960s.

Of course, his longevity has brought him great wealth, but it also shows that Kaye has been able to spot an opportunity and develop a concept, which will appeal across the whole country. He has also been adept at selling to bigger players when the time was right.

After selling the Golden Egg restaurant chain Kaye has continued to break the mould, spotting opportunities for new types of casual dining experience. 1n 1979, he and his brother set up another restaurant and coffee shop chain in central London called Garfunkel’s. Eight years later they sold the group for £26m to City Centre Restaurants (now The Restaurant Group).

Since then he has been a driving force behind the success of his sons, ASK Central founders Adam and Sam (who won a Catey for Group Restaurateur in 1998). This highly successful group of midmarket pizza and pasta restaurants, which includes the brands ASK and Zizzi, was bought by TDR in 2004 for £213m. Kaye has also invested money and his experience in his nephew Jonathan Kaye’s restaurant chain, Prezzo, a modern European-style brasserie. Last year he also took a large stake in Gourmet Holdings, the fledgling restaurant group that owns the Bel and the Dragon pubs and Richoux restaurants.

One judge described his influence as “immense”, another peer said he was lurking in the background for just about every casual dining event that had happened in the last 30 years.

Clapham House Group executive chairman David Page called him the “father figure of British catering”. “He is very, very sharp,” he added.

During the Catey Group Restaurateur judging, Kaye was hailed as the figure that had had the most influence on all previous winners.

The judges
Nominations for the Special Award were compiled from recommendations from Caterer readers and from suggestions from each of the 16 Catey judging panels. The judging panel was made up of senior members of the Caterer and Hotelkeeper editorial team.

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