Internationally acclaimed chef Heinz Beck is set to come to London and will open a restaurant at the Lanesborough hotel next month, Caterersearch can reveal.
The German-born chef, who runs the world-famous three-Michelin-starred La Pergola at the Cavaleri hotel in Rome, will take over the hotel’s Apsleys restaurant at the beginning of September.
The move, first reported by Caterer’s restaurant blog Guide Girl last month, sees Beck take over the 120-seat space housed in the Lanesborough’s former Conservatory Restaurant.
The Italian restaurant, designed by Adam Tihany, has been without a head chef since last autumn, after the departure of Nick Bell, who left just six months after launching it following mixed reviews from critics.
Apsleys – A Heinz Beck restaurant will be overseen by Beck and his handpicked brigade of chefs. The restaurant’s executive chef will be Massimiliano Blasone, who has worked with Beck for more than a decade, and was most recently executive chef at the Michelin-starred Castello Banfi in Tuscany.
The menu will be traditionally Italian with antipasti, soup, pasta, meat and fish main courses as well as desserts. Starters will be priced from £14 while main courses will start at £19. There will be a Menu del Giorno at lunch priced £26 for three courses as well as a seven-course Menu Degustazione priced £75.
Beck, who has held the top accolade of three Michelin stars since 2005, is one of the most recognised chefs in the world. He describes his culinary style, which has seen him compared with Ferran Adrià and Pierre Gagnaire, as a "light cuisine of Mediterranean flavours".
He spent the early years of his career working in his native Germany, and from 1991 to 1993 worked under Heinz Winkler in Aschau, Germany, who had at the time held two Michelin stars (now three).
Beck has been at La Pergola since it opened in August 1994.
Guide Girl: Is Heinz Beck taking over at the Lanesborough? >>
Nick Bell quits Apsleys after just six months >>
Three-Michelin-starred chef Heinz Beck on his culinary philosophy >>
By Kerstin Kühn
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