Colin Buchan leaves GRH to join Jason Atherton's Pollen in Singapore

Colin Buchan, head chef at Gordon Ramsay's York and Albany, has left the north London restaurant and townhouse hotel after nearly four years at its helm.

The chef, who launched the York and Albany in Camden in 2008, is joining Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton's restaurant business in Singapore. He will be head chef at Pollen, supporting executive head chef Colin Clague and executive pastry chef Andres Lara.

"Colin Buchan has left York and Albany to take a position overseas with Jason Atherton," a spokeswoman for Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) confirmed.

"GRH are currently in the process of appointing a new head chef, in the meantime group executive chef Simon Gregory is responsible for York and Albany."

Atherton commented: "I am delighted to have Colin on board in his new role working under Colin Clague."

Buchan began his career in 1997 at Marco Pierre White's L'Escargot in London's Soho and joined GRH in 2000 to launch Amaryllis in Glasgow. Following a stint at Manchester's Wild Berries, he joined Angela Hartnett at the Connaught Hotel in 2006 as sous chef. When the restaurant closed in 2007, Buchan spent a year working as a private chef in France, before returning to London to launch the York and Albany in 2008 together with Hartnett.

The York and Albany includes a restaurant, bar and deli as well as 10 individually designed bedrooms.

Atherton, chef proprietor of the award-winning Pollen Street Social in London, runs two restaurants in Singapore: L'esquina (meaning "the corner"), a 15-cover "gastro tapas bar" housed in a former Chinese launderette in Chinatown, and Pollen, situated in the Gardens by the Bay South in Singapore's new downtown. Pollen is run by executive head chef Clague, formerly of Caprice Holdings Middle East and prior to that Zuma London, where he was head chef for six years before moving to Zuma Dubai in 2008.

Atherton also runs Table No 1 in Shanghai.

Jason Atherton to open second Singapore restaurant, with ex-Zuma chef Colin Clague >>

Pollen Street Social's Jason Atherton to open Singapore restaurant >>

By Kerstin Kühn

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