Executive Chef of The Ritz London awarded Lifetime Achievement Award

Executive Chef John Williams MBE was awarded the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Tatler Restaurant Awards on 30th April.

“To receive this Lifetime Achievement Award from Tatler is a fantastic honour especially considering how many of my fellow chefs are suitably eligible for it. Having this award bestowed upon me came is a complete surprise, after all it would be rather presumptuous for a working class lad from South Shields to think that he would one day grace the pages of society’s bellwether publication” – John Williams

Born the son of a Tyneside fisherman, John Williams developed his passion for food at an early age. Taught by his mother to cook, his culinary interests began with cookery classes at school and continued as he studied at South Shields College and later at Westminster College. John’s glittering career, which spans over 40 years, began at the Percy Arms Hotel Otterburn in 1974 and has taken him all the way to The Ritz via The Savoy, Claridge’s and The Berkeley.

John joined The Ritz as Executive Chef in 2004, and in his current role oversees a kitchen brigade of some 64 chefs and is responsible for the menus in The Ritz Restaurant, The Palm Court, The Rivoli Bar, Room Service and the private dining rooms at William Kent House at The Ritz. He considers it his responsibility to protect and promote the culinary identity of The Ritz: ‘haute cuisine’, prepared with the finest seasonal ingredients and using classic methods as originally espoused by Auguste Escoffier.

The Tatler Lifetime Achievement Award is the latest addition to John’s impressive collection of accolades. He has been a member of the Academy of Culinary Arts for the past 20 years, promoting the education and mentoring of young chefs, and was appointed Executive Chairman in 2004. In 2007, John became the first British chef to be awarded a CMA by the French government, in recognition of his promotion of French cuisine, and in 2008 he was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.