Five London chefs to watch

We round up five up-and-coming chefs to look out for this year.

Dale Osborne
There’s been talk of famous hotelier André Balazs opening a London hotel for a while now, but rumour has it that 2014 is the year. Balazs made his name with Stateside celebrity haunts Chateau Marmont and The Standard, so his choice for the kitchen of the as-yet-unnamed hotel restaurant was always going to be newsworthy. Dale Osborne, formerly the sous chef at Dinner, is to take the reigns when the steak eatery opens this spring, and all restaurant industry eyes will be on him.

Andy Oliver
Andy Oliver’s expertise is in Thai cooking; he spent a couple of years at Nahm at the Halkin hotel, helped Alan Yau set up his all-day eatery Naamyaa, and he can currently be found at The Begging Bowl, Peckham’s newest dining sensation. He is now looking at sites for his first restaurant, which will be called Som Saa.

Andrei Lesment
David Moore, owner of Michelin-starred Pied à Terre, is set to open a smokehouse-inspired restaurant in West Hampstead called 160 Degrees Fahrenheit. The chef will be Andrei Lesment, who in the past has worked at The Savoy and Gordon Ramsay’s Maze. In 2011 he opened Verru, a ballsy restaurant with just 26 covers that combines Scandinavian, French and Baltic influences (Lesment is Estonian). At 160 Degrees Fahrenheit, Lesment will be turning his attention to in-vogue slow-smoked beef and pork.

Natalie Coleman
Natalie Coleman has been very busy indeed since winning Masterchef in 2013. As well as holding demos at Borough Market and teaching GCSE students how to cook, she’s joined Marcus Wareing, Simon Rogan, Michel Roux Jr and Nuno Mendes in their kitchens. Although she has no plans to open a solo restaurant in the immediate future, we’re expecting to hear a lot more from her this year.

James Lowe (pictured)
The Young Turks collective made a success out of everything they turned their hand to, whether it was The Clove Club pop-up at the Ten Bells pub or serving Turkish-style grilled meats at the top of a multi-storey carpark in Peckham (Frank's Cafe & Campari Bar). Now founder member James Lowe has a restaurant in the pipeline for 2014. Details are yet to be revealed, but with Lowe’s impressive CV (Noma, St. John Bread & Wine), the upcoming launch is going to be huge news.