The All In One Ultimate Restaurant List Interview: Alexis Gauthier

Gauthier Soho is unusual in that it’s a fine dining restaurant that includes calorie information on the menus. The reason is that Chef Patron Alexis Gauthier was diagnosed with fatty liver disease in 2010, and had to start watching what he ate. This year he released the cookbook Vegetronic, a recipe book and encyclopaedia of vegetables. “I am convinced that vegetables will have a much bigger prominence in the future. Chefs are going to find a lot more inspiration with vegetables rather than with meat or fish. Customers are going to be more and more excited and willing to eat an all-vegetable meal for taste and healthy eating purposes. Just like I said in Vegetronic, vegetables are going to take control!”

On the other hand, he hates durian. “I can’t stand its smell, texture and appearance. I can smell it miles away, so when it is the season in Chinatown, I can smell it from my kitchen on the other side of Shaftesbury Avenue. Awful.”

He says all of his favourite restaurants in the world are in London: “Tendido Cuatro on New Kings Road for their amazing paella, River Café in Hammersmith for the simplicity of their cooking and the amazing ingredients, Yauatcha in Soho for the best venison puff on earth and Bob Bob Ricard in Soho for the décor, service and delicious beef with shallots.”

He’s has varied influences throughout his career. “Many people have actually had a huge impact in my cooking. Starting with my grandmother who was, despite never using a cookery book, the best vegetable cook I ever met, to Alice Waters in Berkeley, California, and Alain Ducasse in Monaco, from whom I learnt that ingredients are more important than the chef.”