The All in One Ultimate Restaurant List Interview: Tom Oldroyd

Russell Norman and Chef Director Tom Oldroyd can seemingly do no wrong. Together they run three Polpo restaurants, Mishkin’s. Polpetto, which was temporarily housed at the French House, is scheduled to re-open by the end of the year, although details of a venue have yet to be announced.

When we last spoke to Tom Oldroyd he seemed slightly incredulous at having opened six hugely successful restaurants in just three years. How do they do it? “It's a combination of three things" he says. “We serve simple food with big flavours, in a buzzy environment with friendly service. People have described our restaurants as like being at a great party with really tasty food and drink. I think that's a good analogy. We try to create an experience that is transporting and fun while offering great value. It seems to be working."

Their next project is the Ape & Bird, a pub due to open on Shaftesbury Avenue in October. “It will have an eclectic menu with pub classics, hearty regional British nursery dishes and some favourites from beyond the UK. Expect oysters, scotch egg with celeriac fries, devilled kidneys on toast, blood pudding hash, mince and dumplings, whole poached trout with cobnuts and watercress, panhaggerty and a different pie for every day of the week. The head chef is yet to be announced."

Oldroyd had never intended to become a chef. “I loved restaurants, hotels and bars. I loved the buzz of everything hospitality related. It was the slightly OCD side of me that wanted to please as many people as possible as often as possible. I also thoroughly enjoyed cooking at home, it became an obsession. In my mind chefs were the lazy microwave operatives I had seen in my early career. It was only after travelling the world and meeting actual chefs that I thought I had to at least investigate this path of professional cooking. So I moved to London to see how far I could go."

At home he keeps cooking simple. “I cook one pot dishes, usually spicy, packed full of veg and in bulk, as I live with hungry mouths. Complemented with a glass of something and almost always followed by a square of something. If I’m dining alone or constrained by time then I probably just eat a tin of sardines on toast."