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Joel Kissin, originally from New Zealand, [1] is a restaurateur who was the co-founder, managing director, and shareholder of Conran Restaurants (now D&D London). Kissin has been involved in opening a dozen restaurants in London and New York.[ citation needed ]
Kissin met Sir Terence Conran in 1986 whilst running the restaurant Hilaire. [1] In 1987, Conran asked Kissin to join Simon Hopkinson, Hilaire's chef, to help launch Bibendum in The Michelin Building. In addition to managing the restaurant and oyster bar, Kissin created an award-winning wine list for the restaurant. [2] After Bibendum, Kissin joined Conran at his new development in Butler's Wharf. [3] Kissin and Conran first created Le Pont de la Tour at Butler's Wharf comprising a restaurant, bar & grill, food shop, wine merchant, oil and spice shop, and bakery.
Kissin and Conran then purchased the Quaglino's site. They also opened Le Pont de la Tour (which hosted a dinner for the Blairs and the Clintons in 1997 [4] ) and Cantina del Ponte next door before Quaglino's opened on Valentine's Day 1993. The restaurant "broke the mould" in that it was the largest restaurant London had ever known. It seated 350 people, and was fully booked months before opening, remaining that way for many years. The restaurant received critical acclaim and was a leader in terms of turnover and profitability at the time. The restaurant was mentioned in the TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous , as was Le Pont de la Tour.[ citation needed ]
With the opening of the Butlers Wharf Chop-House in 1994, Kissin and Conran opened three restaurants in a period of 10 months, with a combined turnover of nearly £16 million.[ citation needed ]
In 1994, Kissin and Conran were jointly awarded a "Catey" as Best Independent Restaurateurs by The Caterer and Hotelkeeper Magazine. [5] The two men continued to open restaurants in London including Mezzo, The Orrery (with chef Chris Galvin), and the Bluebird complex until Kissin left London in late 1997 to open Guastavino's in New York. [6] The Kissin and Conran partnership ended in 2002.[ citation needed ]
From 2002 to 2010, Kissin developed residential property in New York City and East Hampton, NY. This included a 6,000 square foot brownstone on the Upper West side, a 2,600 square foot penthouse on Fifth Avenue complete with 2,500 square feet of terraces, and a 11,500 square foot mansion on two landscaped acres in East Hampton. [7]
Noted as 'one of the most influential restaurateurs in Britain', [8] Kissin returned to London to launch Boulestin. [9] Boulestin was inspired by French restaurateur, author, and pioneering TV presenter Xavier Marcel Boulestin, whose eponymous Covent Garden restaurant opened in 1927 and who was the world's first TV chef on the BBC from 1937 to 1939.
The new Boulestin opened on St James's Street on 2 September 2013. It comprises a 90-seat (plus outside seating) restaurant and a private dining room. Boulestin specialises in serving mostly classic French cuisine, with dishes including Soupe de Poissons, Jambon Persillé, and Oeuf en Gelée [10] as well as less classic dishes such as Scallops with Grilled Octopus and Baby Fennel and Venison Loin with Crab Apples and Smoked Chestnuts.
Within weeks of opening, the restaurant received high praise from food critics.[ citation needed ]
Describing it as "bang on trend", The Guardian 's Jay Rayner asserted that "Marcel Boulestin would have loved his namesake restaurant... the new Boulestin hits the mark," before going on to laud the tête de veau – "done brilliantly" – and "a brace of perfectly cooked quail." [11]
Writing in the Evening Standard , Fay Maschler singled out the "Oeuf en gelée rendered spectacular by the sunset yolk of a Cotswold Legbar egg," [12] whilst Time Out's Guy Dimond was delighted that "rather than trying to impersonate an old master, this Boulestin is a sensitively updated reproduction," before commenting that "classic French cooking at its best shines in dishes such as daube of beef, which was slow-cooked and wonderfully tender." [13]
Stephen Bayley, the esteemed author, critic, columnist, consultant, broadcaster, debater, and curator concludes his experience with "there's nowhere in the area I would rather eat.”
Zoe Williams, restaurant critic from The Telegraph , describes the restaurant as, "the kind of place that makes you feel like a success; like a person who has gone back to the 1930s, when ceilings were high, fittings were brass and rooms were gorgeous.", [14] whilst AA Gill from The Times stated "The Daube de Boeuf was the best I have had in a long time" and "The food was pretty damn formidable!" [15]
Boulestin was sold in February 2018.[ citation needed ]
Kissin was a board member of the Restaurant Association of Great Britain (RAGB) in the 1990s and was also a board member of the New York Chapter of the National Restaurant Association (NRA). He is now an advisory board member of the Restaurant Association division of the BHA in the UK.[ citation needed ]
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(October 2017) |
Restaurant's owned, managed or opened by Joel Kissin and Sir Terence Conran:
Bibendum, Modern British, 1987 [16]
Blueprint Café, Modern British, 1989 [17]
Le Pont de la Tour, Modern European, 1991 [18]
Cantina del Ponte, Mediterranean, 1992 [19]
Quaglino's, Modern European, 1993 [20]
Butlers Wharf Chop House, British, 1993
Mezzo, Modern European, 1995
Bluebird, Modern European, 1997
Zinc Bar and Grill – Opened in 1997
The Orrery – Modern European – opened in 1997
Guastavino's NY, American, 2000 [6]
Sir Terence Orby Conran was a British designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. He founded the Design Museum in Shad Thames, London in 1989. The British designer Thomas Heatherwick said that Conran "moved Britain forward to make it an influence around the world." Edward Barber, from the British design team Barber & Osgerby, described Conran as "the most passionate man in Britain when it comes to design, and his central idea has always been 'Design is there to improve your life.'" The satirist Craig Brown once joked that before Conran "there were no chairs and no France."
John Douglas Torode is an Australian-British celebrity chef and TV presenter. He moved to the UK in the 1990s and began working at Conran Group's restaurants. After first appearing on television on ITV's This Morning, he started presenting a revamped MasterChef on BBC One in 2005. He is a restaurateur; former owner of the Luxe and a second restaurant, Smiths of Smithfield. He has also written a number of cookbooks, including writing some with fellow MasterChef presenter and judge, Gregg Wallace.
Xavier Marcel Boulestin was a French chef, restaurateur, and the author of cookery books that popularised French cuisine in the English-speaking world.
Michelin House at 81 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, was constructed as the first permanent UK headquarters and tyre depot for the Michelin Tyre Company Ltd. The building opened for business on 20 January 1911. In 1987 the building was converted to mixed-use, with a store, restaurant, bar and office space.
The Cateys are a UK award ceremony for the hospitality industry, first held in 1984. They have been described as the hospitality industry's equivalent of the Oscars. Recipients are nominated, selected and awarded by the industry through The Caterer magazine.
Jason Atherton is an English chef and restaurateur. His flagship restaurant Pollen Street Social gained a Michelin Star in 2011, its opening year. He was the Executive Chef at Gordon Ramsay's Michelin starred Maze in London until 30 April 2010. In 2014 he co-hosted the Sky Living TV series My Kitchen Rules.
Jeremy James Lee is a British chef and chef proprietor at Quo Vadis, London. He had previously been head chef at the Blueprint Café for eighteen years.
Éric Chavot is a French Michelin starred chef. He was working the head chef at the Bob Bob Cité and Bob Bob Ricard restaurants in London until January 2020, as well as the consultant chef at the Royal Albert Hall's Coda restaurant. Born in Arcachon, Gironde, Chavot was trained at the Boucanier, then at the Patio.
Club Gascon is a French restaurant located in London, England. As of 2002, the restaurant holds one star in the Michelin Guide. The French restaurant was opened by Pascal Aussignac and Vincent Labeyrie in October 1998, and serves French cuisine. In addition to its Michelin star, it has also won two Catey Awards.
Simon Charles Hopkinson is an English food writer, critic and former chef. He published his first cookbook, Roast Chicken and Other Stories, in 1994.
Clare Smyth is a Northern Irish chef. She is the Chef Patron of three Michelin starred Core by Clare Smyth which opened in 2017. Previously she was Chef Patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay from 2012 to 2016, won the Chef of the Year award in 2013, and achieved a perfect score in the 2015 edition of the Good Food Guide. Smyth has also appeared on television shows such as Masterchef and Saturday Kitchen. Smyth also notably catered at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 2018 wedding.
Pétrus is a restaurant in London, which serves modern French cuisine. It is located in Kinnerton Street, Belgravia and is part of Gordon Ramsay restaurants owned by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's Gordon Ramsay Restaurants Ltd. It has held one Michelin star since 2011, and 3 AA Rosettes.
Hélène Darroze is a French chef. She has 6 Michelin stars and three restaurants, Hélène Darroze at The Connaught in London with 3 stars, Marsan par Hélène Darroze in Paris with 2 stars and Hélène Darroze à Villa La Coste in Provence with 1 star.
Quaglino's is a restaurant in central London which was founded in 1929, closed in 1977, and revived in 1993. From the 1930s through the 1950s, it was popular among the British aristocracy, including the royal family, many of whom were regulars, and was a haunt of London's café society. It offered dinner, music and dancing. In the 1960s, it was sold to a succession of hotel companies, and its reputation faded; it closed in 1977.
Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill is a seafood restaurant at 11-15 Swallow Street, London, which opened in 1916. The restaurant, previously known as Bentley's, has always specialised in oysters and seafood, and serves classic British dishes under the stewardship of Chef Richard Corrigan.
Hayden Kain Groves is an English chef and amateur cyclist. He is the author of the Cure Leukaemia Charity cook book Back in the Saddle and won the title of National Chef of the Year in 2013.
D&D London is a restaurant group based in London with properties in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Paris and New York. It was founded by Terence Conran as Conran Restaurants until 2007, when Conran sold 49% of the business to Des Gunewardena and David Loewi, formerly managers in the group, who rebranded it D&D.
Philip Howard is a South African-British chef, chef patron, and restaurateur. He gained cooking skills while working under Marco Pierre White at Harveys and Simon Hopkinson at Bibendum. Howard and White's then-business partner Nigel Platts-Martin opened London restaurant The Square in December 1991, despite both of their inexperience in operating a restaurant at the time.
The Square was a London fine dining restaurant, opened on 13 December 1991 in St James's. Since its opening, it had been co-owned by chef Phil Howard and wine expert Nigel Platts-Martin. It also earned its first Michelin star in 1994 and retained it from then on. After relocating to Mayfair in February 1997, The Square won a second Michelin star in 1998, which it retained until 2016, the same year when Howard and Platts-Martin sold the restaurant to a company held by Marlon Abela. It regained its first Michelin star in 2017. It closed on 31 January 2020, causing the restaurant to lose its star the following year.
José Pizarro is a Spanish chef, restaurateur and writer. He runs José Pizarro Group, which currently includes six restaurants in the UK and one in Abu Dhabi. He has published six cookbooks and is a regular guest on TV shows and at festivals around the UK. Pizarro is often credited with making Spanish food popular in the country.
