SOLD OUT 5 course menu with Chef David Pigram

David Pigram

Truth be told, I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a Chef.  After leaving school I attended the Colchester Institute to gain my Level 2 & 3 in Catering and Hospitality.  While attending college I also worked at The White Hart restaurant in Suffolk, owned by Michel Roux.  Unfortunately, a few years ago the restaurant was converted into flats, but it was an amazing place at the time.

Once I had finished my training, I had the opportunity to work at Keswick Hall in Virginia, USA.  Another great experience, although I did start to miss the discipline of working in a strict kitchen!  When my Visa expired I returned to England for a few years working in some local hotels and restaurants, but never really settled.

Australia beckoned and I worked in a restaurant called Pier, in Sydney.  This opened my eyes to a whole new world of cooking and I fell in love with kitchen life all over again.  Pier was very full on, high pressure all the time.  The produce in Australia was amazing and the simple perfection of every dish still excites me now.  The Head Chef was Grant King, someone I will admire forever.

When I returned to England I worked at Michelin starred Reads in Kent where we grew much of our own produce although I stayed on pastry for most of my time, learning as I went along.  Following that I headed for the bright lights of London and ran the kitchen in the Montague on the Gardens hotel.

From there I progressed into the corporate world and worked for JP Morgan, cooking for the Directors.  The food was amazing, although as there was no restaurant service as such.  I missed the buzz of service so much that I moved to One Moorgate Place and took my first role as Executive Chef, which utilised my management skills, and where I stayed for four and a half years (by far my longest position).  However, I’m still not ready to move away from the stoves!

I was offered the position of Executive Head Chef at The Royal Society, and I moved straight in.  The role is event based and I have developed the food offer, changed the kitchen practices and built a cohesive team of chefs.  I have also had the opportunity to lead events such as the launch of Wonderlab at the National Science Museum (here I engineered levitating foods, live n2 freezing stations and reverse spherification).  Along with my team, we won the Caterer of the Year competition where the show stopping piece was a live edible painting relating to various work created by Ai Weiwei which included broken vases, Lego, paints and paintbrushes.