Birthday: 06 September 1971
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With a large portfolio of restaurants to his name, Jason Atherton over the years has become one of Britain’s most prolific chefs. With four Michelin stars under his belt, he has mastered the art of casual fine dining not just in his London restaurants but also in locations as far afield as Shanghai and New York.
Brought up predominantly by his hotelier mother in the Lincolnshire town of Skegness, Atherton first started to enjoy cooking during his home economics classes at school. This led to a short stint training at the Army Catering Corps - a period of time which he didn’t enjoy and ended up lasting only six weeks.
After briefly working in the kitchen of hotel back in Skegness, Atherton decided to move to London to further his career as a chef. Having already worked alongside big names such as Marco Pierre White and Pierre Koffmann, in 2001 he met Gordon Ramsay who began to mentor him. This led to a nine year working relationship with Ramsay which included being the first head chef of Michelin-starred Maze.
Buoyed on by his success under Ramsay, Atherton took the decision in 2010 to begin his own restaurant venture ‘The Social Company’ and since then he hasn’t looked back. His flagship restaurant Pollen Street Social quickly garnered numerous awards, including a Michelin star, 4 AA rosettes and the top spot on a number of best lists. This led to the opening of further London restaurants including Social Eating House (one Michelin star), City Social (one Michelin star) and The Berner’s Tavern, as well as restaurants in Dubai, Shanghai, The Philippines, and New York.
This success has seen Atherton become a regular on cookery shows, being one of the few chefs ever to cook multiple courses at a Great British Menu Banquet, as well as having recipes printed in a number of high profile magazines and newspapers. With new restaurants opening as recently as 2019, the sky really is the limit for Jason Atherton.