All change at Aubergine

01 January 2000
All change at Aubergine

"IF YOU'D told me 12 months ago that I was going to be head chef of Aubergine, I'd have laughed," says William Drabble with a reluctant smile. Nevertheless, at 27 years old, that is precisely what he is.

Of course, stepping into Gordon Ramsay's shoes at the renowned Chelsea restaurant is not everybody's idea of heaven, as Drabble is the first to admit.

"Some of my friends think I'm mad to have taken the job on because, at the end of the day, I'm always going to be compared with Gordon," he says. "And it did bother me at first - Gordon's boots are big boots to fill - but it was too good an opportunity to miss. Anyway, it's a different restaurant now. As far as I'm concerned, I'm starting from scratch."

On the face of it, Drabble couldn't be more different from his predecessor. By his own admission, he is quiet and shy - he is patently uneasy fielding interview questions, endlessly twiddling his fingers and often covering his mouth with battle-scarred hands - and dismisses the idea that, by taking over at Aubergine, he has ensured himself celebrity status. "I just cook," he maintains.

Do not, however, make the mistake of underestimating this softly spoken Liverpool-born chef. He comes to Aubergine having already gained a Michelin star during his first tenure as a head chef at the Cumbrian country house hotel, Michael's Nook - a star gained within a year of taking up the position. And his avowed aim for the immediate future is to emulate Ramsay by retaining Aubergine's two-star status.

As for the long-term future, Drabble has his sights firmly set on three Michelin stars. "You've got to have an aim, an ambition," he says, qualifying the statement immediately by adding: "But that doesn't mean I have to be high-profile. Pierre Koffmann achieved three stars and a full restaurant, but you don't see him in everything. He's the clever one."

Keeping a low profile does not necessitate tolerance of incompetent staff, though, and Drabble is not above shouting at his brigade to get the results he wants. "Shouting can wake people up, motivate them," he explains. "I set my standards high. I'm very patient most of the time but stupidity irritates me. When I show somebody [in my brigade] how to do something, I expect him to do it correctly - my way. I don't want anything changed. People are here to cook my food - I'm not here to cook theirs."

That Drabble is a perfectionist should come as no surprise, given his track record. His CV includes stints in the kitchens of some of London's most prestigious restaurants - the Capital, the three-Michelin starred Chez Nico at Ninety and, prior to moving up to Cumbria, Pied à Terre, where he helped Tom Aikens retain two Michelin stars after Richard Neat's departure.

As befits someone with this culinary history, Drabble's own style is firmly rooted in classical cuisine, his dishes being noteworthy for their balance of flavours and simple, accurate execution. He is not a chef who seeks to impress with flashy technique, although there is no doubt that he possesses the skills to do so if he wished - a fact apparent in the accomplished langoustine ravioli starter (served with sauce vierge) which is currently on offer to his diners at Aubergine.

The dish, with its understated complexity, is somehow typical of a chef who thinks and weighs his words carefully before he speaks. And that quality of premeditation is apparent in many of the other dishes on the Aubergine menu, all of which exhibit Drabble's food philosophy of "keeping it simple".

For instance, a braised middle neck of lamb served with root vegetables and rosemary-scented jus is another quintessential Drabble offering. "It's good, honest, tasty food, cooked well," he says, adding, in an effort to explain his style: "I don't like messing around with food - the flavours you match together should complement and lift the main ingredient without overpowering it. The lamb is served on top of a purée with the vegetables and sauce round the outside. That's it."

Fresh produce

Unsurprisingly, part of Drabble's credo of letting food speak for itself is an emphasis on fresh, seasonal produce. Thus, vegetables such as celeriac, leek and fennel are currently teamed with ingredients such as pigeon, turbot and red mullet, respectively. Pears might crop up, unusually, in a starter of sautéd foie gras served with sweet onions, rocket, shallot and a balsamic sauce; or, more traditionally, in a dessert of belle héläne.

Part and parcel of Drabble's way of reacting to the seasons is to constantly tweak his menu, although he is wary of changing all the dishes in one fell swoop. "That's suicide," he says, breaking into a deep-throated chuckle. "Can you imagine it? Changing seven starters and seven main courses and going, ‘Right, boys, 50 booked tonight, none of you know the dishes, but I'm all right!'"

One dish that is just about to get a face-lift, however, is a main course of braised turbot - a favourite fish due to its meatiness and ability to stand up to a range of flavours. Drabble has been serving it as a matelote accompanied by crushed new potatoes and roasted leeks. "I'm going to do it with truffled vegetables, including fennel, and a bit of nage," he says. "Why? Because all those flavours just go with the fish without overpowering it."

Explaining the whys and wherefores of matching ingredients clearly does not come naturally to Drabble. Words are not his medium, cooking is, and his greatest tool in deciding what to place in a dish is his palate. Ask why he loves the taste of sweetbreads and cäpes together and he says: "I can't explain it - it just feels right. Textures, flavours - everything goes really well together. I know because I eat it." Then, thumping his chest, he adds: "It's in here, it's in my heart."

Drabble's heart and brain obviously work well together when it comes to thinking up new dishes. Often, he will mull over the germ of an idea for days (inspiration tends to come from his training, sometimes from books) before trying out flavour combinations and sketching out a template. He is currently obsessed with creating a pig's head terrine. "It's classical, but it's different," he explains. "Originally, I was going to do a pig's head main course, but I've done that several times, so then I started thinking about a terrine. I'll probably change my mind by tonight, but there's a pig's head on standby to try out tomorrow."

Luckily for Drabble, one thing he won't have to bear in mind when devising the dish's appearance is its height - being a terrine, that consideration doesn't come into play. He is acutely aware that his waiting staff have to transport plated food up a flight of stairs to get it to the table. "You need height in a dish, to give it impact," he concedes, "but you can't stack things too high because it's got to get to the table in one piece."

Another limitation he has to bear in mind is the fact that his kitchen brigade is not yet up to full strength. It currently numbers 10, including three pastry chefs, but Drabble aims to increase it to 13. The team includes many old friends: pastry chef Steve James (from Marco Pierre White's Mirabelle restaurant) and chef de partie Dustin Rogers (from Chez Nico) are old Pied à Terre pals, while his acquaintance with sous chef Steve Drake (from White's Oak Room) dates back to Drabble's days at Chez Nico.

They all, he says, contacted him when they heard on the grapevine that he'd got the job at Aubergine, which brings the conversation neatly back to how he was offered the head chef's post in the first place.

Giuliano Lotto, director of A-Z Restaurants, which owns Aubergine, rang Drabble one day in late August to let him know that the job at Aubergine was vacant. "He asked to meet me," recalls Drabble, "and came up and stayed at Michael's Nook and we had a chat, although I didn't accept the job there and then." However, it did not take him long to decide to move back to London, and on 5 September he was installed at Aubergine. "I looked at a kitchen with no chefs in it and a restaurant with no staff and nearly ran back to Cumbria. But I looked at what I had, what I needed to get and how to organise things, and just got on with it," he says with a wry smile.

And of his relationship with Lotto - whose stormy association with Ramsay and L'Oranger's former head chef, Marcus Wareing, will be familiar to readers of Chef - Drabble has this to say: "We get on fine - we're still in the honeymoon period, I suppose. He comes in most days to say hello but doesn't interfere with how I run the restaurant."

Unquestionably, Drabble relishes the challenge he faces at Aubergine, even though, currently, it means he is working from 7am to 1am. Leisure time, it seems, equates with sleep at the moment, but he unhesitatingly asserts that the job is worth it.

"When I was at Michael's Nook, I did a lot fewer hours and I was constantly tired," he says. "I had the job sussed and it was easy. Now, although I'm doing two or three times more hours, I feel better within myself. There's a purpose to getting up and going in to work in the morning - and most people in London know my name now. Two months ago they didn't." n

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