Points of departure
Why have you decided to give up cooking?
"There's more to life than being a chef. I'm getting married in August to my girlfriend, Sophie, who is French. We both enjoy the French way of life, so we've decided to go there to live.
"I've enjoyed cooking these past 15 years, though. I'm not giving up because I'm bored with it. Pied à Terre is a hands-on operation and I'm not good at delegating. I wouldn't want to be an absentee chef. I recognise the responsibility we have when people are paying £70-80 a head for dinner. It would break my heart if a customer said they could tell I wasn't cooking."
How long have you been thinking about leaving the kitchen to start a new life?
"I first started talking to Sophie about it 18 months ago. I realised I wouldn't be able to keep this job up physically and mentally for ever."
When you were awarded two Michelin stars in February, did it make your decision to stop cooking more difficult?
"It was never really about Michelin stars or accolades, but they have made my life a lot easier. There are nine of us in the kitchen now - when we first opened [four years ago] there were three. Physically, I was doing an awful lot more work three years ago. I'm enjoying my work now more than ever, but at the end of the day there's still the realisation that I can't do this for ever. There are aspects to life besides cooking that interest me."
What aspects in particular?
"Other creative things - photography, for example. It's inevitable I'll do something creative - I'm hardly going to end up on the stock market, am I? And if it gets to the stage when we can't pay the bills, I can always cook. Sophie's got a degree in finance so she should get a better job in France - the language has held her back in this country. But she's interested in fashion and hopes to do something in that field."
Do you believe a chef's life is a good one?
"It's a personal thing. There are advantages. I've met some really great people who have enriched my life. David [Moore], for example, is my restaurant manager and business partner, I've known him for nine years.
"Then there are the people in the kitchen. Steve Harrison has cooked with me for four years, on and off. He worked here when we got our first star and again when we got our second earlier this year - he's like a lucky mascot. He's going off to Brazil. If he had more ambition he could be a great cook. But he's not interested in starting his own restaurant."
Surely you need more than ambition to be a great cook and run your own restaurant?
"You've got to be capable of hard work. I don't think success is just a matter of luck. Some people slog away but they won't achieve success because they don't have the talent. That's sad. It does depend on what your perception of success is. Okay, I've got two stars now, but we're not making as much money as probably 80% of other London restaurants. We pay ourselves decent salaries, but the restaurant is very primitive."
But don't lots of chefs aspire to what you've achieved?
"Well maybe they're misguided, because I didn't set the targets in this business. In my eyes the best and most successful restaurants in this country and the Ivy and Le Caprice [in London]. They are certainly more successful than Pied à Terre."
Have you achieved all you set out to do as a chef and have now become disillusioned?
"When I heard I'd got a second Michelin star I became really mopey because the whole thing didn't seem worth it. Yes, I've had good times at Pied à Terre. I've been able to express myself through my cooking. I've met interesting people - they respect what you're doing, it's reciprocal admiration. Yes, it's made my life better."
"But my character make-up is not suited to being a chef. Besides the delegation thing, I'm very thin-skinned. I don't like any type of criticism. I take it all personally, especially if one of my chefs walks out on me. You share 14 or 15 hours of your day with your chefs, and they become family. It's like a girlfriend walking out on you. I get cut to pieces."
So are you bowing out while you're ahead?
"I'll be here for another six months or so. I've got projects to finish - completing a new halibut dish for example. It's not as if I've given up and am counting the hours until leaving.
"The Business Enterprise Scheme - the way we set up the business - finishes this September, so it's logical to hand over to my sous chef Tom Aikens then. He's buying my share of the business and will take over my role as chef-patron.
"Tom has just finished as chef de partie at Restaurant Joâl Robuchon, Paris. He's 26 and has a great talent. There are 3,000 more restaurant seats in London than when we opened Pied à Terre, so although he's inheriting a good customer base, I'm not saying it will be easier for him."
You've talked about how you've enjoyed your time as a chef - what about the down sides?
"The unsocial hours have never really bothered me - you make your friends around the restaurant. Sophie comes to the restaurant most nights. We plan our lives around Pied à Terre."
The Sunday Times restaurant critic AA Gill recently said that the only thing worse than being a chef was being a chef's wife. What do you say to that?
"It's probably true. An awful lot of relationships fail. I'd like to think I'll go into my marriage with the same commitment that I started Pied à Terre with. It's not something I'm going to give up half-way through.
"I couldn't get married half-heartedly. That would probably be the case if I stayed in London. The most logical step would be to move premises and go for our third star. But you've got to get your perspectives right in life."
Are you saying the energy needed to sustain that would mean forfeiting an existence outside work?
"Yes. Without Sophie I could carry on and get a third star and open up brasseries and all sorts of things like that. But it was never about money.
"It has been exciting to be part of the British culinary revolution. There's a really enthusiastic client base. People are interested in food and don't just eat out to absorb protein. We've got a talented work-force, too. But people who write about restaurants can't articulate this. It's to London's eternal shame that restaurants such as L'Arlequin, Cavalier's and Sutherland's ever went bust.
"The chefs had a good reputation for what they did rather than brown-nosing the right people. Food writers have their favourites. A good write-up can depend on whether you're ‘in the club'. The whole thing is a bit phoney. I'm not saying all chef-patrons with fewer than 50 covers who do every service themselves should automatically get a good review, but the critics could be more supportive.
"Take Eric [Crouillère-Chavot] down the road at Interlude de Chavot. He's doing 11 shifts a week just trying to get money through the door. One of the critics devoted half an article the other week to criticising his cheese trolley. What's the point?"
Have you had any bad reviews?
"Two in four years. One of them didn't actually criticise the food or service - the primary functions of a restaurant - he complained about the black slate floor we inherited from the previous restaurant."
Do you have any regrets?
"Not really. To be a chef you have to be driven and be prepared to work hard. It is a rewarding job and I wouldn't change what I've done for the past 15 years. The essence of it is, I'm getting married and I'm starting a new life and a new career. It would be possible to pay myself £100k a year, move to an 18-table restaurant and make some serious money - but it's about standard of living isn't it? In the future I want to be playing Scalextric with my children instead of playing at the stove."
Neat's successor - Career to date
Tom Aikens completed an advanced catering diploma at Norwich City College Hotel School, and joined the Mirabelle Restaurant in Eastbourne, East Sussex, as first commis chef in 1989.
A year later he moved to London and worked under Michelin-starred chef David Cavalier as chef de partie at Cavalier's.
In August 1991, Aikens joined the Capital Hotel in Knightsbridge, where he worked as chef de partie for six months before joining La Tante Claire in a similar position. He then moved to the Argyll restaurant in the King's Road and worked for seven months as sous chef.
His next move, in October 1993, took him to Pied à Terre as sous chef. There he worked for just under two years before arranging a six-month stage at Restaurant Joöl Robuchon, Paris.
Aikens has now returned to England and to Pied à Terre and takes over the reins from Richard Neat this September.
