Chef Victor Garvey opens tasting menu restaurant in London’s Notting Hill

Chef Victor Garvey has launched a 16-seater tasting menu restaurant in London’s Notting Hill.

Mater1a (Materia Prima) by Victor Garvey, meaning ‘raw material’, serves a choice between an 11- and 21-course tasting menu.

Many of the dishes have been inspired by Garvey’s formative years spent working in Japan, as well as his experience on both sides of the Atlantic.

Examples include Atsuyaki Tamago (a Japanese soufflé omelette) made with Cacklebean egg and served with black truffle, smoked Cornish sardine with Shine Muscat grape and Marcona almond, and Shizuoka Crown melon.

Front of house is being led by restaurant manager Ruben Santos, who was previously at the two-Michelin-starred Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal, and head sommelier Christian Vega, previously of the Michelin-starred Rotisserie du Chambertin in Burgundy.

Garvey is also being supported by head chef Kaming Pang, who was formerly sous chef at his first restaurant, the Michelin-starred Sola in London’s Soho.

Pang is originally from Tokyo and has also worked at the Michelin-starred La Vieille Tour in Brittany.

The opening of Mater1a follows the sudden closure of Victor Garvey at the Midland Grand in July last year.

The St Pancras London hotel restaurant closed after roughly five months of trading despite positive reviews from food critics like Tim Hayward of the Financial Times, who said at the time: “It feels good to have been there, at the start of something spectacular.”

A few weeks after the closure announcement, the chef launched a £130,000 crowdfunding campaign to open a new restaurant in London’s Marylebone to turn into Materia Prima.

In September last year, Garvey was also the subject of a Times investigation that reported the chef had faced two bankruptcy petitions.

Garvey opened Sola in 2019 and in 2021 the restaurant secured a Michelin star.