Michael Hazelwood appointed head chef at Antidote Wine Bar & Restaurant

Former Toasted chef Michael Hazelwood has joined the Antidote Wine Bar & Restaurant on London's Newburgh Street as head chef.

The New Zealand-born chef was previously at Soif, the Green Man & French Horn, and then at his first solo head chef role at Toasted, a restaurant and wine shop in Dulwich, south east London. He left Toasted earlier this year and has since worked at Lyle's and completed a stage at the Michelin-starred Hedone in Chiswick, working with Antidote's chef-consultant Mikael Jonsson.

Hazelwood will now work to refine the restaurant's daily changing menu to create dishes in-line with the style of Hedone, with special attention paid to sourcing and provenance.

Typical dishes on the bar menu and à la carte restaurant will be along the lines of bull heart tomatoes with English strawberries, Wescombe ricotta and dried olives; and 90-day aged beef sirloin with new season carrots cooked in their own juice with fresh currants and lemon thyme.

Commenting on the appointment, Guillaume Siard, co-owner at Antidote, said: "We first encountered Hazelwood's cooking at Toasted and not only really enjoyed it, but felt it had an affinity between the food that we appreciate. When [Jonsson] recommended him for the head chef role, we knew it was a partnership that was going to work."

Antidote was first opened on Newburgh Street in 2011 by Siard and business partner Thierry Bouteloup, who also ran its predecessor La Trouvaille. The restaurant now works in regular partnership with Jonsson, who trains the chefs and works as a menu consultant.

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