Claude Bosi opens his most personal project to date in London's Chelsea

He says: "Josephine has been a project in my mind for a long time. It's something that I was planning when I was at Hibiscus [his two-Michelin-starred restaurant, which launched in Ludlow in Shropshire before relocating to Mayfair in London and closing in 2016].

I wanted to do a bouchon like my parents used to have, a neighbourhood site where you can come and have a glass of wine and a sandwich, a three-course meal or a plat du jour. Something very casual and low-priced."

It's been a busy 18 months for the chef, who also runs two-Michelin-starred restaurant Claude Bosi at Bibendum on the Fulham Road in London – before opening Brooklands he also launched Socca in Mayfair with Samyukta Nair. He says: "We'll have had three openings within a year, which for someone who hasn't opened anything in a long time is a lot. But Lucy and I are working together and making sure it's working properly. She gave up her job to give us the opportunity to grow the business and we're doing it as husband and wife."

Lucy, who was a founding team member of reservation system Toptable, now oversees marketing, communications and HR across the stable of restaurants. The couple say they have very defined roles, with Bosi gently teasing that his wife "cannot cook", before adding "it's working great".

'This is what I want to recreate'

The inspiration for Josephine, like its name, is hugely personal to the chef, and as he discusses his plans for the corner site, it's clear the idea has been ruminating for some time. Lucy reveals she has a scrapbook of menus collected from their visits to the region, famed for its hearty cuisine and ample use of offal.

Claude says: "My parents had a little bistro where you could come at 6am for a café, steaks, some eggs, whatever you wanted. At lunchtime you'd have a plat du jour. Mum would have been to the market in the morning, come back, built the menu and done the cooking for lunch. I was lucky in that I did not have to stay at school for lunch – I used to come back with my brother and have lunch at the restaurant every day. Afterwards we used to help my parents clear the tables before we went back to school. I loved it and this is what I want to recreate. It's something very special to me, serving proper home cooking."

Dishes, including boudin noir aux deux pommes (black pudding, apple and mashed potato) have been in development for some time, with Claude drawing on his stable of chefs to help in the kitchen. While menus are, on the face of it, simpler than the highly elevated tasting menus served at Bibendum, he reveals that they have challenged his team.

He explains: "The team have found it quite difficult to do that type of cooking, because there's no messing around. There's a sauce and a protein and that's it. They say ‘chef, it's the hardest cooking we have been doing with you for a long time' and I say ‘yes, because there's no hiding, there's no sous vide machine, it's a stove, it's a bistro'."

The restaurant will offer an à la carte menu alongside a traditional Lyonnais menu des canut, named after Lyonnais silk and lace weavers, offering dishes such as quenelle de brochet with sauce nantua (pike mousse with crayfish sauce) and a traditional Lyonnais doughnut, bugnes Lyonnaises.

But, despite including some dishes that may be unfamiliar to diners, the couple stress that this is a menu of "great things for normal people", citing a saucisson served enveloped in brioche with a Beaujolais red wine sauce and a chicken liver parfait that's "more like a gâteau than a mousse", which will be served warm with sauce vin jaune. Lyonnais classics will also feature, including a leek vinaigrette, which Claude says done properly is "one of the best dishes in the world". He adds: "It's a proper skill to do this the way it should be – it's proper cooking."

The chef stresses that he is planning to make no concessions to fashion or a perception of modern tastes. He says there is no scope for reinterpretation, adding that dishes will be "100% Lyon, not dumbed down". When Socca opened, offering andouillette and pied paquets (sheep's feet and stuffed sheep's tripe) he shared a joke made by Pierre Koffmann that only he and Claude would be ordering such items. However, he says he has been surprised by sales and emboldened to stick to his guns.

Lucy adds: "I think maybe I was wrong. I didn't think people would order some of the dishes they do order at Socca and that's been quite surprising. You see a glamorous lady come in and order something you wouldn't have thought they would order, and with Josephine I'm sure that would happen again. There are a lot of French people in the area and we have already had a lot of feedback from people saying they can't wait to try the Lyonnais dishes, so although something might not be my preference, there's definitely an appetite."

Claude adds: "I think cuisine Lyonnais is a tradition you can't mess around with. You can't bring light touches to it because it's all about the sauces. We are bringing a bit of modernity, but at the end of the day the recipes are back to basics, but of course made with beautiful produce. We're using modern techniques to bring as much flavour as possible, but the recipe is the same and on the plate it's the protein, the sauce, the garnish."

Affordable menu at Claude Bosi's new restaurant

Alongside the two menus a traditional plat du jour will also be on offer, featuring dishes such as blanquette de veau and coq au vin, at an accessible £15-£18. Claude says: "We have a brand that is perceived to be expensive, but we will show that we can do affordable, whatever that is. We charge £300 a head at Bibendum, but people still see it as value for money because of the way we do it."

Wine, sourced exclusively from France's Rhône valley, will include the restaurant's own-label bottles, which will be served bouchon-style, where the bottle is left on the table for guests to help themselves before being charged for the amount drunk at the end of the meal.

Lucy says: "I think it's nice to have the wine on the table, so you're not being interrupted and you can just help yourself, and I think that adds to the casual feel. It's about conviviality – we want to leave people alone to have a good time."

Will Smith, who is behind award-winning London restaurants Arbutus, Wild Honey and Les Deux Salons, will return to London as general manager, with Claude saying he "jumped" at the chance to work with the esteemed restaurateur. Lucy adds: "He's a legend – the guests will love him. It's a very local neighbourhood restaurant and I think it's important to have someone like Will, who's super-likeable and fun. Josephine is about having a laugh and eating great food, it's not all serious.

"The food is the last thing we need to provide. If the atmosphere and the service are right, the food will come. It's a bistro, so you will pay £18 for a main course or maybe a bit less, so expectations will be really low and it's going to be an amazing thing."

Interiors will continue the celebration of the region, playing homage to its role in the development of cinema and the silk and lace industries. With the restaurant backed by the couple and a silent partner, Claude stresses that the budget has been limited, but that the site will meet the expectations that come with his name.

He explains: "We said it couldn't be just a basic table and chairs, because that's not who we are and that's not what I want to do. We have a standard and we have spent some money, but it's not a £2m, £3m or £4m project, it's a really tight budget and this is why the designer has been amazing. I said to them ‘I'm going to give you a third of what you normally spend'."

Lucy adds: "It feels how you would expect a French bistro to feel – with the exception maybe of Claude's mother's bistro, which was smoke-filled and tobacco-stained – we've not gone with that."

With three openings in 12 months Claude acknowledges that by the end of 2023 he was exhausted, but after a few days rest he was itching to return to work. He adds: "We have put our heart and soul into it, we've got an amazing team. It's something very special and something I've really wanted to do for a long time."

General manager Will Smith's career in restaurants

Will Smith started in hospitality as manager at the Michelin-starred Georgian Room restaurant at Cameron House on Loch Lomond and the Number One restaurant, lobby bar and Palm Court lounge at the Balmoral in Edinburgh.

After moving to London in 1998, he went to L'Odean on Regent Street and Putney Bridge restaurant in south-west London, where he met his future business partner Anthony Demetre.

In 2006, the pair launched their first solo venture, Arbutus in the heart of Soho. Championing contemporary bistronomy with affordable and affable dining, Arbutus was awarded a Michelin star in its first year. In 2007, Smith and Demetre opened Wild Honey on St George Street in Mayfair, which also won a Michelin star within a year of opening.

Following a successful decade in London, in 2016 Smith headed north to Helensburgh near Loch Lomond, where in May 2017 he opened Sugar Boat, a neighbourhood bistro, café, bar, wine store and rooms. Sugar Boat won the AA Best Restaurant Scotland Award in 2020 while the bistro has been awarded two AA rosettes.

The à la carte menu

Starters

• Steak tartare
• Soupe a l'oignon (French onion soup)
• Grenouille a l'ail (frogs' legs in garlic butter)

Mains

• Bavette a l'echalote (bavette steak with shallot sauce)
• Ris de veau au morille (veal sweetbread with morel sauce)

Desserts

• Baba au vieux rhum (rum baba with vanilla cream Chantilly)

About Josephine

Owners Claude and Lucy Bosi

Head chef Matteo Degola

General manager Will Smith

Location 315 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London SW10 9QH

Covers 76

Opening 2 March