More online www.thecaterer.com “He set the standard all us younger chefs tried to achieve”


“A passionate cook who passed on his talent for cooking to so many. I was privileged to know him and occasionally cross swords. He will always be remembered for the major influence he had on British gastronomy.” Brian Turner


“Nico was a great man as well as mentor and helped me on a personal level as much as he did as a chef. I will always be grateful for all of his help and guidance.” Alan Bird


“I salute one of the great chefs on the British culinary landscape, chef Nico Ladenis. He is one of the pioneers who put British food on the world food map. He will be missed.” Ken Hom


“He set the standard all us younger chefs tried to achieve. I was lucky to have him as a friend, he regularly visited me to eat both at Inigo Jones in the 1980s and at the Lanesborough during the 1990s. It


was where he met his future wife, Dinah-Jane. The couple travelled exten-


sively through France and devel- oped a taste for good food and wine. While Ladenis had previ- ously partnered his best friend Theodore Galakis to open his first restaurant, the Blue Aegean, in 1971, the expedition to France sowed the seed to be more ambitious and create the very best French restaurant. Upon returning to London, the couple launched the Dulwich eaterie. Ladenis had never intended


to cook – it was only when the chef didn’t turn up one day that he stepped into the kitchen – and Dinah-Jane assumed the role of maitre d’. Ladenis was self-taught as a


chef, using the Masterpieces of French Cuisine by Francis Amu- nategui as guidance, and he cooked according to the princi- ples of “precision, restraint and simplicity”. It was a philosophy that carried him through his career – across 11 restaurants – and won him the Catey award as Chef of the Year in 1988 and three Michelin stars. The first star was achieved after Ladenis had moved his


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Supplied by Alan Bird: a menu from Simply Nico and Chez Nico, and a letter from Ladenis to Bird. He says: “My letter received from Nico when I applied by letter for a job. A week’s unpaid trial later and I was in!”


was always a great honour to cook for him and Dinah-Jane. It felt like being in the presence of royalty. The industry has a lot to thank Nico for. May he rest in peace with the knowledge of a great job well done.” Paul Gayler


“Nico Ladenis will go down in the history of British gastronomy as one of our very best chefs and a true gentleman. He was


“He pushed himself daily to be the very best he could be and encouraged everyone around him to do the same” Steve Drake


restaurant to Battersea, with the second following three years later. The third came at the fifth incarnation of Chez Nico at 90 Park Lane, when he was 60 years old. It was the ful- filment of an ambition from the day he started cook- ing and which, unusually, ren- dered him speechless. Writing in


White Heat, Marco Pierre White said


an honorary member of the [Royal Academy of Culinary Arts] and never failed to stimulate conversation and debate.” John Williams


“I was part of the team who earned the third star. Nico came into the kitchen that day and congratulated everyone. He said this isn’t my award, it belongs to everyone in this kitchen. I


that from Ladenis he learned “the slow pursuit of perfection” and “the constant quest to lift everything one notch higher the whole time”. He continued: “I’ve never met anyone who had as much appreciation of food as Nico does. He loves eating. If he hadn’t been a great chef he would have been the most knowledgeable and respected food journalist.” Another protégé, Jason


Atherton, said Ladenis played a significant role in dragging London out of the culinary doldrums. “He was not only a world-class chef, but was also the ulti- mate restau- rateur,” he explained. “Attention to detail was in his blood and three stars were his des- tiny.”


Chef Paul


Gayler desc- ribed Ladenis as “the epit- ome of a true restaurateur


remember thinking, wow, here is a chef restaurateur at the top of his game and he is handing credibility over to the team. That taught me a lot. What a guy!” Jeremy Ford


“A legendary self-taught chef, he helped establish London’s culinary scene with his dedication to restraint and precision.” Michelin Guide


and great chef”. He added: “He set the standard all us younger chefs tried to achieve. I was lucky to have him as a friend, he regularly visited me to eat, both at Inigo Jones in the 1980s and at the Lanesborough for lunch during the 1990s. “It was always a great honour


to cook for him and Dinah-Jane. It felt like being in the presence of royalty. The industry has a lot to thank Nico for. May he rest in peace with the knowledge of a great job well done.” Steve Drake, who worked


under Ladenis as a commis chef, said: “Nico to me was an inspiration and one of if not the greatest chef of his generation. “He was a pioneer and few understood where he was going back in the 1970s and 1980s. For me he was a man of achieve- ment, never settling for second best and pushed himself daily to be the very best he could be and encouraged everyone around him to do the same. I feel privileged to have worked for him and Dinah-Jane.” Ladenis is survived by his


wife, Dinah-Jane Ladenis, and two daughters, Natasha Robin- son and Isabella Wallace.


15 September 2023 | The Caterer | 11


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