Sally Clarke: 30 Ingredients

Sally Clarke is one of Britain's most acclaimed chefs and restaurateurs. Trained in Paris and London, she moved to California in 1979, where she worked in the kitchens and dining rooms of Michael's and West Beach Cafe. It was while in California that she met her mentor Alice Waters, chef and proprietor of Chez Panisse, and that her love of disarmingly simple cooking based on the freshest local ingredients was born. She returned to London in 1983 and a year later in December 1984 Clarke's, the now legendary restaurant on Kensington Church Street in Notting Hill Gate, opened its doors. With its no-choice menu of superb seasonal dishes the restaurant was an instant success. In its first year it was awarded the Good Food Guide's Restaurant of the Year and attracted a strong following of discerning customers, including Elizabeth David, who championed Sally Clarke as a pioneer. In 1989, building on the success of the restaurant, Sally Clarke Shop opened to equal acclaim. Like the restaurant, the shop followed the principle of quality, stocking goods made with only the freshest and best ingredients. The extraordinary demand for its bread and patisserie led to the opening a year later of Clarke's Bread, a wholesale bakery. Today the shop is a much-loved institution in Notting Hill and the bakery a thriving business that supplies restaurants and hotels throughout London. In 1999, on the fifteenth anniversary of the restaurant, Sally Clarke wrote Sally Clarke's Book: Recipes from a Restaurant, Shop & Bakery. The book's simple recipes distilled the ethos of Clarke's cooking into easy-to-make dishes for the domestic cook. It won the Glenfiddich Award for the best food book and was shortlisted for the Guild of Food Writers Award. 2013 saw the expansion of Clarke's. The shop moved to new premises, just across the road, where its ever-loyal clientele line the street. And the restaurant doubled its size, adding a beautiful small garden room off the main dining room, a private dining room, and increasing the size of the kitchen. Sally Clarke still oversees the kitchen, as she has done since the restaurant opened. And while Clarke's now offers an A la carte menu, it continues to win awards and accolades, as do the shop and bakery. 2014-15 is the thirtieth anniversary year of the opening of the restaurant. The year began with a series of fundraising lunches and dinners, hosted by Sally Clarke and Alice Waters, in aid of the Edible Schoolyard Project. In September 2015 Sally Clarke 30 Ingredients will be published by Frances Lincoln. Awards Restaurant of the Year - Decanter Magazine Restaurateur of the Year - Hotel & Caterer MBE - 2009