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Rowley Leigh - Chef Proprietor
ROWLEY LEIGH, the chef proprietor of Le Café Anglais is one of the founding fathers of modern British cooking. After Cambridge University he tried his hand at farming and novel writing before falling into cooking 'almost by accident' in 1977. After a couple of years at the Joe Allen restaurant, he went to work with the Roux brothers at Le Gavroche in 1979. After stints at Le Gavroche, the brothers' pastry laboratory and becoming buyer for the group, he took over their prestigious Le Poulbot restaurant as head chef in 1984, receiving many accolades including the Times restaurant of the year award in 1986. He opened Kensington Place Restaurant with Nick Smallwood and Simon Slater in 1987. Quickly hailed by the Times as restaurant of the year, Kensington Place and its blend of brilliant food and an informal and buzzy atmosphere set the pattern for London restaurants in the 1990's. In the same decade, Rowley started a career as a cookery writer, winning the prestigious Glenfiddich award three times with The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph and The Financial Times. He remains cookery correspondent of The Financial Times. His much accoladed book, No Place Like Home, was published in 2001. He left Kensington Place in December 2006 in order to open Le Café Anglais in 2007.
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Graham Williams - General Manager
GRAHAM WILLIAMS, general manager of Le Café Anglais, has worked in a number of restaurants in both the Cotswolds and in London. Whilst Rowley was at Kensington Place, Graham was general manager at Bibendum restaurant for ten years, working with Rowley's great friend Simon Hopkinson. Besides possessing an astounding knowledge of food and wine, Graham combines grace, dexterity, unflappability and a trenchant wit even during the busiest service. He commutes to the Café Anglais from the Cotswolds where his hobbies are horseriding, child rearing and pig breeding.
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Colin Westal - Head Chef
COLIN WESTAL has worked with Rowley Leigh, on and off, since his apprenticeship in the 1980's. He also trained under Albert Roux at Le Gavroche, during which time he did 'stages' at the Mothu charcuterie in Paris and the Roux pastry laboratory in London. He was at Kensington Place for most of the 1990's, with a long stint as senior sous chef. He was head chef of Parade, a restaurant in the Sonny’s group and ran the much celebrated Fish Shop at Kensington Place from 2002 to 2005. He has been the head chef at Le Café Anglais since it opened.
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Nicky Lynskey - Events Manager
NICKY LYNSKEY is the events manager at Le Café Anglais. After a few years on the events team with Café Anglais chairman Anthony Mackintosh at the Groucho Club, Nicky moved to Kensington Place in 1998, where she ran the office, tried to organise Rowley Leigh and managed events. She moved to Le Café Anglais in January 2008 and helps customers every step of the way when staging events at Le Café Anglais.
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Ruth Leigh - Assistant General Manager
RUTH LEIGH was born about the same time Colin Westal came to work at Le Poulbot and Graham Williams was running the Crown in Cirencester. Joint head girl at school, Ruth read philosophy at Leeds university when not running the Oracle, a haunt of the Leeds glitterati. Whilst not 'advising' her father, she is assistant general manager of Le Café Anglais.
