The Criterion

After almost three and a half years at Le Méridien Jeremy contacted me. He’d left Le Méridien eight months earlier to work at Marco Pierre White’s The Canteen, and he wanted to know if I’d consider leaving the Oak Room to work at another Marco Pierre White restaurant, soon to be opened in Piccadilly Circus—the Criterion.

It was May 1995 and I was spending time staging around some of London’s top restaurants like Nico at Ninety and the Dorchester, trying to get an idea of what I should do next. Jeremy’s call couldn’t be more timely. The Criterion was the most anticipated opening of the year. Jeremy arranged a meeting with one of the head chefs, Peter, set to run the restaurant. The interview went well and I got the gig.