Following tours of duty at The Capital Hotel, Chez Nico and Tom Aikens’ former restaurant Pied à Terre, he became head chef at Michael’s Nook in Grasmere, earning it a Michelin star within four months.
Upon Gordon Ramsay’s departure, he settled in at London’s Aubergine, winning a Michelin star in 1999 and maintaining it until leaving in 2009.
Today, William Drabble’s Michelin-starred Seven Park Place at St James’s Hotel and its sibling - William’s Bar and Bistro - are recognised among the most exciting restaurants in the London dining scene.
Giles Coren calls Seven Park Place ‘a grown-up, serious restaurant for people who eat out a lot and want a treat’; the Tatler Restaurant Guide calls his cooking ‘quite sublime’.
Local English ingredients are at the forefront of Drabble’s cooking - a legacy of his Norfolk youth - though his kitchen inflects his staples with modern French technique. That’s not to say his food is fussy or compromised by hewing to inspector-pleasing formulas, though. As Quintessentially notes, ‘By and large he eschews the usual Michelin fripperies of foams and reductions in favour of gutsier, heartier cooking.’