Max Coen
Max Coen
A star-studded career with stints at Frantzén and Ikoyi helped inform Max Coen’s creative cooking. Now, at his Notting Hill restaurant Dorian, he’s throwing away some of the fine-dining norms to create his own style of uniquely delicious food: and the city is all the better for it.
In west London’s affluent Notting Hill lies Dorian: a bistro by name, but so much more than the simplicity that category implies. A neighbourhood spot, but one so multi-faceted that it’s slowly become one of London’s most important restaurants.
Max Coen was born and raised in Southampton and after working in what he describes as an unremarkable ‘pubby bar’ the excitement of what was going on behind the walls of the kitchen proved too attractive to ignore. His curiosity, and his attention, were firmly captured. ‘I’d always loved food, cooking and produce,’ Coen begins, ‘I was always curious’.
After moving to London a decade ago, Coen wound up at Gordon Ramsay’s Maze Grill in Chelsea.
At the time, around 2015, the restaurant was probably among London’s buzziest, a copy of Ramsay’s successful steak and sushi joint of the same name in Mayfair. It was a formative experience for Coen: ‘It sounds such a simple concept, steak and sushi, but Ben [Waugh] is such an incredible chef. Maze Grill was all about learning how to be a chef. It was so inspiring to be able to cook such simple food at such a high level.’
Waugh went on to The Savoy Grill and Pétrus, while in 2018 Max Coen wanted a change. Upending his life somewhat, he moved to Frantzén which at the time had just got its third star.
Frantzén isn’t just any restaurant. The only dining room in Sweden to hold three stars, just 23 guests each night move up and down between dining spaces in a three-storey townhouse to savour a 10-course menu. ‘I liken it to driving a Ferrari,' Coen recounts of his time there, ‘with all the top Ferrari engineers at their peak.’
‘To me I was in this world, full of things I’d never seen before. I’d looked up to Frantzén for so long and I remember my first day walking into the kitchen and I couldn’t believe it was all real. I wasn’t just visiting, I was really there.’
Coen lived in Sweden, cooking at the three-starred restaurant, for a year. As a 23-year old, education in food doesn't come much better than this.
Ben Waugh was one of the first chefs I worked for. I owe a lot to him.
Impactful, meaningful and thoughtful.
‘When I came back to London, I returned to work for Ben' says Coen. At the time, The Savoy Grill was churning out Gordon Ramsay’s elevated British fare, however, it was clear from Coen’s hunger and passion that his time in Frantzén had fundamentally expanded his outlook. The desire to work at the two and three star level was strong. In his own words, 'I wanted more.'
Coen moved to Kitchen Table, working for James Knappet, and within weeks the restaurant was awarded its second star. ‘A lucky charm, maybe,’ Coen jokes. At the time, Kitchen Table was a pioneer in a new wave of London’s most sought after fine-dining experiences. A multi-Michelin starred chefs' counter was as-yet-unheard of, and the restaurant was uniquely bold, changing the majority of its menu offering each week.
The stint at Kitchen Table would last two years until the pandemic and lockdowns, where Coen began a more personal journey: cooking for himself and his friends at various pop-ups and events.
Fortuitously, Max ended up cooking for the man with whom he’d end up in a restaurant partnership. ‘I actually did a pop up for Chris [D'Sylva] at Fish Shop, which is where we met. He was very welcoming of me and what I wanted. I remember I wanted to cook a big 6 kg turbot and no other fishmonger in London would supply it. They all thought it was too expensive or I wouldn’t pick it up. But Chris told me he could get it and he did. After that dinner, he asked me, ‘Why are you doing pop-ups anywhere else? You should only do them here!’
Further lockdowns halted further pop-ups, but during this time Coen had been in conversations with Jeremy Chan and the team at Ikoyi. ‘Thinking about it, that was probably the restaurant where I was most inspired and learnt the most in terms of a unique way to work and think. His way of working is really specific, he’s very clever.’
The small St James’ Market spot that originally housed Ikoyi was a diminutive opener for what would eventually become one of London’s most ambitious restaurants. But Coen was able to learn and distil much from this small kitchen, enough to give him the skills and confidence to break out on his own.
Probably people shucking scallops. Just the sound of metal scraping on shells.
‘When we first opened Dorian we wanted a bistro. Something quite simple – I feel that in some ways it’s still simple now – but we try to think a bit differently and keep things playful.’
The famed pigeon dish with morels, huge chops of veal or beef cooked hot over coals, simply dressed oysters or elaborately towered röstis with uni and caviar: Max Coen’s food at Dorian is always interesting, always fun and always delicious.
‘We got a star in the first year which was cool, it wasn’t something we were trying to chase or specifically work towards, most bistros don’t. Everyday is hard work. We’re so lucky that we’re still so busy, but to run this restaurant takes an incredible amount of work, thought and the team coming together. One star is definitely enough for me!’
Coen takes the work and effort seriously, and has long prioritised the welfare of his high-performing team.
'They get two weeks off when we close over the summer, plus two weeks off at winter, plus three weeks normal annual leave on top of that. I’ve built this team, and the idea of this place, around things that I hated working in past kitchens: lack of holiday, rotas coming out the week that you’re working, the hours.'
'We’re committed to rotas going out three weeks in advance, [the team] never do back to back doubles, they do 50 hour weeks and we try to be really strict on that. We have a service team and a prep team. The prep team works till 5 pm and my idea was that this team could live a normal life for a few weeks. I’d like to think that they’d miss service – if they didn’t then they maybe shouldn't be a chef – but it means they can see their friends who might work in other industries.'
For this and more, Dorian has quietly become a standard bearer for the kind of restaurant we want to see more of: a place which treats its staff with respect, pays them for their time and work, gives ample time off, builds rotas with staff welfare and giving time back in mind, yet maintains high expectations and standards at work, all while remaining critically acclaimed.
We have this thing at Dorian where we talk about it like a football game: we’re always trying to win the champions league final.
I’d love it if people would better understand the costs of running a restaurant and the expense that goes into everything, from the labour model to the produce.
Next to open, by the Notting Hill Fish Shop, will be URCHIN. The röstis that are prevalent at the start of the Dorian menu will be replaced with a raw selection, sushi and nigiri, with the rest of the menu focussing on hot, sharing, generously portioned Japanese-bistro fare. It’s something which takes Dorian’s higher end, creative bistro ethos and carefully applies it to Japanese cuisine.
Chef Yuji Shimokawa, who was at Dorian for 18 months, will bring a 'true Japanese tradition thought process to the menu' and will helm that new opening.
Dorian, driven by Coen, represents a success story for the industry. He's a chef who has absorbed the very best of some of Europe's most interesting kitchens, and has created something completely original. A restaurant that isn’t merely a version of Kitchen Table, Maze, Frantzén or Ikoyi, but a collection of thoughtful good ideas, carefully gathered over the years, adopting the great and eschewing the bad.
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