It’s important in the restaurant industry to consider what’s good, what’s hot right now and what makes the industry tick. But perhaps ever more important for those deeply embedded into our restaurant culture is considering what, or more specifically who, is going to be a tastemaker in the years to come. 

The next generation of hospitality talent in London are a mix of food creatives, restaurateurs, mixologists and more; while some have seen success on the supper club scene, others are first time cookbook authors, or are in the process of crafting their first restaurant space. 

Often the food of these bright young things is marked by its originality: taking a familiar favourite and turning it on its head with lesser-known ingredients or combinations. 

Plant-based cookery gets its justified time in the spotlight too; a call for consciousness around food systems, soil health and the social impact of food, with flavour at its heart. 

Tapping into the next generation of talent, Great British Chefs teamed up with OpenTable to find out first hand about the ups and downs of those just starting out. Hosting lunch at the acclaimed Filipino restaurant Donia in Soho, we sat down with a cohort of London’s most interesting bright sparks and below, we’ve highlighted a handful who are doing particularly interesting things right now.

Few people in London have caught the food and cultural zeitgeist quite like Rahel Stephanie. Her work focuses on her Indonesian heritage and how that heritage is portrayed in the west and applied in food. Accessibility, social history and a deeply authentic personal narrative are the hallmarks of Rahel’s practice, which has seen her collaborate with everyone from restaurant groups like Wagamama to the kitchenware brand Le Creuset.

Josh Dalloway and Sinead Murdoch are quickly becoming something of a hospitality power couple. Dalloway has been on the hobs at some of London’s more interesting restaurants, from P. Franco (now e105) Half Cut and Brunswick House, and is now serving a Portuguese menu at Tasca: the year-long residency at east London wine bar CAV. Murdoch cut her teeth at the now-closed Sarap and Bistro Freddie before embarking on a range of extensive research trips to Europe. 

Barney Pau transcends the title of a mere ‘cook’ - in fact there is very little this accomplished multi-hyphenate hasn’t done. To name a few: he writes with passion and knowledge about food for a range of publications, creates interactive food-based installations, develops culinary events, hosts his own plant-based pop ups and supper clubs, and edits the progressive food journal ‘Gramounce’.

Author of the Japanese cookbook Umai and supper club host Millie Tsukagoshi-Lagares is an exciting talent. Her supper clubs range from intimate affairs in hip east London wine bars, to slinging Japanese baked goods from Toad in Peckham, to taking over Vauxhall’s Italo cafe and deli for the night. Tsukagoshi-Lagares’ supper club food is approachable, delicious and interesting: three hallmarks of her cookbook too, wherein a breadth of Japanese cookery (from easy lunches to at-home Izakaya dishes) is explored.

Counter 71, an intimate dining counter in London’s Shoreditch, opened to quiet acclaim last year, with the ex Pollen Street Social and Anglo chef Joe Laker taking the helm. Laker’s food speaks to his love of British produce, with all of the ingredients for the tasting menu sourced from the British isles. It’s a restaurant operating beyond its weight class which will no doubt receive Michelin accreditation in the coming years.