Note: Luke has announced he is leaving Hide Above in May 2019 to pursue the next chapter in his career.
‘I always wanted to be a chef. I don't know why – maybe it was just being surrounded by nature where I grew up – but I was always going to be a chef. I remember not ever wanting to be anything else.’
Growing up in the foothills of the stunning South Downs, Luke Selby was surrounded by food from the get go. He and his three brothers would head out into the countryside to find food – often at the behest of their mother, who herself was a keen gardener and forager. ‘She’d grow her own vegetables, but she was a terrible cook!’ Luke laughs. As the eldest of his siblings, responsibility fell on him naturally to step up to the stove. ‘That’s why I started cooking,’ he explains, ‘I just took on the role of cooking for my family and my brothers. I’ve always been drawn to it, and I’ve always been good at it.’
Luke’s natural talent and industrious nature has brought him an awful long way from the tranquility of West Sussex. A product of the world-famous Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Luke worked with Clare Smyth and Matt Abé at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, then with Ollie Dabbous at his eponymous restaurant before Ollie whisked him away to his latest project – Hide at 85 Piccadilly.