Much has been made of Tom Booton becoming the youngest chef to ever take charge of The Grill at The Dorchester. This is, after all, one of London’s grandest hotels, with a rich restaurant tradition that includes legendary chefs like Alain Ducasse and Anton Mosimann. Hotel restaurants have always been home to London’s more stately, old-fashioned dining scene – Tom’s appointment, at just twenty-six years old, is a sign that The Dorchester plans on shaking things up. One might think the pressure of that mission might weigh heavily on his young shoulders, but Tom is remarkably calm amidst preparations to reopen The Grill. ‘It doesn't come into my head really,’ he says, simply. ‘The thing is, I think I've worked in good places so I know what to do.’ There have been a few ‘trolls’, he says, that think he’s too young to be running the show in a heavyweight kitchen, but he shrugs it off: ‘They should have met me three years ago when Alyn [Williams, at The Westbury] made me his head chef!’
Truth is, there aren’t many twenty-six-year-old chefs in the country with Tom’s wealth of experience. Tom has been cooking for nearly half his life – he started as a fourteen-year-old work experience at Le Talbooth near Colchester, then embarked on a career that took him to some of the best restaurants in the country, as well as Iceland and Denmark.
Le Talbooth is somewhat of an institution in Essex – a stunning restaurant in the heart of Constable country, on the banks of the River Stour. Tom had no pretensions to cook as a teenager – his parents packed him off to Le Talbooth for work experience, and he fell in love with the atmosphere of the kitchen. ‘They gave me a weekend job,’ says Tom. ‘I was working Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, sleeping in history classes on Monday, getting told off, and doing a paper round from Monday to Friday. It must be the richest I’ve ever been!’
By sixteen, Tom had decided his future lay in the kitchen, despite the protestations of his teachers. ‘A maths teacher said to me, ‘you won’t be a chef forever’. It’s quite out of order really, isn’t it?’ he laughs. Instead he took a full time job at Le Talbooth and stayed for another two-and-a-half years. ‘It taught me all the basics,’ he says. ‘I started on garnish, did the larder section; by sixteen I was on the sauce section, going down in flames when I look back on it!’ Le Talbooth had a Michelin star back then, and three AA Rosettes – it was a proper kitchen, but one that allowed him to grow. ‘A lot of the stuff I cook now is actually from Le Talbooth,’ he adds.