Luke Tipping

Title

Chef Director

Style of cooking

Very natural, very seasonal and free flowing

Currently working at

Simpsons Restaurant

Follow Luke

About the chef

Luke Tipping lived above many restaurants as a child – his father was a chef and his mother was also in the industry. But it wasn’t until his early twenties that he developed a taste for high-end cooking.

After what Tipping describes as a ‘misspent youth’, his father arranged a placement in a kitchen for him and he proved to be a quick learner. He enrolled at Halesowen catering college to supplement his placement and began making up for lost time.

Two decades on and Tipping is one of the most accomplished chefs in the UK. He formed a potent partnership with legendary chef and restaurateur Andreas Antona early on – while working at the once famed Plough and Barrow restaurant in Birmingham – and the pair have since established Antona’s restaurant, Simpsons, as one of the region’s best.

At Simpsons, executive chef Tipping shares cheffing duties with the talented Nathan Eades and seems happy with his lot. He is able to do both legs of the school run and eats tea with his family before heading in to the restaurant for evening service. Luke disputes the notion that chefs should be working 18 hour days, believing that maintaining a healthy work/life balance is more important.

Luke describes his style as ‘very natural, very seasonal and free flowing’, which belies the creativity and thoughtfulness that goes into his cooking. He may not be one to self-promote, but his success at Simpsons, where he has held a Michelin star for 10 years, truly speaks for itself.

Luke Tipping is now a professor of culinary arts, having received a professorship from University College Birmingham.

The Professionals

Chef’s Irish Beef Club

The Chefs' Irish Beef Club is a global network, exclusively for chefs who are ambassadors for Irish beef. Through high-profile events, the chefs provide positive support and publicity for premium Irish Beef and are invited to Ireland to see the Irish beef production system for themselves.

Anna Haugh

Influenced by her Irish upbringing in Dublin, Anna Haugh has been cooking professionally for 20 years offering Modern European cooking using only the finest Irish produce. Anna’s devotion and determination to championing Irish produce in her food has defined her as a sensational cook throughout her career.

Tom Cenci

Driven by his pure love of food and his affection for the collaborative nature of the kitchen, Tom Cenci has earned a place as one of London’s most prominent chefs. Having worked alongside some of the greatest and most respected chefs in the industry, Tom pushes culinary boundaries with his eclectic and exciting menus, a reflection of his passion for his craft.

Paul Welburn

Food as a way to bring people together, over the dinner table, was an important part of life for Paul Welburn as he was growing up: ‘Food was always a social time with my family, being around the table, having a good meal – that sociable, enjoyable moment. That’s where my passion for being a chef started. I would cook meals for people (probably not a high standard in any way!), but I enjoyed seeing their reaction.’ Born and raised in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, he says it was here that he learned the value of working with humble ingredients, of getting the best out of what was available, and of ensuring that no part of an ingredient went to waste.

Andy McLeish

Andy McLeish takes the field to fork ethos seriously, hunting his own game to ensure his menus at Chapter One offer the finest ingredients treated with respect.

Alyn Williams

Born in East Ham, London (and a life-long Hammers supporter as a result), Alyn Williams came from a family that celebrated food. His father had a great passion for gardening, and in his two allotments grew all manner of vegetables – peppers, celeriac, purple kohlrabi, every type of bean – things you didn’t typically see growing up in 1970s East London.

Russell Bateman

Russell Bateman’s interest in cooking was sparked at an early age. Although there were not an excess of quality restaurants in Hayes, the suburb of West London where he grew up, his grandparents were a strong influence. He remembers the fresh crunch of the vegetables his grandfather grew and the smell of fresh bread his grandmother used to make. His grandfather also brewed his own ale and although Russell Bateman never got to try any, the ceremony of him proudly opening a new batch is a fond memory.

Shay Cooper

One of England’s young generation of up-and-coming, ultra-talented chefs with Michelin pedigree, Shay Cooper started cooking as a commis chef in 1997, before he was even out of school. Since then he’s worked at Juniper in Altrincham, Stockcross’s The Vineyard, and was named head chef at the Endsleigh Hotel, gaining three AA rosettes for his efforts there.

Paul Foster

Paul Foster became interested in food from a young age. His parents were involved in the pub business with his mother running the kitchens, and she would help him to bake cakes which he sold to the pub’s bouncers.

Adam Byatt

Raised in Rainham, Essex, Adam Byatt was born into a family of food lovers, with a professionally trained mother and an army cook for a grandfather. Always proud of his working class roots, Adam was instilled with a love of food but also an appreciation for the value of hard work. Three days before his sixteenth birthday, Adam won a prestigious apprentice chef placement at Claridge’s from the Savoy Educational Trust. Inside the vast Claridge’s kitchen, Adam began the classical training that would serve as a foundation for his career.

John Chantarasak

John Chantarasak draws influences from both his Thai and British heritage to create dishes which marry traditional Thai cooking with British flavours. Raised in the Wye Valley in Wales, he trained at the Cordon Bleu in Bangkok before spending some time working at Nahm, at the time rated the best restaurant in Asia.

Tony Fleming

As a young chef, Fleming was influenced by the French classicists – Nico Ladenis, Pierre Koffmann, Anton Mosimann etc. – and still believes it is of prime importance that a chef’s career is built on a solid technique and a regimented precision. Yet he is not inclined either to take food so seriously as to take the joy out of it completely.

Pascal Aussignac

Pascal Aussignac is a chef who – by his own admission – doesn’t do concepts. “I don’t like the word,” he says simply. And he doesn’t “do” ego: “We are just about happiness.” Instead, he is a man of innate pragmatism and tactility who takes the rich, bold and flavourful specialities of Gascony – foie gras, blood sausage, prunes, Armagnac – and reimagines unadorned country cooking into dishes that are interesting and exquisite.

Adam Bennett

Adam Bennett is beginning to receive the accolades and respect his prodigious talent deserves. After eight years as Head Chef at the vaunted Simpsons, Edgbaston, Coventry-born Adam Bennett became Chef Director at Kenilworth pub The Cross in 2013 – another venture-backed by Simpsons supremo Andreas Antona.

The Grass Fed Standard from Bord Bia

Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, has introduced a national quality label for grass-fed Irish beef. This so-called Grass Fed Standard provides consumers with reliable information about the origin and living conditions of Irish cattle. The new standard is unique in the world, is strongly based on scientific data and is independently verified.

Visit Irish Food & Drink