Fergus Henderson: The Philosophical Chef

Fergus Henderson, the English chef and founder of the hugely successful St. John restaurants in London, interestingly had no formal training in cooking, and has never worked under another chef. Following in the footsteps of his parents, he trained as an architect at the Architectural Association school in London. In 1992 Henderson and his wife, Margot, opened the French House Dining Room at Soho’s French House pub before he left to open the St. John restaurant in 1994. The menu at St. John changes daily, but almost always includes the now iconic, austere yet luxurious, bone marrow and parsley salad. Fergus’s repertoire is far broader and continually developing, but this particular dish has grown extraordinarily popular, remaining closely associated with the chef.

Henderson, Trevor Gulliver, and Jon Spiteri set up the first St. John restaurant together, and over 20 years later, its nose-to-tail philosophy continues to be one of the most profound shifts in not just dining out, but how people, particularly in the UK and USA, consider the consumption of meat today. Most of his dishes are derived from traditional British cuisine and the wines served are all French.

The first St. John was awarded a Michelin star in 2009, and later, a second sister restaurant, now closed, located within the hotel in Chinatown was awarded the same prestigious accolade. Most recently, in 2003, Henderson opened St. John Bread and Wine in Spitalfields, east London. The pioneering chef has paved a way of doing things that cast aside the norms of professional kitchens by way of a measured, calm approach. His affable personality is well known amongst the culinary community, press and his customers, with journalist Killian Fox describing Henderson as, “a walking Buddha to chefs all over the world.” Henderson’s remarkably stoic approach to Parkinson’s disease, with which he was diagnosed in 1998, increased the regard in which he was held. He was awarded an MBE in 2005, the same year he underwent ground-breaking Deep Brain Stimulation which vastly improved his mobility.

Often noted for his use of offal and other neglected cuts of meat, Henderson has published a series of bestselling books building upon his well known waste-not philosophy. The first volume, titled, Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking, was published in 1999, in which the Chef provides recipes incorporating trotters, kidneys and chitterlings, amongst other things. The book innovatively describes the thinking behind his cooking, explaining that, “It seems common sense and even polite to the animal to use all of it. Rather than being testosterone-fuelled blood-lust, it actually seems to be a gentle approach to meat eating.” In 2007, he published a sequel, Beyond Nose To Tail, and in 2012 The Complete Nose to Tail: A Kind of British Cooking.

Text by Keshav Anand