Chefs

Chefs at work in their kitchens has been a focus of Henrietta Graham’s work for many years. A personal project to record the meteoric rise of the chef in popular culture. The majority of the subjects preside over Michelin-starred restaurants.

In the early 1990’s Henrietta had a studio next to Aubergine Restaurant, where Gordon Ramsay worked. The two struck up a great friendship and Gordon commissioned numerous works including a portrait by Henrietta that was used on the menu at his flagship restaurant in London- Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital road.

That culminated in many paintings and eventually led to a quest to paint the greatest chefs.

This series gained a great deal of publicity when Henrietta’s portrait of James Martin was selected for the prestigious BP Portrait award at The National Portrait Gallery in London in 2014.

Subsequently Henrietta has also worked with Chefs outside of the UK including Daniel Boulud (Daniel, New York) Rene Redzepi (Noma,Copenhagen) and Eneko Atxa (Azurmendi, Bilbao)

 “The development of cuisine in Britain is unmatched, and we are living it. There are those who describe it as the world’s most remarkable food revolution. Others say it as an evolution of food culture which spans several decades.

While Britain was once ridiculed for its cuisine, today it is the place where many chefs have achieved global recognition as masters of their craft. Where once it was almost unheard of to dine out – your choice would have been mostly restricted to a grand hotel – today the choice seems limitless.

Through innovation and dedication, our chefs today have re-shaped the history of Britain’s restaurants.

Henrietta’s series of paintings celebrate the men and women who have enriched our social culture, and brought so much energy and vibrant colour to what was once the drab British food scene.

Henrietta’s subjects include the pioneers who crossed the Channel – men such as Albert Roux OBE, Anton Mosimann OBE, Raymond Blanc OBE and Pierre Koffmann.

There are the passionate extroverts such as Sat Bains, Richard Corrigan, as well as the chefs who have forged restaurant empires, including Jason Atherton and Mark Hix.

Henrietta has also turned her attention to the television chefs, such as Gary Rhodes, Ken Hom who, in the 80s, introduced the work via the small screen, and James Martin, the presenter of BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen.

Women are represented by Angela Hartnett and Clare Smyth, the first and only British woman to gain three Michelin stars (at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay).  Clare now has her own restaurant ‘The Core’ which was awarded 3 Michelin stars in 2021.

Revolution or evolution, it doesn’t really matter – gourmets and connoisseurs from all corners of the globe tend to agree that London is now the heart of Europe’s restaurant scene.’

— James Steen.

 James is co-author of the autobiographies of Marco Pierre White (The Devil in the Kitchen), Raymond Blanc (A Taste of My Life) and Keith Floyd (Stirred But Not Shaken).

Recently the series has once again been in the spotlight as Henrietta’s portrait of Ritz Head Chef John Williams CBE was included in the first ever Ritz cook book which has become a Number 1 best seller on Amazon.