Quite apart from his international restaurant portfolio and Michelin-starred food, we wanted to catch up with Jason Atherton because his connection to our new clubroom, Sol’s, is more personal than you might imagine. Sol’s, for those who don’t know, is named after Luke’s late father-in-law, the hotelier, Sol Kerzner.
“I worked with Mr Kerzner in 2009,” Atherton explains. “One & Only Resorts was opening a hotel in Sol’s hometown, Cape Town. Back then, I was Executive Chef at Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant, Maze, and Gordon sent me out there to open the Cape Town hotel’s new restaurant. I worked very closely with Sol during that time and he taught me a lot about hospitality. I’ll never forget working away in the kitchen, looking up and seeing Sol stood next to me with Nelson Mandela in the middle of a personal tour. That three months was quite something.”
Of course, this brief spell in South Africa is just one of many colourful episodes in Atherton’s remarkable career. He left Maze to go his own way and launch his Social restaurant concept in 2010. Since then, he’s opened critically acclaimed restaurants in London, New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Dubai and St Moritz. He has four Michelin Stars under his belt, four published cookbooks and countless appearances on TV and in the press to boot.
All of which begs the question: how does Atherton cope with his workload? Managing close to 20 restaurants, filming TV appearances and cooking in his flagship, Pollen Street Social, surely doesn’t come easy. “Human beings adjust to everything; you open restaurants, you travel lots, things build and being busy becomes a part of daily life,” he says, matter-of-fact. “I take my job seriously and I’m a family man. I don’t like to go out partying. There’s a bevvy of chefs who’ve tried that and it doesn’t work, I’d rather make sure I’m finding time to see my kids.”

This leads us to ask the million dollar question; what does it take to build a restaurant portfolio like Atherton’s? Is there a recipe for success, so to speak? “The number one thing I’ve learned is patience,” he says. “When I was a young chef, when I worked with people like Marco Pierre White and Pierre Koffmann, there were so many young British chefs in those kitchens who were better than me, but they’re nowhere near where I am in life now. They burned themselves out too soon.” “You need a deep-rooted passion to stick at this game; when life seems to throw every possible barrier in your way,” he says, pulling on his coat to head back to the evening service at Pollen Street. “It takes guts to shake things off and keep moving forward. If you do, good things happen eventually.” Read more about Jason’s work at jasonatherton.co.uk or book a table at Pollen Street Social through pollenstreetsocial.com
“Human beings adjust to everything; you open restaurants, you travel lots, things build and being busy becomes a part of daily life”
