jeremy chan
Image: Danny J Peace

Meet the chef: Jeremy Chan of Ikoyi

13 Jan 2025 | | By Annie Lewis

The success of Ikoyi – the two Michelin-starred restaurant at 180 The Strand – is no happy accident. We step inside one of the world’s most carefully-curated kitchens to meet its head chef

Born in England and raised in Hong Kong, food has always played a huge role in Jeremy Chan’s life, from acting as an escape during his teen years, to playing a huge role in family get-togethers. It’s his passion for learning and thirst for knowledge, however, that have seen him push culinary boundaries and expectations. The perfect recipe, in other words, to create one of the best chefs in the city. 

As a teen, Chan taught himself to speak six languages and went on to study philosophy and theory of languages at Princeton University. After a stint in the States, he moved to Madrid for a job in finance and found food and recipe creation a saviour when finding his feet in a new city. He devoured cookbooks – and soon ditched his office job for a new calling in the kitchen. 

Keen to further his skills, Chan moved back to London and wrote to several high-end restaurants in the city asking for experience. Claude Bosi’s two-starred Hibiscus took him on and taught Chan the foundations of fine food, before he embarked on roles at Dinner by Heston and moved to Copenhagen to work in one of the best restaurants in the world: Noma. Here, he chimed with head chef Rene Redzepi’s analytical way of thinking – and it spurred him on to start thinking about opening his own restaurant. 

In 2017, Chan joined forces with Iré Hassan-Odukale – a friend who had just left a career in insurance and was planning on opening a Nigerian restaurant – and Ikoyi was born, almost instantly establishing itself as a culinary hotspot with its spice-based cuisine and British micro-seasonality. The menu, fetching £350, is a blind tasting and sample dishes include turbot, crab bisque and egusi miso, and confit pork agrodolce with curried courgette. These imaginative, thoughtful recipes saw Ikoyi pick up two stars in the 2022 Michelin awards (and retain them ever since), while it was also voted 42nd on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. 

So, how does Chan stay inspired? How does he spend his time off (when he gets any)? And where do you dine if you own one of the best restaurants in the world? We find out. 

Tell me about your childhood. Did you always want to be a chef?

I was born in the north of England; my Dad is Chinese, a lawyer, and my Mum is Canadian, a ballet teacher. I travelled a lot growing up and was raised between the UK and Hong Kong. After university, I was in Europe and worked in a few short-term jobs, but I never really found my place until I decided to become a chef. Cooking felt like the only thing I wanted to do in my life. I fell in love with ingredients, understood their properties, and learnt how to harness flavour while enacting my own sense of creativity and flavour.

What’s your earliest food memory?

Growing up in Hong Kong, its vibrant food culture had a big influence on my way of thinking about food. From an early age, I grew up associating the burning sensations that spicy food elicits with deliciousness, and this is now really important with how we cook at Ikoyi.

When did you start your career as a chef?

I began cooking at 26, not long after university, and I haven’t looked back since. I spent a few years doing stages and working for short periods in other kitchens, but it never really stuck. I studied, learned, and applied myself until I opened Ikoyi.

How did you settle on the concept for Ikoyi?

I met Iré (Ikoyi’s co-owner) at a party through school friends. As you get older, I find the friends that remain friends in your late 20s to early 30s are those that share the same life view, and Iré is one of those friends. We started discussing our passion for food and opening a food business about 14 years ago, and it was [something] we clearly shared. Things blossomed from there. We started cooking for friends, Iré suggested opening a restaurant, and then it quickly snowballed – we started doing events, looking for properties, doing pop-ups, doing private dinners, designing our branding, putting together our ideas and philosophy. It was a pretty brutal two years trying to set this all up, but we got there in the end.

What influences your menus?

I am inspired by seasonality, spices, and the mixing of unusual ingredients with familiar, comforting flavours. I care most about the quality of the raw materials and then the creative and aesthetic impact of my dishes.

How does it feel to run a two Michelin star restaurant? What's your advice for chefs working towards Michelin-star status?

I’m very grateful to Michelin for awarding us two stars; it means we are busy and extremely successful at the moment. I don’t have specific advice for chefs working towards Michelin, but, for young chefs, find a combination of hard work, humility, creativity, and being down to earth with people. Also, being passionate and having integrity is key.

What's your favourite dish on the menu and why?

Drunken squid with fermented rice and squid ink toast. We make the toast by blending fermented rice with squid ink and steaming it, then caramelising the toast in squid butter. The incredible flavour reminds me of a childhood dish of har gau prawn dumplings.

What is your one other favourite London restaurant?

My go-to restaurant in London for a celebration would be Planque. I really love Seb [Myer]’s cooking, and there are always amazing wines to choose from. For a quick bite, it would be Theo’s Pizza in Camberwell. It has very no-frills decor and simple, consistent pizzas.

Are there any other London chefs you're impressed with at the moment?

I think Max [Coen]’s food at Dorian is some of the best in the city. It may look simple, but there is some very clever and sharp cooking to create delicious but accessible food with well thought-out technique and sourcing.

How do you spend your free time away from the restaurant?

Well, I don’t really have much of a life, to be honest. Ikoyi has been my life. So, I’d say most of my activities outside of work relate to work. I enjoy cycling, and I cycle to work every day. I like to read when I have the time. I read on a wide variety of topics, including literature, current affairs, politics, and the history of architecture. It could be anything really, but I like to read to bring my mind outside of cooking sometimes.

Visit ikoyilondon.com

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