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He already runs Britain's only two-Michelin-starred fish restaurant in Cornwall, but now the chef is opening a seafood grill at one of London's most prestigious hotels
Ask what Nathan Outlaw's idea of a good time is and he'll tell you it's being elbow-deep in fish guts. He spent a whole year doing this at Rick Stein's Seafood restaurant, and barely cooked a sardine. Not that he minded. "If you're going to work in a fish restaurant, you've got to be a master at prepping fish," he says. "It made me very quick." Outlaw, whose facial expressions run from cheery to cheerier, beams. "It's still my favourite thing to do."
Still, there's not much time for filleting – he's got a new restaurant to open. Until now, anybody wanting to try Britain's only Michelin-starred (he has two) fish restaurant had to go to Cornwall, where Outlaw's fine dining place is perched across the bay from Stein's Padstow empire. His former boss may be more famous, but Outlaw has created waves; the critics are raving, and his eponymous restaurant has fast become one of the country's most sought-after places to eat.
Thus the new outpost of his seafood grill in London's Capital Hotel, which is where we meet. Its restaurant is transforming from Knightsbridge dining room to something more along the lines of Outlaw's simple, relaxed Cornish style. With his large frame, mutton-chop sideburns and meaty hands, he puts me more in mind of a country butcher than an architect of delicate dishes (think a perfect chunk of cod with hazelnut crust, tiny mushrooms and slivers of red onions reminiscent of sails). But Outlaw's talent has long been recognised, coming to the attention of the Michelin inspectors nearly a decade ago.
Even now, it is striking that his is the only Michelin-starred fish restaurant in an island nation. "You would think we'd be dotted with good fish restaurants all along the coast, but they just don't exist," says Derek Bulmer, who spent 30 years with Michelin and has followed Outlaw's career.
Outlaw is still only 34, having opened his first restaurant at 24. But he started early – as an eight-year-old, helping his father in contract catering on Saturday mornings to help get breakfasts out to 300 people. "My job would be looking after the toast on these big machines, or buttering bread for sandwiches." Catering college came later, followed by stints under Gary Rhodes and Eric Chavot among others, before the two years with Stein.
Ten years ago, he decided the time was right to open up on his own, though in some ways he recalls, the timing couldn't have been worse. "Rachel [his wife] was eight months' pregnant, and we were living in a bedroom in her brother's house." He was paying himself £11,000 a year and at one point he couldn't afford kitchen containers: "I used milk cartons cut in half." But it paid off. "Jacob was born at the beginning of May, the restaurant opened two weeks later, and by January I had a Michelin star." When his fine-dining restaurant opened in 2010 and he was awarded two Michelin stars the following year – it is also the Good Food Guide's fifth-best restaurant – he felt confident enough to switch to a seafood-only menu.
He champions sustainability and neglected fish, with his latest cookbook extolling the virtues of the likes of gurnard and rays. Fishing has always fascinated him – "just this idea of a man going out in a boat, it's one of the oldest occupations". He reels off the names of the fishermen and shellfish farmers who supply him and understands they are at the mercy of the sea – bad weather affects his menus. "A lot of chefs will sit in an office and write their menu and put their orders in as if it's a commodity on a shelf." "They're small boats, so there's more risk, and I would never pressure someone to go out," he says. "If it means we only have two dishes on the menu, I'll stand there in front of the customer and say: 'Anywhere else that has a full range is not serving you fresh fish.'"
His Rock restaurants use only local fish and seafood – why would he use anything else? – but the exciting thing about the London restaurant, he says, is "I can do the whole of Britain." This means Outlaw will be getting his hands on, among other things, langoustines and razor clams from Scotland and Whitstable oysters. He couldn't look happier.
Nathan Outlaw's Seafood & Grill will open at the Capital Hotel, London SW3 on 2 October