Chatting with A MasterChef Winner
By Kelly Parsons (12 Jan 10)
Tags: launceston place chef winner professionals masterchef michelin starred restaurant british menu steve groves live kensington sous tristan launceston place chef winner professionals masterchef michelin starred restaurant british menu steve groves live kensington sous tristan launceston place chef winner professionals masterchef michelin starred restaurant british menu steve groves live kensington sous tristan launceston place chef winner professionals masterchef michelin starred restaurant british

Last year’s MasterChef Live exhibition may have been jam-packed with famous names from the world of food, but the chef receiving by far the most attention was 28-year-old Steve Groves, MasterChef: The Professionals winner and junior sous chef at Kensington’s Launceston Place restaurant. Fans lined up outside the restaurant’s booth to shake his hand, grab a photo and congratulate him on some of his inspired creations from the series, which included quail served with Scotch egg and a dessert based on a broken bag of sweets.
FL: The show finished filming in May. How long have you been working at Launceston Place?
SG: I’ve actually worked here for 16 months, since before the show.
FL: How did you end up there?
SG: I’d worked at Branksome Beach Restaurant in Poole for a couple of years, and decided I wanted to do more with my career. So I took a massive pay cut and went from being a head chef to being chef de partis at Launceston Place. I was using the same supplier as Tristan Welch the head chef there and they told me he had just opened a restaurant, having previously worked with Gordon Ramsey at two Michelin-starred Pétrus, so I came up, met him, did a day in the kitchen, and we went from there. He really inspired me and encouraged my creativity and that stood me in good stead for the competition.
FL: Working in a kitchen is pretty intense, so how did you find time to take part in the competition?
SG: The first few rounds I was just doing on my days off work, doing 17 hours days at Launceston Place and then filming MasterChef in between. When it got to the final I took a week off to properly focus on that.
FL: So what is the plan now you’ve won the show?
SG: I plan to stay on at Launceston Place and continue learning from Tristan. After that, well I still haven’t worked in a Michelin-starred restaurant yet and that’s definitely something I want to do.
FL: You were very innovative on the show – how much of that creativity can you express working as a junior chef in someone else’s kitchen?
SG: In the kitchen at Launceston Place, one of the chefs will come in with an idea and we all bounce off of each-other so I get creative input that way. A dish will be tried out four or five times before it gets on to the menu. Tristan will obviously rein me in if I get too out there though. I did ask Tristan if we could put my bag of sweets dessert on the menu but I think the pastry chef would probably kill us because it’s a bit too much for a lot of people.
FL: What are your long term plans for the future?
SG: My ultimate goal is to have my own restaurant, serving the best of British food. I always said by the time I’m 35 I would and I’m 28 now so I’ve got time. For now, I know there is so much to learn before I’m ready to do that.
Check out more info on Launceston Place in Kensington.
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