That Bristol has a vibrant independent restaurant scene is a given and with culinary gems dotted all over the city, it’s one that demands to be noticed. But what does it take to run a restaurant in these challenging times? What are the talents required to be a top chef, is every restaurateur after a Michelin star, and are the kitchens really like those depicted on screen in the likes of The Bear and Boiling Point? Simon Horsford talks to the chefs and owners behind some of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants to find out…
At the Chefs’ Table:
– Jan Ostle, Chef and Co-Owner of Wilsons on Chandos Road, wilsonsbristol.co.uk
– Kyu Jeong Jeon and Duncan Robertson, Chefs and Owners of Dongnae on Chandos Road and Bokman in Stokes Croft (currently closed following a kitchen fire), dongnae.co.uk, bokman.co.uk
– Freddie Bird, Chef and Co-Owner of littlefrench in Westbury Park and 1 York Place, in Clifton, littlefrench.co.uk, 1yorkplace.co.uk
– Jack Briggs-Horan and, Dan O’Regan, Executive Chef and Joint Owner, and Founder and Owner, (respectively) of Lapin in Wapping Wharf and BANK, in Totterdown, lapinbristol.co.uk, bankbristol.com
What attributes separate a good chef from a truly great one?
Jan Ostle: The most important thing is the love of what you do. The wonderful thing about this job is the absolute meritocracy of it – how good you are on that day is how you are judged, so you almost get to write the script every time you come in. You need to be a team player and you need to be good with people.
Kyu Jeong Jeon: Focus is the main thing for me and [knowing] what you want to make and [ensuring] good quality. It’s important to make people happy and have a good time. My father was quite a foodie and my mum was an amazing cook. Korean people are obsessed with food – if you go to south or east Asia, food is far more important than here [in the UK], or even in Spain or Italy.
Freddy Bird: Firstly, ingredients. I was brought up pretty much on a smallholding and my dad had an amazing vegetable garden. We had our own chickens and eggs and I grew up passionate about food. [For me, it’s about] being ingredients-led and doing as little as possible to the food, so minimal intervention and not being scared of only putting two or three items on a plate and not fussing about with them.
Jack Briggs-Horan: I became a chef because I liked eating. I curate menus on what I want to eat. It’s the shared interest in food [with the guests] that matters. Influences come in waves but [my] attitudes towards food definitely came from the guys at Joe Beef in Montreal – that was like quite formative growing up – and reading the St John books [based on the eponymous London restaurants].
If you could create one dish designed to go on social media, what would it be and why?
JO: Carbonara. I love it, done properly. Fry the bacon
off, or the pancetta. Loads of black pepper,
I like a bit of minced garlic, let it colour in the bacon fat… then boil your pasta and finish with a couple of egg yolks. No cheese. That’s how I feed myself quickly.
KJJ: My kids love tofu. So, something we used to do at Bokman was dubu jorim, which was very popular. We’d pan fry the tofu, then make a sauce on the side with sesame oil, sugar, chilli powder, garlic and mushroom stock, then pour it on the tofu and simmer so it absorbs the flavours.
FB: One of the things people love here is our aligot, cheesy mash. Super simple, potato purée, butter with bags of raw garlic and then grated Comté, Beaufort and Tomme Fraïche. It’s essentially a cheese and potato fondue.
JB-H: [If I was doing it from] BANK, it would be a barbecue thing, so a big, grilled ribeye with barbecued broccoli and asparagus and chopped herb dressing like a chimichurri, or maybe a harissa sauce; at Lapin, it would be something simple-ish like coq au vin or lapin à la moutard, almost definitely with mash.
What are your go-to ingredients?
JO: Mexican apple marigold, which is a herb I grow [in their market garden] and I love. You can use it with shellfish, poultry and puddings and it’s unlike anything I’ve had. [Also] celeriac, and roe deer, from around Bristol.
KJJ: Doenjang, which is fermented soya bean paste, a condiment that’s the mother of all Korean cooking. Seaweed [in Korea], is as important as vegetables; we have at least 12 types here from Korea. We have connected with a seaweed farm in Wales so we’re looking at native seaweed. It’s an ingredient that is so under-used, full of vitamins and Koreans say it cleanses the blood.
FB: Butter, always French. You’ll always find a block of salted in my fridge. On the flip side, I’ve done a lot of Middle Eastern cooking with lots of herbs. So if you open my fridge drawer, I’ve always got a packet of dill, tarragon, basil, parsley and coriander. You can always elevate something with one distinct flavour. Also turbot: it’s super versatile and can take bold flavours.
JB-H: Good butter, salted and unsalted. Potatoes, Maris Piper or King Edward, which go very nicely with the butter, and then chicken (French, corn fed). Those three are a meal in itself. Every country in the world has a great chicken dish.
With government hikes in business rates, national insurance and the rising cost of food, how difficult really is it to run a restaurant today?
JO: It’s been a rising trajectory for some time, the Conservatives have as much blood on their hands as Labour. I think the simple fact is restaurants are not a priority, they will only become so when they reach a critical mass of closures. I can be angry about that or I can just accept it. I understand our public finances are in a state, but I think bringing VAT in line with the rest of Europe [usually 10%] would be a good starting point. I think the best thing for hospitality would be to speak back with one voice. But this a 24/7 job. We are somewhat insulated [at Wilsons] because we have a farm and that’s been like our saving grace.
Duncan Robertson: If we are full, we make a profit, but if we have a quiet time, then we take a loss. We pay ourselves very little, we work a lot of hours, but we love doing it. I’d never advise my children to go into this. It was hard enough under the previous government and Labour has made it harder. I feel they are anti-entrepreneurship/business ownership, they don’t make a distinction between corporations and small businesses, which is ridiculous.
FB: It’s tough at the moment – we have to assume as regards VAT that we are not going to be looked after [by the government] because hospitality is too much of a cash cow. The sad truth is we run tighter teams. We haven’t let anyone go, but we often don’t replace, so I’ve gone from a team of 90 down to 50 since last year [over the four businesses; there’s also a bakery and an events company] and I take fewer trainees on because all of a sudden, it’s more expensive to employ [them]. So I have a leaner, more experienced team and I’m more hands-on myself.
Dan O’Regan: It’s tough. The costs change so rapidly you hardly have time to get to grips with it before something else hits you. You have to be really eyes on and have to be in tune with your finances. We have a rotating menu depending what’s in season, so we are quite lucky. A couple of years ago [for instance,] cauliflower maybe doubled in price in the space of days. There’ve been closures here [in Wapping Wharf] and those were experienced operators. It’s just relentless.”
Is gaining and retaining a Michelin star all it’s made out to be?
JO: Before we got the star [one Michelin star in 2025], we’d been open for eight years and we grew organically. We are not making any fundamental changes to how we are. Do we play it safe? Yeah, sometimes we do and then we think this is not who we are and it changes. Each year [getting a star] became less important, and then we got it and I was over the moon, and the star really saved
the business, but what I was doing was true to me.
DR: Maybe when you get your first star, you become a little safer than you used to be and you can breathe easy. [Duncan and Kyu were awarded one in 2010 for Restaurant L’Envie in Brive-la-Gaillarde, south-west France]. At the same time [trying] to get one can be an obsession and that can be a damaging. For me the issue is Michelin has a certain style that for me personally isn’t the best style of food. It’s a type of marketing… but the general public can put too much store in it. There are boxes you have to tick. [Here], we are doing modern Korean food and really no-one in the UK, let alone Bristol, is doing the kind of food we are doing.
FB: Never had any interest. I came into this to entertain and to look after customers. This was never about accolades for me. I can imagine chasing that or holding that is horrendous, but it becomes a box-ticking exercise. I set out to make delicious French regional country cooking and to have a fabulous wine list. My passion to serve my customers and see them return is stressful enough. I can’t imagine having another layer on top, but all credit to those that do.
DO: With the sites we’ve got we know that’s not in our grasp; it’s not what we are doing. We’ve candidly said we’d like to be at [Michelin Bib] Gourmand level because we’d like the recognition of a job well done and it’s good for the team and morale. A busy restaurant is more important than a nice red plaque outside.
Which local restaurants can’t you keep away from?
JO: I always go to Dragon’s Delicacy, near IKEA. It’s a Chinese supermarket with a restaurant at the top; they have dim sum and I go there and have a bowl of rice with
pork ribs and chicken feet and then some dumplings. It’s completely different from anything I do and it’s excellent.
KJJ/DR: Marmo [in the Old City] is an amazing restaurant, which we love. Also Sam’s Master Grill, a Persian restaurant [on Cheltenham Road].
FB: One of my most regular haunts for simple easy snacks is Condesa [on Whiteladies Road] to have margaritas and light Mexican food. Next month, it may be somewhere else!
JB-H: I used to go to The Mayflower [in Broadmead], a lot and I like Other [Bedminster] – I would do everything there on my menu!
DO: I had a really nice meal at Wangs in Montpelier and I’d like to go back.
How accurate are TV shows like The Bear and Boiling Point when it comes to kitchen life?
DR: Seen both and The Bear is definitely what I imagine an American kitchen could be like. Previously, when I worked years ago in Michelin restaurants in London and Paris, it was like that and probably a hell of lot worse. I’m not sure if it’s still like that.
FB: I started watching Boiling Point and certainly felt the anxiety.
DO: The TV drama Boiling Point, oh man, I had to leave six months between episodes.
Three of these businesses are run by couples; do you think that has helped create a recipe for success at all?
JO: (Laughs) Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s tough like most relationships. Mary [Wilson, Jan’s partner and the co-owner] is the lynchpin, she is the brains, I am the muscle. Mary is wines, service, operational stuff. She holds it together in calm way. if you don’t work together, it can be like ships in the night
KJJ: Since we’ve had kids I feel always guilty. I can’t be there and here. There’s more of an understanding [of restaurant life] if you work together.
DR: I don’t think I’ve had a head chef who wasn’t divorced; even if their wives had worked in hospitality before, they weren’t working together. A lot of chefs can be obsessive characters. [Kyu usually does the lunch shift and Duncan the evening].
FB: Nessa [Freddie’s wife and co-owner] works with our marketing guys and is always involved in the business, keeping me on track. Depending on the stresses [the highs and lows], as you are in it all the time, it can become too much, so we try not to talk about it at ome – the kids ask us not to.
