Jeremy Lee

A fixture of London dining, Jeremy Lee's food is seasonal British cooking at it's very best, and his joyful expressionism has made restaurant Quo Vadis into a Soho icon.

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Synonymous with seasonal British cooking, Jeremy Lee is one of Britain's best-loved chefs, and a fixture of London's restaurant scene. As head chef of Soho stalwart Quo Vadis for over a decade, he remains one of the capital's most recognisable food figures.

Lee was born in Dundee in the 1960s, and though he briefly dallied with the idea of an art career, he gravitated towards kitchens from a young age - in part thanks to his upbringing in a family that loved food. He worked in a Scottish country house hotel for a few years before making his way down to London, where he has remained ever since. Lee arrived in the capital on the brink of a restaurant revolution - Terence Conran had just appointed Simon Hopkinson as head chef of Bibendum, and the Conran Restaurants empire was about the define an era of London eating. Jeremy landed a job working with Simon at Bibendum, and the two were part of a team that made Bibendum the most famous restaurant of it's generation. Not only that, this style of seasonal British cooking would influence Jeremy for the rest of his career, the echoes of which we continue to see at Quo Vadis today. 

In 1994, Conran approached Lee about taking over The Blueprint Cafe, which he duly did. As British cooking continued to gather momentum, Lee was right at the forefront of the movement, and in 2012, the Hart brothers would ask Jeremy to become the head chef of Quo Vadis. It was the perfect match by all accounts, and whilst Jeremy was honoured and proud to take over the legendary Soho restaurant, there's no doubt that Quo Vadis has been made immeasureably more famous by Jeremy's boundless energy and effervescent personality. 

In 2023 Jeremy also became an author, publishing his first cookbook which, in a short time, has already been nominated for numerous awards.

Jeremy Lee's Restaurants

Quo Vadis

Head chef

2012 - 2023
"Restaurants are amazing things, they really evolve and settle into themselves, and nothing new ever quite fits straight away, you have to let it settle and become its thing."