Michael Caines interview: 'It's a new dawn'

Michael Caines has long been one of Britain’s great outliers: a chef who built a stellar, generation-defining reputation without ever calling London home. While his peers bed in under the capital’s bright lights, Caines rooted himself in Devon, shaped as much by its estuary winds and rolling farmland as by the French masters who trained him. His style is ‘terroir cuisine’ – the belief that great food begins with a strong sense of place. Ingredients lead, technique refines, not the other way round. It’s a worldview forged early and tested by brutal circumstances few chefs ever face.

Born and raised in Exeter, Caines spent his early career working under the likes of Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, before heading on to esteemed kitchens in France led by the likes of Bernard Loiseau and Joël Robuchon. Later, just two months into a head chef role at the Michelin-starred Gidleigh Park, a car accident cost him his right arm. Remarkably, he returned to work only weeks later. In 1999, under his leadership, Gidleigh Park earned its second star; Caines maintained both for 18 consecutive years.

When he opened Lympstone Manor in 2016 – a country house hotel with vineyard, restaurant and rooms overlooking the Exe estuary – the accolades came quickly. A Michelin star arrived within six months. Now, with the vineyard mature and a host of award-winning wines, the estate has become one of the South West’s most complete luxury food destinations.

And yet, for Caines, there was one box left unticked: a permanent restaurant in London. There were flirtations: packed-out events that proved the demand was there. ‘I've never been in London,’ he says simply, ‘when I have, it’s been pop-ups. You get a very popular event, and then you leave – so it feels a bit disappointing.’

‘I left thinking it was a place I could add value to.’

Any sense of unfinished business evaporated in March 2025, after Caines was appointed Culinary Strategist for The Stafford Collection. The group described the move as a cornerstone of its future strategy; for Caines, it was a rare alignment of timing, trust and opportunity. Taking charge of The Game Bird, the hotel’s flagship dining room, and transforming it into Michael Caines at The Stafford, he finally plants a flag in the capital – not as a visiting star, but as a long-term custodian.

‘I left thinking it was a place I could add value to,’ he recalls of his first serious conversation with the hotel. ‘There are lots of glossy, very shiny new addresses. But the prestigious element of the hotel’s reputation, and its location, was key.’

‘What’s a better location than Mayfair and St James’s?’ he adds, smiling, recalling walking down Park Street as a young chef just out of catering college, dazzled at the sight of Le Gavroche. He says it with a wry smile – the memory is a clear one – but Caines is quick to underline that sentiment alone doesn’t drive decisions.

Data and strategy matter, too. Caines is an experienced hotelier as much as an accomplished chef, weighing up demographics and long-term visions, as well as compatibility. ‘The property here is 63% American. We in Devon are 90% UK. We want a bit more American; they could do with a bit more UK – so we saw it as a really good opportunity.’

The crossover works both ways. ‘A lot of people come from London to Lympstone Manor because they want to sample what we do there. But there are also a lot of people who don’t go to Devon because it’s far away. Now they know you’re here, they’ll come – and hopefully that will encourage them to make the journey west.’

That thinking, rooted in storytelling, has already been formalised through a ‘City & Coast’ package complete with meals and stays at The Stafford and Lympstone Manor, all wrapped up into a single getaway offer. It’s smart hospitality marketing, but also a statement of intent: these two addresses are now part of the same conversation.

Then he leans forward slightly. ‘But I also thought this is a bit of a damsel in distress. This is a hotel that needs help to redefine itself in a market that is very, very competitive – both in hotels and restaurants.’

‘It’s a new dawn. But like anything new, it can be quite painful.’

Opening Michael Caines at The Stafford has been piecemeal, taking into account The Stafford’s heritage, its clientele, and operational concerns. ‘We've inherited a lot, so it's not like we closed the restaurant, disappeared for two months and came back, born again. We're evolving into something which is going to take time to complete, but we're well on our way.’

‘The kitchen layout isn’t ideal, the structure needs changing. Front of house needs more training, new uniforms, a new logo,’ he says, gesturing to a half-unpacked box awaiting his attention. ‘It’s all the things you’d expect – and we couldn’t do it quickly enough.’ There’s no sugar-coating the process: ‘It’s a new dawn. But like anything new, it can be quite painful.’

It’s a new stage, but a London reinvention isn’t on the cards. ‘I can only cook food I want to cook,’ he says, flatly. ‘You can’t suddenly have a midlife crisis when it comes to your career and redesign everything because you think London’s different. People are the same generally.’

‘If you abandon that because you’re trying to adjust to a market, you end up homogenising what you do.’ This, Michael admits, has a role to play in hotel restaurant closures – and it’s something he’s keen to avoid. The way to do that? Refocusing on artisan craft: ‘If it's true that TRUEFoods supply 70% of the London market with stocks and sauces, and we make our own stocks, there's a 70% differentiation to start off with.’

‘We've not made any big statements about awards and ratings. We've just said, let's just get our heads down and start this process.’

At Michael Caines at The Stafford, that philosophy translates into menus that balance ambition with guests’ tastes and expectations. Seasonal tasting menus shift weekly; an eight-course experience can be delivered comfortably in under three hours. Alongside that sit à la carte options, set menus, Sunday roasts, and carefully judged comfort dishes. Sustainability is a priority, minimising the hotel's footprint and championing local suppliers. It’s food that understands its setting as much as its sourcing.

‘The Stafford is quite a grand address, and it has a very well-heeled clientele. But that doesn't mean it can't connect with a greater audience as well. The way to do that is for good food and service,’ he explains. ‘We have to be realistic with where we are now and where we want to be. We've not made any big statements about awards and ratings. We've just said, let's just get our heads down and start this process.’

Private dining at The Stafford is central to the strategy: a seamless extension of the main restaurant rather than a separate experience. ‘I mean, we've got private dining spaces like this.’ He gestures to the charming interiors of The Pink Room, where we sit surrounded by gilded accents. ‘So we've tried to say, if you're a table of eight and you want à la carte, not a problem. What we don't do is volume, so what we can do is quality.’

So does London feel different? ‘I don’t think the challenge of London is greater,’ Caines reflects, ‘but it’s a much more ruthless environment to survive in, there's more choice for the customer, there's more competition between restaurants.’

Referencing the untimely closure of Claude Bosi’s two-star Bibendum, which saw the world-renowned chef refocus on his new Brooklands restaurant at the newly opened Peninsula London Hotel, Caines lets out a sigh of disbelief: ‘That tells you a lot about the sector, doesn’t it?’

Hotels, too, are under pressure. ‘Post-COVID, many are servicing debts and loans they’ve had to take on. The economy has changed. Interest rates are higher. The market is more competitive. But at the same time, there are new hotels, developed during COVID, now starting to open.’ It's a complex situation, but success still comes down to individual quality. He highlights Marco Pierre White’s Wandsworth restaurant, Harvey’s. ‘What matters is what goes on within the spaces themselves. It’s the people who want to be a part of that journey.’

‘I don’t think the challenge of London is greater, but it’s a much more ruthless environment to survive in.’

People, staff, recruitment, this is one area that Caines sees a marked difference. ‘In London, there’s a glut of talent. You’ve got more people who have cooked at a certain standard; in Devon, we’re a more isolated community.’ This contrast was one of the main motivators in setting up the Michael Caines Academy, a programme housed within his alma mater, Exeter College, and directly addresses the need for highly skilled graduates in the South West. At the same time, he’s acutely aware of the wider context: 50% of all jobs lost last year were in hospitality, young chefs are drawn more to post-Brexit travel opportunities on ships, and the ramifications of Covid are still reverberating.

For all the talk of pressure, closures and lost jobs, Caines becomes notably more optimistic when the conversation turns to people. ‘There’s this idea that young people aren’t interested, that Gen Z aren’t engaged,’ he says. ‘But every generation grows up in a different reality. They’re no less engaged – they’re just engaged differently.’

What today’s young chefs arrive with, he notes, is knowledge and context. ‘They’re super energetic and keen. They’ve seen Michelin-starred chefs on YouTube, Instagram, TV. Not all of them, but they’re interested.’

That belief underpins his continued commitment to developing talent both in Devon and later down the line at The Stafford. ‘We've got the next generation of chefs - Simon Ulph, our executive chef, is really talented. He’s already got a good team under him, and we’re building that. He wants to make a name for himself and come through just as Jordan Denning is at Lympstone.’

Denning joined Caines as a student and over the last ten years, has risen to the position of head chef at Lympstone Manor. Alejandro Nilo, who spent three years working at Lympstone before moving to London, now rejoins Caines’ team as an assistant manager.

‘We need to encourage people,’ Caines adds. ‘It’s not just an industry – it’s a profession.’ One that can lead far beyond the stove. ‘Our managing director, John McLean, was a chef. I own and run a hotel. That’s empowering. Young people need to see what’s possible.’

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