Although Claude Bosi has several Michelin stars to his name, his most significant success is developing long-term relationships with his guests. The London-based French chef currently helms four restaurants (Claude Bosi at Bibendum, Brooklands, Josephine Bouchon and Socca), but he has been part of the U.K. culinary scene for more than two decades, including with his highly-acclaimed restaurant Hibiscus, which closed in 2016.
“When I was in France on holiday with my family, I saw a gentleman with his wife and he said, ‘Are you Claude? I used to come with my dad to your restaurant,’” Bosi tells Observer. “The guy is now married with children and still comes to my restaurant. That is success. It’s not how many Michelin stars you’ve got. It’s to be able to do what I’m doing and have different generations coming to my place.”
Today, Bosi splits his focus between the two-Michelin-starred fine dining spot Claude Bosi at Bibendum and the car and aviation-inspired Brooklands, located in London’s recently-opened Peninsula Hotel. The latter received two Michelin stars only months after opening last September, and shares a similar menu to the Bibendum. In March, Bosi and his wife, Lucy, debuted Josephine Bouchon, a more low-key spot inspired by Bosi’s hometown of Lyon.
The chef is highly engaged with the London restaurant scene, which he’s been an essential part of since the now-closed Hibiscus moved from Ludlow to the city in 2007. “You have to see what’s coming up and where the movement is,” Bosi says. “It’s about getting some inspiration. See what people want on the casual side of it. London is just amazing at the moment. The different variety of restaurants opening every day is unbelievable. You can’t keep up.”
Observer recently caught up with Bosi on juggling his many restaurants, pursuing great service and what he plans to do next.
As a chef with multiple restaurants, how much time can you actually spend in the kitchen?
I have an amazing team in the kitchen. I’m not the one chopping the onions or prepping the lamb rack. But I’m very involved with all of the food development, food tasting [and] designing the dishes. I’ve got an executive chef and executive pastry chef at Claude Bosi at Bibendum. We open for nine services a week and I will do seven of them, and I will do a couple of services at Brooklands per week. I’ve got a very busy schedule.
That sounds really intense.
Yeah, I’m working six days a week. But I made my bed and I have to sleep in it. It’s my choice. No one forced me to do what I’ve done, and I’m enjoying it.
Are you still enjoying it?
I love it even more now. I can be cooking steak au poivre one day for lunchtime, and duck jelly and caviar for dinner. The variety of choices is amazing. Today, if I fancy doing the bistro, I can go do the bistro. If I fancy to be at Bibendum, I can be. My palette of workloads is so different.
Why was opening a restaurant in the new Peninsula Hotel last year the right fit for you?
It was the dream of a lot of people to be approached by this hotel. I actually had contacted them to see if they were looking for [a chef] for the hotel. And funnily enough, this gentleman who was researching someone for that site had been at the Bibendum two weeks earlier, and we were shortlisted. We were already in the lineup, but I moved things forward a little bit faster. And they’ve been amazing. I’ve got lots of the friends who work in different hotels and they all say, “Claude, you have got the best one you could wish for.”
When we start talking about Brooklands, the design was already a clear view of what [Peninsula chairman] Sir Michael [Kadoorie] wanted to do. But with me, with Bibendum being in the Michelin building and the classic cars [on display in Brooklands], it was a perfect connection. I love cars and anything that’s got a bit of oil and petrol. It was a perfect fit.
How surprised were you when Brooklands got two Michelin stars not long after opening?
Francesco Dibenedetto [chef de cuisine at Brooklands], and I have been working together for over 10 years now. He knows me better than anyone else. It’s very easy when you have somebody who’s been working with you for so long and we put our minds together. We were very clear with what we wanted to do. We opened in September, but we started working on that menu in April, which is not really that long. Opening a restaurant is difficult, but I had an amazing team. There were loads of people who used to work with me before, and that makes life a bit easier. We were hoping for one star. Two stars? I know I did it at Bibendum and that was quick, but we weren’t expecting to go to two right away. Michelin has been amazing to recognize us so quickly. When I spoke to them they said, “We gave you two stars not because we like you. It’s got nothing to do with it. You have done something very special and we recognized it for what it was.” We were very happy.
How have you translated your cuisine for Josephine Bouchon, which is a more casual restaurant?
The bistro is where I come from. My parents used to have something like it. It’s something something I born into. My mom was the chef and my dad used to be on the floor. I used to sit on the side of the stove and eat the pas de choux [pastry] every day. It’s something I’ve grown up with, so it was very, very easy. It’s very good home cooking. It’s all about the sauce and the produce.
I’ve got a team there that is amazing. The chef there has been with me for four years, and he could have done Brooklands or Bibendum. [At Josephine Boucon] there is no sous vide machine; there is no water bath. He has proper pans with a lot of butter and a lot of dairy. Normally when you do an opening, in the kitchen you quickly lose 20 to 25 percent of the staff because it’s so chaotic. But we haven’t lost anyone.
Why did you pick Chelsea as the neighborhood to set it in?
I wanted it to be a neighborhood bistro with a French orientation. A friend of mine who had the site came to me and offered the site. I went to Chelsea and thought it was a bit too close to home, but the site was perfect. It was just what I was looking for—a corner site. I want to do another one in Marylebone. Chelsea is like a bouchon Lyonnais. Marylebone will be more like a bouillon Parisien—the original bouchon from Paris that is more seafood-oriented.
Are you continually looking at how you can expand your restaurants?
Not always. If a good opportunity comes and a good site comes, I will do another one, for sure. It’s not something where I wake up in the morning and say, “What’s next?” Because everything is still really new at the bistro. We have a good team there, but I want to make sure I stay consistent and the service is good. You need to keep working on it. But I never close my mind away from another opportunity.
Have you established, for yourself, what great service means?
For me, great service is where the guests are coming through the doors, and you welcome them the way you welcome someone at home. That’s important. How would you bring people into your house? Would you be rude to them? Would you be helpful to them? You can never take the customer for granted. What makes a difference between us and somebody else, because there are some amazing places in London, is the quality of service. It’s sad to say, but the food is second to this. We want to make sure we can give them a good time. When they pass through the door, we try to make them forget what’s outside. That’s the way I see it. Is it the right recipe? I’m not sure. But I’ve been doing it for 25 years now, and so far, I’m still standing.
Do you think the idea of British food has changed in those years?
British food is still at a point of, “What is British food?” There is definitely British gastronomy. But there’s not British food like Italian food or Indian food or French food. Here, they’ve got a DNA of cooking, but it’s not like in the rest of Europe. I started in Shropshire, in Ludlow where there were 8,000 people, and the food scene was a disaster. The produce was amazing where we were, but if you wanted to eat properly, you would have to drive 30 or 45 minutes outside of Ludlow. Now you can go to the middle of nowhere and you have great food. This is what Britain has done. And Britain will build something like France or Italy has done because they’ve got the produce, but it’s going to take a long time.
Why has it changed so much?
A lot of young chefs have been going through Europe or through the world, learning how to cook, understanding the produce, understanding the respect for the seasons and then coming back home to do it here.
What was the last great meal you had?
The Ledbury. It was amazing. I hadn’t been since it re-opened after Covid and they did an amazing job.
