Meet the Team: Exec Chef Rob Mitchell

With the D&M team right from the start as head chef in 2008 at our first bar, The Refinery Bankside, our exec chef Rob Mitchell is now responsible for 20 kitchens with more to come.

First things first..Did you always want to be a chef? And if you weren’t a chef what would you want to be? I knew from a very early age, perhaps 8/9 years old that I was going to be a chef. If not I wanted  to have been a military policeman in the RAF.

If you could be a chef anywhere in the world where it would be? San Francisco, the garden/farm to table mentality of the restaurants and customer is immensely inspiring. The mix of cultures and cooking creates a real hotpot of cooking that competes on a world stage.

Best thing about working for Drake & Morgan? The opportunity to make a difference, and that difference being recognised when beautiful or successful things happen.

Cooking for Freddie (Rob’s son), any fav kid friendly dishes with a bit more pzazz than what you usually see? The one thing that I have really noticed is how much children copy their parents eating habits. Freddie has his firm favourites….crisps, biscuits, chips…. But aside from those, broccoli and pasta bake, fish pies, anything tomato pasta based will win.

Last meal on earth, what would it be? Foie gras on toast with truffles, Veal holstien, fried egg, capers and anchovy, apple tatin, vanilla pod ice cream

Any good stories to tell while you’ve been with D&M? One of the best menu’s that Drake and Morgan ever delivered was one in which all the head chefs put a dish forward for it. A real game changer in aspirations of the team, the engagement that the whole team took from producing the menu really made it the most well delivered.

What’s gonna be the next big thing in the food world? Rice paper rolls, the biggest thing to come out, will be that the consumer will continue to go out in increasingly hard times, but will push for value for money and expect healthier options. Rice paper rolls will be one of D&M’s forays into answering that call.

​3 favourite restaurants in London? Bread street kitchen – consistently delivers good food and not a million miles away from our own brand, never fails to inspire me. Ottolenghi – one for the lovers of taste, his books have also made for an interesting read and the Ivy Garden Chelsea – One of the best breakfasts I have had in London – try the pancakes!