Phil Howard

Phil Howard is one of Britain’s most accomplished and respected chefs. His central London restaurant The Square is one of only 17 British restaurants to hold two Michelin stars. He’s also a partner with Australian chef Brett Anderson at the two Michelin starred Ledbury and co-owns Kitchen W8 (which this year gained its first Michelin star) with Rebecca Mascarenhas (proprietress of Barnes’ Sonny’s restaurant).

Phil is known as a chef's chef. He avoids the limelight, rarely appears on television and concentrates all his energies on overseeing the quality of food in his small group of restaurants.

Howard has no formal training as a chef. He graduated from Kent University with a degree in microbiology and served his apprenticeship with Roux Restaurants.

After nine months, he asked for a job at Marco Pierre White’s Harvey’s restaurant in Wandsworth and became White’s chef de partie at the age of 23. But he fell out with White after nine months, just before his promotion to sous chef.

Howard became chef de partie at Conran’s Bibendum under Simon Hopkinson. After patching up his differences with White, he returned to Harvey’s for three months.

White introduced Howard to Nigel Platts-Martin (his partner in Harvey’s) who was planning a new restaurant in St James’s. As a result, Howard became head chef and co-owner of The Square when it opened in December 1991. It moved to its current site in Mayfair in February 1997.