Seven Park Place chef William Drabble, who in 2023 lost his Michelin Star after 24 years holding one, is to open a new restaurant inspired by Queen Victoria’s head chef.
Drabble’s new restaurant, which like Seven Park Place will be inside the Althoff St. James's Hotel & Club, will be called Francatelli, after Charles Elmé Francatelli. Francatelli, who Drabble describes as “one of his culinary idols”, wrote the influential 1846 recipe book The Modern Cook. The book, which was popular enough to have 29 editions, sold well throughout Britain and America, and introduced both countries to the idea of a two-course meal. Francatelli, considered a celebrity cook in his time, had been the Queen’s chef prior to publication, and later worked for the Prince and Princess of Wales.
