Even a passing glance at the CVs of chefs Chris and Jeff Galvin can astonish. Before working together, each built staggering careers of their own. Chris, the elder at 66, put in time at the Ritz and the Lanesborough, before he worked with Terence Conran to open Mezzo, Bluebird, Almeida and Marylebone’s Orrery, where he picked up a Michelin star — Conran’s first chef to do so. The Wolseley probably wouldn’t have made it without him; as executive chef, he devised its opening menu, the one that set the tone.
Though 12 years younger, glamorous hotels appealed to Jeff too: the Savoy to start (in a good year; he worked alongside Giorgio Locatelli and Marcus Wareing), then the Capital under Philip Britten. Soon came time with Nico Ladenis at Chez Nico, where Jeff helped the restaurant win its three stars; from there he was head chef at Marco Pierre White’s Oak Room — albeit working for Robert Reid, not Marco — and later executive chef at Soho favourite L’Escargot, where for five years he maintained another star.
