Eric Chavot Confirmed as Bob Bob Cité’s Head Chef

It has been confirmed that Eric Chavot has joined the restaurant group which runs Bob Bob Ricard in Soho, and will soon open a sister restaurant in the City. As executive head chef, Chavot will oversee the kitchens at both sites and lead the opening team at Bob Bob Cité — earlier reported to be called Bob Bob Exchange — ahead of its launch in January 2018. That restaurant will be located on level three of the Leadenhall Building (also known as the “Cheesegrater.”)

Eater London spoke to Leonid Shutov, the group’s owner, about the decision to open a second restaurant in the City, an area that appears to be attracting an increasing number of operators:

“The City is my favourite part of London,” he said. “It is such a dramatic mix of old and new. It is home to some of the world’s best contemporary architecture and it gives us an opportunity to build London’s first truly urban, 21^st-century luxury restaurant. We hope to create something truly unique that will be worth the trip from the other side of the Atlantic, let alone from Fulham. Build it and they will come.”

About Chavot’s appointment, Shutov said: “I have loved Eric’s cooking for many years. He is without doubt one of the true giants, not just in London but internationally, and I am hugely excited about us working together.”

Meanwhile, Chavot said: “From the first time I met Leonid, it felt like a marriage made in heaven. One needs to be in the right place at the right time and it's happened for me. Bob Bob Ricard and Bob Bob Cité now feel like home. I wake up in the morning with goosebumps and a silly smile on my face.”

Chavot is a protégé of both Raymond Blanc and Pierre Koffmann, who held two Michelin stars for ten years between 1999 and 2009 at The Capital hotel in Knightsbridge. He ran his eponymous brasserie on Conduit Street in Mayfair between 2013 and 2015. This is his first major reappearance on the London restaurant scene since then.