This 14-Seater Notting Hill Favourite Is Losing its Head Chef and Founder

Chef-restaurateur Marianne Lumb has announced that she will leave her eponymous restaurant on Chepstow Road in Notting Hill in August this year. The restaurant will remain open, while Lumb pursues other projects overseas — in Asia and the Caribbean.

As first reported by Harden’s, via the chef’s announcement on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, her deputy, chef Miles Strotton, will take over the running of the kitchen. Lumb — a former MasterChef The Professionals contestant — first opened the tiny fine-dining establishment in 2013.

Lumb told Eater that she was “gutted” but that it was “time for me to move on.” Going to go to Asia and work with David Thompson [the Australian chef, based in Bangkok, who specialises in Thai cuisine] for a bit. [I] just want to throw everything up in the air and see how it lands. Couldn’t have dreamt for more success with the restaurant. But think I can’t take the food any further. I leave the business in a very healthy place.”

On appointing Strotton to takeover, she said that now is the “time for my team to step up to the plate.”

Lumb confirmed that the restaurant will keep its (her) name — and when asked if she was leaving open the possibility of a return, she said “Well... honestly, I want a bigger place? The amount of times I’ve had to turn away amazing people — [including the] Foo Fighters — and mates because we’ve been so small... !

“I’ve just grown out of it... but I do hope to have a triumphant return at some stage!”

• Award-winning chef Marianne Lumb to depart her eponymous restaurant in search of new challenges [Harden’s]