France’s Most Prestigious Cookery School Announces Flagship London Restaurant

World’s most prestigious — and expensive — cookery school is opening a new HQ in London

Le Cordon Bleu, one of the world’s most famous and prestigious French cookery school’s, will open a new, second site on Fleet Street in London. The internationally recognised brand counts the likes of Yotam Ottolenghi, Julia Child, Mary Berry, Nancy Silverton, and Virgilio Martinez among its alumni; it has taken over the lease for a new school and in-house restaurant which will open to the public. It has signed a new 35-year lease on the former site of Lutyens restaurant, which closed following the collapse of Prescott and Conran’s restaurant group last June.

As first reported by the Evening Standard, it is the second location for the 143-year-old Paris-headquartered cookery school in London. Le Cordon Bleu has operated a site in Bloomsbury Square, Holborn, since 1931.

Deal-maker, Rob Meadows, director at Davis Coffer Lyons property, said, “This will become Le Cordon Bleu’s flagship restaurant in London representing the international brand. Le Cordon Bleu has 22 schools around the world and has been in operation for over 120 years. The restaurant will both complement and promote the school in London, with the restaurant offering work experience to its students.”

Prescott & Conran announced that it had gone into administration in June 2018, with three restaurants closing: Parabola in Kensington, Lutyens on Fleet Street and the Albion in Clerkenwell all closed; Lutyens and the Albion subsequently went on the market.

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• Food market Mercato Metropolitano, which has sites in Elephant and Castle — plus three more London locations in the pipeline — is planning global expansion. [The Caterer]
• Good tweet: