Greg has always sought out the most demanding kitchens. “I’ve always tended to pick the hardest chefs to work for,” he told CODE, looking for chefs he knew “could whip me into shape”. As development chef at Midsummer House, it was his menu, developed with Daniel, that helped the restaurant retain its two Michelin stars. It gave him the confidence that he could cook to a certain level. That instinct took him from washing pots in a Manchester pub, through a proper training at Gleneagles from the age of seventeen, to Martin Wishart in Edinburgh, Tom Aikens in London, then The Ledbury and Midsummer House, before he took his first head chef role at Typing Room. Each move, he said, was chosen for the chef who would push him hardest rather than the comfort of the job. An arm injury later cost him a year of physiotherapy and kept him from holding a knife, and the pandemic followed; The Pass at South Lodge was his return to restaurant kitchens.
His cooking starts with produce rather than other people’s ideas. “The ingredients always inspire me first,” he says. He rarely looks to cookery books or other chefs’ work for inspiration, preferring to make each dish his own and give it a completely different spin. Being creative, he says, is the best part of the job.
Greg Clarke's career has taken him through some of the most celebrated kitchens in Britain and beyond, including Tom Aikens, Midsummer House, The Ledbury and Norway's Maaemo. His cooking combines classical technique with a distinctly contemporary approach, drawing inspiration from British produce, wild ingredients, foraging and the changing seasons. With an instinct for unusual combinations and a meticulous attention to detail, Clarke creates dishes that are both inventive and firmly rooted in the ingredients themselves. For his appearance at Carousel in London, the menu brought together delicate seasonal produce and bold, contrasting flavours, from Wye Valley asparagus with wild fennel and smoked eel to Herdwick lamb accompanied by smoked anchovy and grilled cucumber. Described as one of the brightest talents in the country, Clarke represents a generation of chefs whose cooking is shaped by experience.
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CODE met him in 2021 during his six-month residency at The Pass at South Lodge, his return to fine dining after three years of private work and an arm injury. The restaurant is a glass box looking straight into the kitchen. A short pop-up made the team easy to build, and he put them on four days a week rather than five, seeing no need for the 16-hour days he had worked in training. Menu prices, he pointed out, have barely risen in fifteen years while everything behind them has. A good team becomes a small family, and the way chefs and hospitality staff are treated, he argued, needs to change.
Some of the most creative and beautifully presented food of the year, found in the heart of the West Sussex countryside. At The Pass, Greg Clarke's eight-course tasting menu offers an inventive succession of dishes that make the journey worthwhile. Cornish crab follows, delicately layered over a crisp cracker base and crowned with exceptionally fine ribbons of courgette. Beautifully constructed dishes in which unexpected combinations are as delicious as they are imaginative. Salt-aged duck arrives with duck-heart ragù, wafer-thin beetroot and preserved elderberries, alongside a skewered duck leg. The cooking is bold and inventive, but never loses sight of flavour. Clarke's experience extends beyond restaurant kitchens to private hospitality, including cooking for guests at Guy Ritchie's shooting estate. Charming, knowledgeable front-of-house service complements the cooking, creating a seamless progression from one course to the next. Across the tasting menu, the portions are carefully judged, avoiding the heaviness that can accompany successive elaborate courses. A Charentais melon and lavender-infused sheep's milk panna cotta provides a memorable finish.
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