Eating out in Dorking is about to get swimmingly good. Stellar chef Steve Drake tells Catherine Whyte about his new restaurant, catching the stars and why he doesn’t fear the big beasts
The shelves are bubbling with cookery books. This is the working library of Steve Drake, Surrey’s most celebrated chef, housed in the beamed, low-ceilinged office above his new Dorking restaurant, Sorrel. I’m looking at it to pass the time while Steve discusses the renovation of this beautiful old building with his team downstairs.
Eventually he appears, casually dressed and full of apologies. A refreshing lack of ego, combined with boyish good looks and a readiness to chat, seems to promise a nourishing interview. To judge the book by its cover, however, would be a recipe for disaster. For this mild exterior belies a tenacious, driven core that has propelled Steve to his current eminence.
He has, after all, held a Michelin star for 14 consecutive years, first at Abinger Hammer’s Drakes on the Pond, and then throughout his ownership of Drake’s, at Ripley, that lasted until his departure last year following his split from wife, Serina. Yet there was no romantic start to his career; no nostalgia-sweetened memories of grandma’s cooking or of armfuls of fresh produce about the kitchen.
“It couldn’t have been further from that,” he says of his childhood in Rainham, Essex. “My mother was a terrible cook. We had a lot of stuff like Angel Delight and shepherd’s pie. In fact, I have a love of undercooked apple pie because of her.”
He did, however, enjoy cookery lessons at school, which he received as part of home economics – a subject which embraced needlework too.
“I was the only boy in the fashion show,” he says with a smile. The experience clearly didn’t faze him.
Having left school at 16, Steve began his assault on the culinary summit by making bacon sandwiches in a cafe. Not long afterwards he penned three letters: one to The Dorchester, one to The Savoy and one to The Ritz. The last of these replied – and the rest is history. He was not yet 17.
That single-mindedness served him well, leading him through some of Europe’s most prestigious kitchens, until in 2001 he landed the coveted Roux Scholarship, created in 1984 by the brothers Roux to give up-and-coming British chefs the chance to spend time in high-quality French kitchens. By then he was head chef at Drakes on the Pond and on the way to his first Michelin star. But when the accolade arrived, was he expecting it?
“I was definitely working towards it,” he says. “After all, I had been cooking in all these two- and three-star kitchens, so that level of recognition just felt normal. When my friend told me that I’d got it, I just put the phone down and went back to work.”
All very matter-of-fact – quite unlike his wonderful food. The description on his website, ‘the very best of British food with seasonal ingredients’, does it no justice at all. Unlike so many dull dining experiences, Steve’s fare doesn’t fade from the memory, but stays there with a zing. Indeed, I have been raving about his cooking for many moons, ever since I reviewed his vegetarian tasting menu at Drake’s. On that occasion I was particularly struck by the way he served pineapple ice cream with a sprinkling of Gruyere cheese on top. It worked for me, as I gladly confess.
“Yes, I like to put ingredients together that sound as if they shouldn’t go, but which, when I think about them, it becomes obvious that they could,” he says, citing as an example his banana and black olive ice cream.
“How weird that you remember that other dish, as I only did it for two days,” he says, animated now. “I genuinely didn’t like it. But I’ll look at it again now, definitely.”
Wow. Most chefs would surely have shot me down in pieces, affronted by my greenness of judgement. For Steve, however, it’s an opportunity. Evidently open-minded, he communicates a healthy appetite for adventure. After all, being original isn’t easy. One has to be brave.
“I want the customers to know that I’m working hard to give them something different, that I haven’t copied it from anywhere else,” he says. “I’d also like people to be intrigued when they get here and not to have any expectation of what’s going to be placed in front of them. There are no pictures of pretty dishes on the website, as I don’t want to give anything away.”
I’m so glad that he has chosen to stick with Surrey. It was a shock when he announced his departure from Drake’s last year, even though he has retained The Anchor, the pub across the high street in Ripley. Thankfully, with Sorrel about to open its doors, fears of his untimely exit from the county are now just a distant bad dream. He has big plans to put Dorking on the culinary map. The 300-year-old building – formerly Little Dudley House – is unrecognisable from its previous incarnation. The glazed extension now forms the kitchen, where Steve will occupy centre stage. There’s also a bar/lounge downstairs (whiskies feature prominently), which can be hired out for private parties.
“I aim to tick the box for people who want to come out and try something exciting that they are going to love and remember,” enthuses the new proprietor.
Recent news that Tony Tobin has closed The Dining Room in Reigate, citing competition from corporates, is sad. Does Steve also fear the march of big brands, such as The Ivy Collection?
“No, I don’t,” he says emphatically. “The dishes at The Ivy are very nice, but there’s nothing there that’s going to excite me from a creative point of view. I would like to think that people will be coming to Sorrel because they want to try something different. We are not a steakhouse.”
With time whizzing by, there is little opportunity to talk about his personal life – he lives in Godalming and has a young daughter – though he admits that there is not much that isn’t already in the public domain (“I tell people everything,” he jokes). He’s quite a fitness freak, apparently, having completed the gruelling Marathon Des Sables – a six-day, 156-mile slog across the sands of Southern Morocco – as well as 16 standard marathons. Oh, and he’s climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
We do, however, have time for a few fun questions. If he were on death row, what would he choose for his last meal? Fish and chips, it transpires. Guilty food pleasure? “Ambrosia tinned rice pudding, straight from the tin at room temperature. It’s quite nice with a broken chocolate chip cookie.”
A childhood thing, we decide.
Things take a more emotional turn when I ask whom he admires most in the culinary world. He gets up, goes to the same bookshelf I’d been looking at earlier and pulls out a book by self-taught superstar chef, Nico Ladenis.
“Probably Nico,” he says, handing me the book and pointing to a handwritten inscription at the front. “He was very encouraging when I was young.”
I can feel the lump in my throat as I read the words out loud: ‘Dear Steve, I know you have it inside you to become one of the UK’s best chefs. About this I have no doubt. I wish you every success.’
How right he was.
- Sorrel, 77 South Street, Dorking is now open (tel: 01306 889414). For more information and to book a table, visit: sorrelrestaurant.co.uk or stevedrakefood.com
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