Executive chef
About Jun Tanaka
Jun Tanaka's acclaimed cuisine, regular TV appearances and reputation as a roving gourmet have helped secure Pearl's reputation as one of the capital's leading restaurants.
Born in the US to Japanese parents, Jun began his culinary career aged 19 working with the Roux Family at Le Gavroche. From there he honed his skills and understanding of French gastronomy by working with some of the country's best Michelin-starred chefs and restaurants including Nico Ladenis at Chez Nico, Eric Chavot at The Capital and Marco Pierre White at The Restaurant Marco Pierre White and The Oak Room.
Since 2004, his expertise and unique modern take on traditional French cuisine - an approach focused on accentuating, complementing and balancing ingredients to create clean flavours - has won him a host of awards at Pearl Restaurant & Bar, the showpiece of London's Chancery Court Hotel in Holborn. Notably he has held three AA rosettes since 2008 - an accolade awarded to less than 10 per cent of the country's restaurants for sympathetic treatment of ingredients, excellent judgment of flavour combinations and intuitive service. He also scooped a Visit London silver award for Best London Restaurant in 2007.
A regular on Market Kitchen, Saturday Kitchen and Something for the Weekend as well as a host of other TV cooking programmes, he has also fronted his own Channel 4 series called Cooking It.
Author of Simple to Sensational: Jun's first recipe book demonstrates how easy everyday recipes can be transformed into spectacular dinner party dishes with the addition of just a few ingredients or by tweaking the presentation.
Videos supplied by Deborah McKenna Limited
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