Legendary London chef Nico Ladenis passed away at the age of 89 on September 10, and behind him he leaves a fascinating journey that earned him three Michelin stars.
He earned several awards in British cuisine, including a perfect score in the Good Food Guide, and was mentor to some of the nation’s best chefs like André Garrett, and Marco Pierre White.
Ladenis came to the cooking and restaurant profession quite late, only becoming professional when he was nearly 40.
He was entirely self-taught too, learning from just a cook book – while his first foray into the scene was at a family friend’s Greek taverna.
The dream to become a chef would have been planted early in his childhood, living in Tanganyika, now part of Tanzania in Africa, where his mother introduced him to French cuisine.
According to The Guardian, it was in his childhood where he ate tropical fruits, spices and wild animals.
He was born to Greek parents, Peter Ladenis and Constandia (nee Antoniadou), with his father running a sisal plantation in Tanganyka and eventually emigrating to the US to establish a small chain of restaurants.
In 1973, Nico open his first restaurant, Chez Nico, in East Dulwich, South London, and it was here that The Guardian say he refused to print a menu, banned salt and pepper from the dinner tables and would not cook well-done steaks.
He was also known for his aggression, but nonetheless his food was good, for the Good Food Guide awarded him their highest mark.
After a trip to France, feeling inspired, he opened a new restaurant in Queenstown Road, Battersea. It was here he earned his first Michelin star in 1981, and a second in 1984.
In pursuit of his third, he decided to move to the country, as the city proved unworthy of his cuisine, with local youth vandalising his restaurant.
This proved to be costly risk, as the locals in rural Shinfield were not open to his style of cooking, and it took less then a year for him to seek a return to the sophistication of London.
He opened a new place in Victoria, named Simply Nico, but the recession of the early 90s saw him lose business.
Then in 1992, he with large financial backing from corporate powers, he opened a new Chez Nico, within the Grosvenor House hotel on Park Lane. This would be his crowning achievement as it would earn him his long sought after third Michelin star in 1995.
Ladenis would go into semi-retirement in 1998 after a prostate cancer diagnosis and would move to France.
Asking for his star removals, as he wanted to work in a more relaxed manner without the stress of running a three-star restaurant, he eventually opened more in 2000 and 2002, before fully retiring in 2003.
He is survived by his wife, Dinah-Jane and their two daughters Isabella and Natasha.
