Adam Simmonds leaves position as executive chef at the Capital hotel

Chef Adam Simmonds has left his role as executive chef at the Capital hotel in London after eight months.

Speaking to The Caterer, Simmonds said: “The time there was well spent. We had some great feedback and we built a good base for the future, but these things change direction and I fully respect and understand that.”

He added that he had “a few things in the pipeline but nothing concrete yet”, and that he has no plans to pursue opening his own restaurant again because of the current market.

Simmonds departed the role last Thursday (20 February) having joined the five-red-AA-star, 49-bedroom hotel in Knightsbridge last summer.

At the time he said he intended the move to the hotel to be for the long-term, having spent only five months as head chef at the Belmond Cadogan, which opened in February with a restaurant by chef-patron Adam Handling.

Simmonds also confirmed he is no longer involved with the Alpha Club in Milton Keynes, of which he was named executive chef two years ago.

Simmonds was executive chef of Danesfield House in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, for six years, where he won Chef of the Year (fewer than 250 covers) at the 2011 Hotel Cateys. He left the role in 2013 to open his own restaurant in London. Despite attempts to raise money for the venture, Simmonds said last year that the site was now not going to happen. In the interim he ran the Test Kitchen pop-up restaurant in London's Soho

His earlier career included three years at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, where he worked his way up to sous chef and consulting roles at the Bath Priory and Amberley Castle in West Sussex.

Past head chefs at the Capital have included Eric Chavot, Phillip Britten, Brian Turner and Richard Shepherd, while two-Michelin-starred, Cornwall-based chef Nathan Outlaw oversaw the restaurant at the hotel for six years until the end of March 2019.

The hotel's owner Warwick Hotels & Resorts bought the Capital from the Levin family in 2017.

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