Oxeye's Alex Lewis named head chef at Native

Alex Lewis, the former head chef of Oxeye, is to lead the kitchen team at Native’s upcoming restaurant opening in Worcestershire.

The sustainability-focused Native was founded by Imogen Davis and Ivan Tisdall-Downes in 2016 and has since operated across London and on Osea Island in Essex.

The pair are due to relaunch Native after an eight-month hiatus on May 22 in the former Pensons restaurant site on the the Netherwood Estate.

Lewis attended Leeds City College has undertaken stages across the globe, including at Per Se in New York and Restaurant Story in London.

He later became chef de partie at the three-Michelin-starred Lecture Room and Library at Sketch in London’s Mayfair and also held a development team and chef de partie role at the now two-Michelin-starred Trivet in London’s Bermondsey.

Lewis was also sous chef at Birch in Hertfordshire for a year until 2021, after which he joined Sven-Hanson Britt for the opening of Oxeye in London’s Nine Elms.

Oxeye closed in July last year after almost two years of trading.

Lewis will oversee Native’s tasting menus, which will include dishes such as Angelica leche de tigre featuring chalk stream trout, Champagne rhubarb and woodruff; and Regeneration risotto, which consists of heritage grains, cover crops and Lincolnshire poacher.

He will work alongside general manager John Lacombe, who has experience at Soho House, Notting Hill Brasserie, and Colony Bar and Grill and was most recently general manager at the Rectory hotel in the Cotswolds.

Native was among the first restaurant concepts to be backed by a new £50m hospitality investment fund, Hestia Hospitality, earlier this year.