Former Kym’s and Xu head chef joins new restaurant Silver Birch

Kimberley Hernandez, former head chef at Kym’s and Xu, will be leading the kitchen at Silver Birch restaurant, which opens in London’s Chiswick next month.

The independent neighbourhood restaurant will open on Chiswick High Road, offering contemporary, seasonal British dining in a relaxed, friendly setting. This will include morning coffees and pastries, light lunches and a sophisticated dinner service.

The site has been founded by Tim Price (who trained at Leith’s), while Edward Allsopp (previously general manager at Wild by Tart) has been appointed restaurant manager.

Following a stint as chef de partie at the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Hernandez moved to work for the St John group as head pastry chef. More recently she worked as senior sous chef at Mathias Dahlgren’s two-Michelin-starred Matsalen and one-Michelin-starred Matbaren in Stockholm, Sweden, before moving back to the UK to work as head chef at Xu and then Andrew Wong’s Kym’s in the City.