The Capital hotel in London appoints Adam Simmonds as executive chef

Adam Simmonds has been appointed executive chef of London's Capital hotel, three months after leaving the nearby Belmond Cadogan hotel.

He said he intended the move to the five-red-AA-star, 49-bedroom hotel in Knightsbridge to be for the long-term, having spent only five months as head chef at the Belmond Cadogan, which opened in February, under chef-patron Adam Handling.

"My ambition is work with a committed management to continue the food legacy of the Capital hotel," he said.

Past head chefs at the hotel 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.

Simmonds is currently building a brigade of around 16, which will include up to 50% of chefs who have previously worked with him.

He left Danesfield House in 2013 to open his own restaurant in London. However, despite attempts to raise money for the venture, Simmonds said the site was now not going to happen. In the interim he ran the Test Kitchen pop-up restaurant in London's Soho, while 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.

The new breakfast menu at the Capital will offer healthy options such as chia seed and green tea pudding with mango and coconut salad, alongside a more traditional offer, while à la carte dinner dishes will include oysters with compressed cucumber, gin and lardo, and belly and loin of lamb, curd and smoked aubergine.

Louis Vanheusden, vice-president, special assistant to the president, Warwick Hotels & Resorts, the company which bought the Capital from the Levin family in 2017, said Simmonds will be respecting the traditions of the hotel, which opened in 1969, while introducing "a twist of modernity".

He added: "Adam will continue to build on the food reputation of the Capital hotel across all areas of the food and beverage operations, from breakfast through to private dining, afternoon tea and the restaurant."

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