Chef Thomas Straker to open debut London restaurant

A chef who gained hundreds of thousands of social media followers posting recipes during the pandemic is to launch his debut London restaurant in June.

Thomas Straker, a former sous chef at London’s Michelin-starred Elystan Street and executive chef at Casa Cruz, will open Straker’s in Notting Hill’s Golborne Road.

In June 2020 the chef began creating food and recipe content for YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, building his following to 9,260 subscribers and 165,000 and 200,000 followers respectively.

His debut restaurant will serve “unfussy” dishes such as potato gnocchi with burnt butter, lemon and Parmesan; whole grilled seabass with white peach, green beans and almonds; and slow cooked lamb shoulder, broad beans and salsa verde.

Straker’s will seat 40 covers with space for guests to sit around an open kitchen space.

A short wine list will lean towards low-intervention wines from France, Italy and Spain, and there will be a small menu of classic cocktails.

Straker said: “[The restaurant] has been a long time coming and I couldn’t be more excited to finally open the doors after years in the planning; I want this restaurant to be a place where people feel at home and can relax with friends.”

Straker started his career as chef de partie at the Dorchester hotel in 2010 before taking the same role at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in 2013.

He opened Casa Cruz in Notting Hill in 2015 before taking the Casa Cruz pop-up to New York in 2016.

After working under Phil Howard at Elystan Street in late 2017, he left to work as a private chef.

In 2021 Straker ran a sell-out residency at London’s Carousel and in January this year launched a content studio in west London to further build his social media following.