Stevie Parle

A couple of years ago, when he was only 24, he was defined by London's Evening Standard as one of the two “hottest young chefs” in town (together with his colleague and partner Joseph Trivelli). Upon reading his resume, the career of Stevie Parle seems rather linear: at 16 he decides he wants to be a chef and attends the Ballymaloe Cookery School, one of the most renown in Ireland. In 8 years, before opening his restaurant in 2009, he's already gained a lot of experience, the kind that matters, from the River Café with Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray – where Jamie Oliver also worked and where Stevie probably took his passion for Italian cuisine – to the exotic Moro, passing through the prestigious kitchens of the Petersham Nurseries with Skye Gyngell.

Meanwhile, however, he finds the time and the occasion to go around the world, from Tokyo to New York, for business and for pleasure. His kitchen derives from the lessons taken during his trips, a kitchen offered first with the itinerary supperclub formula of The Moveable Kitchen, together with Trivelli. In 2009, as we mentioned, he decides to settle down, so to speak: at the “venerable” age of 24, Parle finds a home (until then he used to live with his current wife, Nicky, on a houseboat on the river Thames), starts a family (in 2010 Sam was born) and a business: The Dock Kitchen, a restaurant overlooking the river in the peripheral area of Portobello, designed and furnished by designer Tom Dixon who has his showroom here. At the same time, his recipes – personal but never too complicated or over the top interpretations of the dishes tasted in every corner of the world, with a partiality for Italy, Asia and the Middle East – have become a book, one of those you really use to cook, not just to leaf through: My Kitchen, Real Food From Near and Far.

No sensational presentations, no use of futuristic techniques, only true tastes. When he's not travelling – today it's mostly for business, rather than for pleasure – you can find him bustling about his open-plan (and close to the nose) kitchen, at the centre of the restaurant, together with his very young staff.