Oli Williamson promoted to head chef at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck
Williamson is now heading up the kitchen at Blumenthal’s Bray flagship having been promoted from the role of sous chef. The 31 year-old chef has been at the restaurant for just over a year, having joined at the tail-end of 2020.
He will work alongside Edward Cooke, who took over as head chef at the restaurant following the departure of Jonny Lake in 2018 and was later promoted to executive chef.
His CV also includes time at two Michelin- starred The Greenhouse in London, sous chef at Daniel Clifford’s two Michelin-starred Midsummer House and at Benu in San Francisco before moving The Clove Club to work with Isaac McHale.
Last year Williamson was crowned the winner of the 2020/21 Roux Scholarship cooking competition beating five other finalists. His dish of ‘Little flans with snails in green coats’ impressed the judges, including Michel Roux.
The Fat Duck opened in Bray in 1995 and won is first Michelin star four years later in 199. The restaurant has gone on to win two more stars, in 2002 and 2004, which it has held ever since albeit temporarily losing them when it was closed for refurbishment.
In 2005 the restaurant was named the Best Restaurant in the World and in 2009 it topped the list of the 100 best restaurants in the UK at the National Restaurant Awards.
