Alastair Little
Born(1950-06-25)25 June 1950
Colne, Lancashire, England
Died3 August 2022(2022-08-03) (aged 72)
Australia
EducationDowning College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)Chef, cookbook author and restaurateur
Spouse
Sharon
​
(m. 2000)​
PartnerKirsten Pedersen (1984–1995)
Children3

Alastair Little (25 June 1950 – 3 August 2022) was a British chef, cookbook author and restaurateur. He first became known in the 1980s for his eponymous Soho restaurant and frequent appearances on British television. His menus, which changed daily and featured seasonal produce, were influential in modern British restaurants.

Early life and education

Little was born on 25 June 1950 in Colne, Lancashire, to Robert and Marion (née Irving).[1][2] His father was an officer in the British Navy.[1][2] His mother and grandmother were accomplished cooks, and the family had an allotment.[1] At age 11 he entered Kirkham Grammar School, where the low quality of the food made him appreciate the food at home.[1][2] He and his family travelled throughout western Europe, and he became interested in food and dining.[1] His earliest gastronomic memory was the taste of homemade chicken broth with noodles in Limoges.[3]

Little studied social anthropology and archaeology at Downing College, Cambridge, where he found the college food "horrible" but the wines "revelatory".[1][4][2] In his final year he lived in a former friary and cooked in its kitchen, teaching himself using Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.[1][3] He began producing meals for groups of other students, including Rowley Leigh.[1][5]

Career

Little graduated in 1972 and planned to become a film editor; to break in to the industry he got a job as a messenger for a film studio in Soho.[1] He supplemented his earnings as a waiter at Small's, a Knightsbridge cafe.[3] His income from waiting table so far outstripped those as a messenger that he quit the messenger job to wait table full time, and he eventually became assistant manager at Small's.[1] According to Little, he watched the cooks and felt "envious"; at home he "worked [his] way through Robert Carrier's [Great] Dishes of the World".[1]

In 1976, he was working at the Old Compton Wine Bar. When the chef quit, Little asked for the job.[1] Out of necessity due to his inexperience professionally, he kept the menu simple.[1] He recalls checking what was in the refrigerator each morning, then going shopping at the small produce markets and butchers in Soho.[1] He moved to a restaurant in Wrentham, Suffolk, for two years,[1] and then to one in Putney, and in 1981 he started at L'Escargot in Soho.[6] He moved to 192 (Kensington Park Road), where he created simple menus that changed daily, a service model "unheard of back then", according to Sheila Dillon.[1] He began studying Italian cuisine by reading Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cookbook.[1][4] While at 192 he met Kirsten Pedersen and Mercedes Andre-Vega, who were waiting table there.[1] The three of them opened the restaurant Alastair Little in Frith Street, Soho in October 1985.[1][3] According to The Independent it was one of the first eponymous restaurants in Britain.[4]

Soho's service model broke with multiple then-common dining norms. Little dispensed with cover charges and 'extras' for service and vegetables. The menu, which was restricted to soup, salad, fresh fish and meat, plus puddings, was changed twice a day, according to the availability of supplies.[4][3] There were no tablecloths, the napkins were paper, and the kitchen could be seen from the dining room.[4] Drew Smith of the Good Food Guide described it as "the finest cafe in the country".[7]

Reviews were favourable. "Alastair gets more publicity than Princess Diana" said his fellow restaurateur Simon Slater.[8]

In 1995, the partners opened a second restaurant, also named Alastair Little, off Ladbroke Grove in West London. The Times's restaurant critic Jonathan Meades described it as feeling "altogether right".[4]

By 2002, Little had left the partnership, losing the right to use his name on another business.[4] Little started a deli in Notting Hill, West London, called Tavola.[9]

In 2017, Little moved to Sydney with his wife Sharon and opened a pop up restaurant "Little Bistro" inside the CBD Hotel, owned by the Merivale Group. He was the co-owner of restaurant Et Al in Potts Point, in the north of the Kings Cross area of Sydney.[10]

In 2019, he started a home delivery service in London based on the dishes he had created for Tavola called 'ByAlastairLittle'.[11]

Impact

Little influenced the development of modern British cuisine.[1] He has been called the 'godfather of modern British cooking'.[12][1] According to Sheila Dillon he has "a place in British food history that is unchallengeable", saying he changed cooking professionally in Britain from "a default option for those who couldn't think of anything better to do" into "a craft that attracts good minds, skilled artisans, and even people who want to change the world".[1] Dan Lepard said he "changed the way we eat food in Britain".[1] Angela Hartnett said he "influenced the future of cooking".[1] The Independent called his influence "as important as [Albert Roux and Michel Roux] and Marco Pierre White".[4]

Personal life and death

From 1984 to 1995, he was partner to Kirsten Pedersen, with whom he had two children.[4][2] In 1995, while teaching in Umbria, he met Sharon, and in 2000 they married.[4][2] He and Sharon, who is from Sydney,[1] had one child.[9]

Little died at home in Australia on 3 August 2022, at the age of 72.[6][2]

Publications

  • Little, Alastair; Whittington, Richard (1993). Keep It Simple. Conran Octopus. ISBN 9781850295310.[1]
  • Little, Alastair; Whittington, Richard (1994). Alastair Little, keep it simple : a fresh look at classic cooking. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press. ISBN 0-87951-547-3. OCLC 30509620.
  • Little, Alastair; Whittington, Richard (1995). Food of the Sun : a fresh look at Mediterranean cooking. London: Quadrille. ISBN 189998805X.
  • Little, Alastair (1996). Alastair Little's Italian Kitchen : recipes from La Cacciata. London. ISBN 978-0091813659.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Little, Alastair; Whittington, Richard (1998). The Daily Mail Modern British Cookbook: Over 500 Recipes, Advice and Kitchen Know-How. Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-1-85702-772-3.
  • Little, Alastair (1999). Soho Cooking. Ebury. ISBN 978-0-09-186422-4.[4]

Other media

Throughout the 90s Little appeared on Masterchef (BBC1), Hot Chefs, and Ready Steady Cook (ITV).[1] He was consultant on Lenny Henry's television show Chef![13]

In his later career, Little contributed food writing to both The Guardian newspaper[14][15] and Noble Rot magazine. [16][17]

In 2017 Little was the subject of an episode of BBC Radio 4's Food Programme hosted by broadcaster Sheila Dillon.[1]

In 1998, photographer Barry Marsden took his portrait. The resulting black and white image now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London.[18]

Awards

In 1993, his restaurant won the Times Restaurant of Year award.[19][2] His 1993 Keep It Simple won the Glenfiddich Award for Best Food Book of the Year.[20][21]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Dillon, Sheila. "A Life Through Food". BBC Iplayer. BBC. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Alastair Little, innovative and influential chef who spearheaded a new approach to cuisine in Britain – obituary". The Telegraph. 4 August 2022. (subscription required)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Chapman, Kit (1989). Great British Chefs. London: Pyramid Books (Octopus). pp. 140–142. ISBN 1-871307-89-9.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Stacey, Caroline (15 June 2003). "Alastair Little". the Independent. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  5. ↑ Chapman, Kit (1995). Great British Chefs 2. London: Mitchell Beazley. p. 103. ISBN 1-85732-548-6.
  6. 1 2 Hansen, James (3 August 2022). "One of the Most Influential Chefs in Britain, Alastair Little, Has Died". Eater London. Retrieved 7 August 2022. Having worked as first a waiter and then a chef, the latter at L'Escargot in Soho in 1981 and 192 in Notting Hill in 1983, Little would open his eponymous restaurant, on Frith Street, also in Soho, in 1985.
  7. ↑ @GoodFoodGuideUK (3 August 2022). "We're saddened to hear about the passing of Alastair Little. Drew Smith, a previous editor of The Good Food Guide, once described Little's Soho restaurant as 'the finest café in the country.'" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  8. ↑ Sutherland, Alastair Scott (2009). The Spaghetti Tree. London: Primavera Books Ltd. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-9557892-0-5.
  9. 1 2 Fort, Matthew (29 March 2008). "Around Britain With A Fork". Guardian Newspapers. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  10. ↑ Durack, Terry. "Built for comfort". GoodFood.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  11. ↑ "Alastair Little, the "godfather of modern British cooking" dies at 72". Evening Standard. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  12. ↑ Sitwell, William (2020). The Restaurant. A History of eating Out. London: Simon and Schuster. p. 211. ISBN 978-1-4711-7961-7.
  13. ↑ "Chef! (TV Series 1993–1996) – IMDb". IMDB. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  14. ↑ Little, Alastair (27 July 2019). "Alastair Little: recipes for a summer Italian feast | Four Favourite recipes". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  15. ↑ Little, Alastair (5 January 2019). "Alastair Little's recipes for four winter soups". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  16. ↑ "Noble Rot – Issue 24". Shrine to the Vine. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  17. ↑ "Noble Rot – Issue 20". Noble Rot.
  18. ↑ "Collections". npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  19. ↑ "Alastair Little". IMDB. Amazon. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  20. ↑ Little, Alastair (1994). Alastair Little, keep it simple : a fresh look at classic cooking. Richard Whittington. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press. ISBN 0-87951-547-3. OCLC 30509620.
  21. ↑ Pasiya, Lutho (5 August 2022). "Culinary industry mourns the death of Chef Alastair Little". www.iol.co.za. Retrieved 7 August 2022. Throughout his career, he received numerous awards, including the Times Restaurant of the Year in 1993 and the Glenfiddich Award for the Best Food Book of the Year for "Keep It Simple".
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