He’s the rising star at the award-winning Clove Club – but his biggest influence is his mum
The winner of our Young Chef of the Year Award does not do doubt. Dan Smith always knew that the professional kitchen was where he needed to be, from the moment he set foot in one aged 15. “I just loved being part of a team. It was about process.” Asked what he likes most about being a chef, he says simply, “Everything.” Everything? “I love being able to take a humble vegetable and turn it in to something amazing. Food is emotional. It’s powerful.”
Today, aged just 24, he is sous chef at Isaac McHale’s multi-award-winning Clove Club, inside the former Shoreditch Town Hall. Regularly he runs service. Among the team working for him is April Lily Partridge, who won the OFM Young Chef Award in 2014, and who nominated Smith for this year’s title. “I met him on the first day of my stage here,” she says, recalling the work experience she did at the Clove Club over a year ago. “He was clearly such a talent. You could see that he could do any section in the kitchen and make it look effortless.”
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