Profile

PAUL GAYLER is the former chef of Inigo Jones and now has the enviable position of Executive Chef at the Lanesborough Hotel. Television appearances include Take Six Cooks, BBC1’s Hot Chefs, Surprise Chefs, Quisine and a regular slot on HTV’s vegetarian cookery show Green Grow the Dishes. He has been a regular chef on This Morning and filmed his own 13 part series for the Carlton Food network entitled The Green Gourmet. His first book Virtually Vegetarian was published by HarperCollins in 1995, followed by Great Value Gourmet (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) and A Passion for Cheese published by Kyle Cathie. Other titles include The Ultimate Vegetarian, A Passion for Vegetables, Raising the Heat, Passion for Potatoes and Flavours of the World and Burgers. Paul’s latest books include Pure Vegetarian which was published in January 2006 by Kyle Cathie and Steak published in May 2006 by JS Books. 2007 saw the publication of World Breads (JS Books) and Small Bites (Kyle Cathie). This year Kyle Cathie publishes Paul's latest book, the beautifully photographed Sauce.

Biography

Paul Gayler is one of the finest of the new generation of British chefs. He describes himself as an eternal apprentice, which is his way of saying that he is constantly learning, always developing and perfecting his art.

As Executive Chef at London's prestigious Lanesborough on Hyde Park, he leads a team of thirty-five chefs, a restaurant seating one hundred, six banqueting rooms, room service and bar operation. He calls his style 'Eurasian', which is a base of European techniques with flavours of the Orient.

Gayler's undeniable talent is combined with twenty years dedicated to some of the most respected kitchens and restaurants in London and Europe. His career began at The Royal Garden Hotel, before joining Anton Mosimann at The Dorchester as his Executive Sous Chef in 1980.

So began a close relationship between these two artists. Gayler's infectious, direct, honest approach to his work led to his appointment as Head Chef at the renowned Inigo Jones in Covent Garden where he built an enviable reputation.

His cooking, while using modern techniques, has lost none of the classical disciplines and his culinary sense of adventure has grown admiration from customers and fellow chefs alike. Although Essex born, the late Jeremy Round described him as more Central European than many of his peers. Many chefs will talk about Oriental influences on their cooking, which generally tend to come from books or frequent visits to Oriental restaurants. Gayler has gone one step further. He has worked in both Chinese and Indian restaurants and spent a short period in Singapore understanding the methods of spicing, the results of which can be an improvement on the original.

He is well known as one of the first chefs in London to create specifically catered dishes for vegetarians on both the a la carte and special vegetarian menus, at the Lanesborough. In 2008, Paul teamed up with Goodlife to create new vegetarian dishes, now sold in Waitrose and Sainsburys.

He has accumulated numerous awards during his working career, a recent one being the Craft Guild Award, given for services to industry.

He works at the highest level all week, but enjoys spending time with his wife and family at the weekends, at their home in Essex.

Updated 11/02/2009