Alastair Little Obituary

Alastair Little, who died aged 72, was a chef who for many symbolized the surge of energy that revolutionized British cuisine in the 1980s and has been described as the "modern British cuisine". Cooks looked beyond the Anglo-French model to the dishes and methods of other cuisines. In the London restaurant that took his name and opened on Frith Street in Soho in 1985, diners could encounter sushi, tataki, carpaccio, pizza, chorizo, couscous or Thai or Chinese spices, served the same day alongside French and English staples. eves.

Alastair was also a harbinger of deeper trends, such as the post-war infiltration of retail services by the middle class down to there professional. Previously, actors, to name just one profession, had often become restaurateurs, after years spent in other circles. Alastair was well-educated, Cambridge-educated and young: he jumped straight into his chosen profession. Nor did he follow the well-trodden path of apprenticeship or professional studies. He was self-taught and only ever served as a chef in his own kitchen (except for the first few weeks of part-time skivvy).

His restaurants have paved the way, especially for London. Menus, depending on inspiration and supplies, were composed twice a day, rather than relying on long printed catalogs of classic variations. Decor has been stripped down: paper napkins, black wooden tables, white walls, and no thick carpeting. Coverage and service charges have been waived. Servers wore street clothes, not uniforms. In Alastair's kitchen, too, trends have been set. There was a diversion from "the sauce of concealment... the contrived image on a plate", as he described it, and a lack of pretension - all explained in his inspirational cookbook Keep It Simple (1993 ), written with Richard Whittington.

Alastair was born in Colne, Lancashire, one of two children of Robert, a Royal Navy submarine officer, and Marion (née Irving). A love of food was nurtured early on by good home cooking, a deep horror when he encountered institutional catering during his boarding school at Kirkham High School (and, later, Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied anthropology and archaeology), and the pleasure of eating out. consumed on a family driving holiday to mainland Europe - navigated by young Alastair, Michelin guide in hand. He first tried his hand at cooking in lodgings during his final year at Cambridge, with a borrowed copy of French Provincial Cooking by Elizabeth David.

He had considered a career in film editing, but the low initial salaries were soon eclipsed by those he earned while waiting at the table in the fashionable Small's restaurant in Knightsbridge, owned by Alasdair Scott-Sutherland. When that closed in 1974, Little followed his employer to another family business, the Old Compton Wine Bar in Soho. After the leader's hasty departure, Alastair volunteered to replace him. It was a baptism of fire indeed - a passing reporter noticed the young man "setting some lamb chops on fire" behind the bar.

There was recruited by the owner of the Routier, a restaurant in the Suffolk village of Wrentham, for two years, then moved to Simpson's Restaurant in Putney, where he gained his first public notice. The sudden closure of Simpson's led to a stressful year as leader of Nicholas Lander's L'Escargot before moving to Tony Mackintosh's new wine bar at 192 Kensington Park Road.

At 192 Alastair has perfected his market-driven improvisational cuisine. There he met Kirsten Pedersen and Mercedes André-Vega, who were in front of the house. They offered to go into business together and Alastair Little at Frith Street opened in 1985. Pedersen also became Alastair's life partner for 10 years.

This restaurant was galvanic. It attracted young rookies such as Juliet Peston, Jeremy Lee and Dan Lepard, it was a beacon of adventure and fun in its range of offerings, and it operated in a style far removed from the hushed slick of the contestants. to Michelin.

Over the years, the focus on the cuisine has shifted more towards Italian, partly inspired by Alastair's own reading of d writers such as Marcella Hazan and through his involvement in a cooking school, La Cacciata, near Orvieto in Umbria, where he retired each summer to lead sometimes chaotic, always inspiring classes, leaving Peston in charge of London's cuisine .

A second Alastair Little restaurant opened off Ladbroke Grove in 1995, which was largely under Pedersen's responsibility. The partnership was fraying around the edges as Alastair had met Australian marketing manager Sharon Jacob in Italy in 1995 - they married in 2000. It wasn't dissolved...