Five Minutes with Chef Alex Dilling

One bite into Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal’s finely honed, radiantly glazed dishes – from caviar enfolded within lily-white tartlets of venison to brill embellished with black lace squid ink – and you can almost taste the years of experience under the most precise chefs in French haute cuisine. 

In the heart of Piccadilly, we wind through the hotel’s elaborately gilded walls and intricately carved ceilings to steal the chef away – from looking ever so studious in the glass kitchen of his two Michelin-starred restaurant – for five minutes.

Why did Hotel Café Royal feel right for your first restaurant? 

So originally, my plan – you know after The Greenhouse had closed – was just to find a restaurant, hotel or space that felt right. I was speaking to a lot of hotels; opportunities came up, opportunities went away. Then this one came up, and it was better than anything else I'd seen. The location, the size – 11 tables, 32 seats – and the kitchen right next door, which is rare. It just ticked all the boxes. I felt like doors had closed for this one to open. I was desperate to get back in the kitchen, and then this popped up through my partner. It was the perfect space.

What was it about 11 tables that felt right? 

For this style of restaurant, I didn't want 60 seats. There was a time when Michelin-starred restaurants were huge, with 60 or 80 seats, but now the market is a little smaller for this style of dining. Around 30 seats is just perfect.

If you had to distil one thing you learned under Alain Ducasse and Hélène Darroze, what would it be?

Work ethic. Those are two people who have worked incredibly hard to get where they are. It's a relentless industry, and you have to work hard to get close to the top and stay on top of your business and your restaurant. I admire them for many things, but their work ethic is unparalleled.

With Michelin stars comes the pressure to maintain them. How do you handle that each day?

Everyone handles pressure differently. It's a weird one because, in restaurants, it's every day. Even if you had a wonderful service the night before and all the guests were raving about it, the next day you're open again, with a whole new set of guests. It gets easier because you go through it so often, but you have to believe in what you're doing. If you do it with good intention, heart and soul, and you really believe in it, the opinions that cause pressure kind of fade away.

Have other people's opinions ever been difficult to deal with? 

Yeah, of course. When I first started at the Greenhouse, which was one of my first really big things by myself, there were a couple of reviews that weren't terrible, but less than kind, and I took them so personally. As you get older, you realise that's just someone's opinion. When it comes to food, I value my opinion a lot more than some critics, for example. But still, everyone's opinion has an effect. I never want to hear a guest is unhappy or didn't like something.

What has surprised you most about having your own restaurant?

How challenging it is. It's like having a really big family. You think you'll just be worrying about what dish to put on the menu, but there are all the business aspects, all the interpersonal problems between staff. There's a never-ending amount of things that can pop up and surprise you. The second you think everything is settled and you're in cruise control, ten problems will appear. But I think we like to be constantly challenged and kept busy.

What has carried you through those challenges?

Passion. I love this job. It's what I've done my whole life. I can't imagine doing anything else, and getting to play with food for a career – sometimes I have to pinch myself.

How much of your day is spent in the kitchen?

Most of it. Usually, like today, we start around 9 in the morning and we'll be here until 11 tonight or so. Things pull me away from just working with food, but it's always about food – discussions, events, working on new things. Everything I do is based around it, so I feel lucky.

What do you love most about French food?

At its core, it's very simple, done right. It's product-driven, and the ingredients are left to shine. It's not masked with too many spices or things like that. It's easy to understand. Very comforting food.

Talk us through the most technically challenging dish on the menu right now...

We have a signature dish I've been doing for seven or eight years now called Hunter Chicken. It's probably the easiest dish to understand in terms of taste: chicken, bacon, mushroom and thyme - very associable flavours. But the way it's designed is really complicated.  

We have custom moulds made for it. Essentially, it's a chicken breast wrapped in wild mushroom duxelles. Those get cooked together and chilled, then it's set in a mould with a chicken mousse that's got smoked bacon. We cook it again, caramelise it, glaze it in a jus from the chicken bones. It's a long process, but what's nice is it's very beautiful when you eat it. Such a comforting and familiar taste.