Aside from his work for Andy Oliver at Som Saa, John trained at the Cordon Bleu culinary school in Bangkok, but “I had an itch to do something on my own. I launched into travelling the world to cook this cuisine, from as close to home as Bristol to as far-flung as Myanmar. Those couple of years really informed the early stages of what AngloThai was going to be.” And, while he isn’t wholly focused on Michelin, he does feel the years of preparation he put into building the restaurant “galvanised AngloThai into a version of itself that could take those sorts of accolades. The whole trajectory of my career was heading in this direction, and I think ultimately, anyone with a drive and a passion for creativity will always aim for those top goals. I’m a firm believer that you have to believe in what you’re doing before anyone else is going to come along and believe in it, too.”
The result is an utterly unique restaurant in central London with a huge following and menu dishes that have gone viral. (I tried the showstopping Brixham crab with Exmoor caviar and coconut ash cracker and can attest that it is well worth the fuss). The wines are predominantly organic or biodynamic, and, as with most self-respecting, environmentally conscious restaurants, most ingredients are hyperlocal. “I can’t ferment prawns for years in the basement to make my own shrimp paste,” John explains, “so there has to be certain things that we get in. There has to be a trade-off in terms of commercial sensibility but, with fresh produce, very little that we use comes in from overseas.” (He doesn’t serve rice, for example, but he does import coconuts and lemongrass). “We still import coconuts from Thailand, but we have our own hydro press on-site for making fresh-pressed coconut cream. If you’re going to get the product over, you have to make the effort to make it as pure as you can,” he insists.
Given how much time John spends in Thailand, I’m curious whether he’s ever considered making it his home, but he tells me he hasn’t. “I’ve been tempted, but to be honest, I still feel like an outsider in Thailand, and it was only about 10 years ago that I started being able to speak the language. I really wanted a restaurant in London to push this concept as far as it can go. I am quite competitive by nature, but I think if you surround yourself by the best people, you level up your game, and AngloThai could only ever exist as it is in London.”