Tom Aikens

Tom Aikens (born 1970), also named Tom Aitkens, is an English Michelin-starred chef.

Aikens briefly worked for chefs in London and Paris restaurants.

Tom Aikens was born in Norwich in 1970 to his family who have been wine merchants.

His twin brother Robert was born earlier.

Tom weighed just over three pounds at birth and was treated in an incubator for two months.

Tom and Robert started attending Hotel School at City College Norwich at age 16.

Tom earned a two-year Advanced Catering Diploma in 1989.

Robert eventually became a chef also.

Aikens started working at three-Michelin-starred La Tante Claire under Pierre Koffman.

Then he worked at Pied à Terre, a London restaurant located at Charlotte Street, as a sous-chef in 1993.

Some time later, he worked for Joël Robuchon in Paris.

Under his tenure from 1996 to 1999 as head chef and then chef patron, Pied à Terre earned its two Michelin stars in January 1997.

Aikens returned to Pied à Terre in 1996 and was appointed head chef in May of the same year.

Then, under him as its chef patron and co-owner, Pied à Terre earned two Michelin stars in January 1997, branding Aikens the youngest to earn them since Harveys under Marco Pierre White (age 27) in 1990.

On 10 December 1999, a 19-year-old chef Marcus Donaldson was burned with a hot knife, and Aikens was accused of causing the incident.

Within a week, Pied à Terre's board of directors advised Aikens to take a break from work during the Christmas period.

However, Aikens decided to leave Pied a Terre and establish his own restaurant, which was decided some time prior and unrelated to the incident.

Its sous-chef Shane Osborne replaced Aikens.

Aikens's then-wife Laura Vanninen resigned as its assistant manager.

After his departure from Pied à Terre, Aikens worked for Pierre Koffman again at La Tante Claire of The Berkeley hotel for nine months and then as a private chef for rich clients like Anthony Bamford in Gloucestershire and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

In April 2003, Aikens opened his eponymous restaurant Tom Aikens (also called Tom Aikens Restaurant and Restaurant Tom Aikens) at 43 Elystan Street, Chelsea, a former site of a pub, the Marlborough Arms, with his then-wife and co-owner Laura Vanninen.

In January 2004, Aikens's eponymous restaurant received four rosettes from AA plc and then its first Michelin star.

On 2 November 2006, Aikens opened a newer restaurant Tom's Kitchen, which occupied a former site of a defunct pub The Blenheim, located at Cale Street near Aikens's other eponymous restaurant.

In contrast to Aikens's first eponymous restaurant, Tom's Kitchen was not a fine dining restaurant but rather a gastropub.

Ollie Couillaud, the previous head chef of Chiswick restaurant La Trompette, co-owned by Nigel Platts-Martin and Bruce Poole, held the role of head chef from the opening to May 2007.

The restaurant earned its second Michelin star in January 2008.

In October 2008, Aikens's companies T&L Ltd and Tom Aikens Ltd, both of which suffered from £3 million debt, fell into property administration.

He sold his two remaining eponymous restaurants to TA Holdco Ltd, owned by Peter Dubens and David Till, leaving his suppliers (many of them small businesses) with unpaid bills.

In March 2011, the Istanbul Doors Restaurant Group bought out Peter Dubens and acquired 80-percent shares of Aikens's restaurants, leaving Aikens with the remaining 20 percent.

Then it was closed from July 2011 to 11 January 2012 for refurbishment, causing it to lose its Michelin stars.

It was reopened the following day.

In late 2012, the restaurant regained its first Michelin star.

Aikens and his eponymous restaurant group, Tom Aikens Group, opened another iteration at Westferry Circus of Canary Wharf on 29 June 2013 and then the Mailbox Birmingham iteration in December 2016.

It permanently closed in late January 2014.

Due to closure, it lost its Michelin star in September 2014.

Aikens closed the Birmingham and Canary Wharf iterations on 30 May 2019.

Aikens's current restaurants include Michelin-starred London restaurant Muse, opened in January 2020, and three hotel eateries in Abu Dhabi.

He appeared on television, including Great British Menu as one of its contestants and then one of its veteran chef judges.

He closed the Chelsea location on 2 January 2020, citing "extremely challenging market conditions [and] staff and skills shortages".

To this date, there have been no iterations remaining.