Aaron Harris: Being head chef at Muse ‘my biggest challenge yet’

Having worked in hospitality for more than 20 years, Aaron Harris decided it was time to put his head above the parapet.

From starting out as a kitchen porter aged 13, Aaron worked his way up to chef positions working for the likes of Arnaud Stevens at Searcy’s, Mark Birchall at The Barn, Lisa Goodwin-Allen at Michelin-starred Northcote, Tom Sellers at two Michelin-starred Restaurant Story and Steve Smith, who has held a Michelin star at Latymer restaurant at Pennyhill Park for two decades.

But after biding his time and waiting for the right opportunity, Aaron joined Muse earlier this year, replacing Seamus Sam as head chef, on the quest to earn Tom Aikens’ Belgravia restaurant a second Michelin star.

“It’s my time to be a head chef,” Aaron told The Staff Canteen.

“I've been in this industry now for 25 years. I've trained myself up to this point to be ready to take on a challenge.

“I've had a lot of personal challenges outside of work. I've just recently lost my grandmother, and I’ve been moving, so I was commuting from Surrey for the first month, which was three hours out of my day in travelling, so it was horrendous.

“But in respect to coming into the role, I was not really fazed by it. I was very focused. I was very ready. I've waited a long time to land the right job. And I thought this is the right job, at the right time. It was time for me to sort of go and make my mark on something.”

He added: “I've been here since August 19, so a few months in. It’s been quite an interesting time. We've now got a full team in play.

“We've pretty much almost had a whole house change from when I started and after Seamus left. I've been very busy. I’m very fortunate that we've not really had a quiet spot. We're obviously going through the transition, people are leaving, so at those points we were like mad busy.

“It’s now starting to stabilise a little bit. We've now got a new, fresh team, which is really good and hoping that we can push forward for a very positive year coming up.”

Tom Aikens has had a memorable 2024, winning a host of accolades, including the AA’s Chefs’ Chef of the Year gong, as well as recently The Staff Canteen’s own Chef of the Year prize.

Asked how he has found working with Tom, Aaron said: “I've known Tom for a little while. I did some bits with him during lockdown, like with Only A Pavement Away. He's historical, he's been around for donkey's years, so I've known of him and we've caught up every now and then, but not meticulously.

“I had been waiting probably about a year or so for the right new venture for me to come up, so it was quite well timed. I just dropped him a text and said, ‘would you entertain a conversation?' He said yes and we just basically went from there.

“I know that I was one of six or eight people that were up for the job, so it was quite a rigorous process. But I went in there and cooked with confidence. If it went to somebody else, they would have outcooked me and they would have rightly deserved it as well, because it was one of the best tastings I’ve ever done.”

He added: “Tom is an inspiration. He works extremely hard. He does a lot of stuff outside the business as well, and he keeps the dream alive.

“He loves getting in the mix of it. He's very much heavily involved with service. He's constantly driving forward to make sure it is good. He is inspiring. He also leaves me to run the restaurant in his own image and he trusts me to do that.”

When time allows, Aaron is also involved in supporting the UK’s Bocuse d’Or team as a mentee.

Asked what it is about hospitality that continues to drive him forwards every day, so long after starting out in the industry, Aaron explained: “I think just my love of food, really. I've been in restaurants, I've done hotels and I've done a few things over my time, but I think this particular appointment is my biggest challenge yet.

“I think it's the fact I've now put my name out there. I spent a lot of time not really being in the limelight. Obviously Tom's quite a big name, and now I've been catapulted into an aspect of the limelight. So I think that's a driving force, because now my name's out there, I've got to make it work, I've got to make it stick.

“But it is generally just down to a passion of food. I think as well, giving my knowledge to other people, sharing my passion and trying to get them on board, working with like-minded people. It's just inspiring other people as well as my own self, and seeing what bandwidth I can keep pushing myself to without breaking myself, if that makes sense. Just challenging myself culinary wise, trying new things, it's just the excitement of the challenge.”

He added: “I've been actively in kitchens 25 years. When I was 13, we didn't have much, we didn't have smartphones or anything. So it was either work, or go down the park and drink Lightning Cider!

“My dad's a big driving force of good work ethic and it was instilled in me from a young age that I needed to work hard. My dad is 71 in January, and he's going to be retiring at the end of 2025. Since I've been alive, he's been an active hard worker. He's not ever stopped.

“I used to get £18 a shift in a brown envelope on a Sunday night. Kitchens in general, it's a very different dynamic now. To go from the ground up, it's hard, it's challenging, it's never easy. But it's a marathon, it's not a sprint.

“A lot of generational youngsters now want to be at the top of their game before they've jumped through all the hoops. Myself and Tom have spoken long and hard about roles and gifting people the right position for the roles, because you've got kids coming in saying ‘I’m a chef de partie here’. You’re like, ‘well, that's great, but until I make my informed assessment, you're not going to be given a job title’. The hardest thing is trying to convince people within the industry to believe in your vision for what you want to create.”

Seamus spent five years as head chef at Muse, with Aaron’s arrival seeing a complete menu and team change, with the main goal clear.

“My brief is simple. It's two stars,” said Aaron.

“We’re very driven to get that, which is why we've had such a big transition. We laid down the blueprint of what we want to do, and a lot of people weren't up for it.

“Everyone's got to be on the same page. The dynamic at Muse is more challenging, because we are trying to create excellence across two floors.

“My driving force is getting the chefs involved in the dining room a lot more, because obviously the guests love that type of the experience. It's not just about cooking, it's about engagement as well.

“I think once we're harmonised, it's building the confidence within what they’re doing and basically keep driving things forward.”

(Pictures: Food Story Media Ltd)