Mikael Jonsson, Hedone, London

Mikael Jonsson is chef patron of Hedone in Chiswick, London. The Swedish chef only began cooking professionally when he was 44 because of food allergies which meant he was unable to cook without cortisone injections.

Mikael originally wanted to be a chef and own his own restaurant, but allergies to almost every common food including shellfish and raw meat saw him having asthma attacks and eczema. He then trained as a solicitor, which he worked as for many years while also writing a food blog, reviewing restaurants he visited while travelling.

Mikael is also gluten intolerant, and at 44 he changed his diet, taking on a paleolithic diet, where you avoid eating grains containing gluten and lectins as well as man-made oils containing Omega 6 and man-made sugars. It is otherwise known as the ‘caveman diet’ because it is based on what cro-magnon humans would have eaten.

This allowed him to gain control of his allergies, and after eight allergy free months Mikael opened Hedone in 2011, having never worked in a professional kitchen before. Mikael is a self-taught chef, one of the three self-taught chefs in Britain who run some of the world’s best restaurants. The other two are Heston Blumenthal, owner of three Michelin star The Fat Duck, and Fergus Henderson, co-owner of the St John Group. Hedone was awarded a Michelin star in the 2012 guide, one of the quickest stars ever to be given. The restaurant was also named the 63rd best in the world by the World’s 50 Best jury. When he was a teenager his parents lived in London and they took him to restaurants such as Harveys, La Tante Claire, Chez Nico and several others.

This provided inspiration for Mikael, and he decided to open his restaurant in London because of the increase in media exposure for food bringing about a food revolution in the country. However Mikael’s food isn’t a copy of those chefs he saw growing up, the focus is on being unique and finding those unique ingredients in order to create spontaneity. You won’t find menus on their website, or vast amounts of food pre-cooked also what one table has for their tasting menu won’t necessarily be the same for another; food is therefore a personal experience that can change based upon the variance of the ingredients.

The objective of Jonsson’s cooking is to bring the very best ingredients to the plate with much time dedicated to the relentless pursuit of the finest produce. At Hedone, the finest produce is handled with the upmost respect and Jonsson undertakes detailed experiments to build on his knowledge of how his star ingredients should be served.