There can be few chefs alive as enterprising as Anton Mossiman, a man so influential in his chosen field that he has a museum dedicated to him. Born in Switzerland to restauranter parents, he began his career there before working in kitchens across Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan. In the mid-1970s, he came to the UK to take the role of Maitre Chef de Cuisines at the Dorchester, one of the most exclusive hotels in London. He was still in his twenties at the time.
As the Dorchester’s youngest-ever head chef, he continued to make history when it became the first hotel restaurant outside France to be awarded two Michelin Stars. After thirteen successful years at the Dorchester, Mossiman bought a Scottish Presbyterian Church in upmarket Belgravia, Central London. He converted it into Mossiman’s, a private dining club which still thrives today. In addition to this, he founded Mossiman’s Party Service which has held the Royal Warrant of Approval for providing catering for Prince Charles for twenty years. Firmly rooting his business activities in London, he also founded the Mossiman Academy in a former Battersea school. As well as providing cookery courses, the Academy owns one of the world’s largest libraries of cookbooks, containing texts that are hundreds of years old. A museum dedicated to his innumerable awards and achievements is open in his home country.
Mossiman has a term for his style of cooking: Cuisine Naturelle. It’s a phrase that neatly encapsulates his cooking philosophy: healthy, natural ingredients with no added fat or alcohol. It’s his mastery of this devastatingly simple formula that has allowed Mossiman to become one of the world’s most revered chefs, and the chef of choice for royalty and heads of state.
