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Young chef Luke Thomas to conquer Dubai

At 18 years old Luke Thomas became Chef Patron of his first restaurant, Luke’s Dining Room, which won Berkshire and Buckinghamshire’s Restaurant of the Year in 2013 in the UK. At just 20 years old Luke is also creator of Retro Feasts, an exciting pop-up in Mayfair, which has just opened in Dubai’s The Beach.

Here we speak to Luke about the endeavour.

Tell us about the Retro Feasts concept.

Retro Feasts is a concept inspired by my childhood favourites, it’s old school nostalgic flavours that have been reinvented and given a fun modern makeover. I had a retro feasts pop-up in Mayfair, London in late 2013 and to bring this to the Dubai culinary scene is extremely exciting.

The concept is fairly unique and especially at The Beach JBR we are up against some big brands, but our diner is something different and hopefully the UAE will like what I have created.  

Everyone must go on about the young age in which you accomplished becoming a chef and setting up restaurants. Does that ever get tiresome?

I think that my age is still probably seen as a bit of a unique feature and therefore people talk about it. I hope more than anything it can help inspire young people to follow their dreams; enough hard work, passion and determination can make it happen.

When and why did you first get into cooking?

At the age of three I started cooking at home with my grandmother; she is a wonderful cook and makes very traditional British food which is why after so much travelling and cooking around the world I have gone back to cooking British food as I believe we all enjoy comforting flavours. I really want to give British food a good name and put it on the map.

I first started cooking professionally at age 12; I remember my first day in a pro kitchen like it was yesterday, the buzz and excitement was what hooked me straight away.

Where would you most like to open a restaurant and who would be your dream customer?

Opening a restaurant in the USA would be certainly something I am interested in doing in the future; dream customer is a tough one though, I would have to say if it was food related then Jamie Oliver, sport related Steven Gerrard and outside of that I would probably say Richard Branson.

What advice do you have for any aspiring chefs and restauranteurs?

Follow your dreams and don’t be scared to be different in your approach to your work as that will fundamentally set you apart from the rest and ensure you stand out.