1 Michelin star chefs: James Goodyear, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High
James Goodyear is the executive head chef at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High, the 12-seat chef’s table at 22 Bishopsgate in London that was awarded one Michelin star in the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland 2026.
Opened in February 2025, the restaurant won the accolade within its first year, marking a major milestone for one of the capital’s most ambitious recent openings.
Set on the 60th floor of 22 Bishopsgate, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High is billed as Europe’s tallest restaurant.
Michelin describes it as an exclusive sky dining restaurant where the 12-seater counter faces the window rather than the kitchen, making the city view a central part of the experience. The Guide also highlights the surprise tasting menu, built around top-level ingredients, with dishes such as aged duck with celeriac and Alsace bacon, and lobster with pumpkin and pine.
Early career and background
Before taking on Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High, James built his reputation in some of the country’s most respected kitchens. In a feature interview with The Staff Canteen, he described joining Gordon Ramsay Restaurants in 2024 after serving as head chef at Michelin-starred Evelyn’s Table and working previously at HIDE in Mayfair.
He has also worked at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Dabbous, Maaemo and Mugaritz, giving him a foundation that blends classical fine dining discipline with more modern, internationally influenced cooking.
That breadth of experience helps explain the style James has become known for. His cooking is technically precise, but it is also shaped by a wider European outlook and a comfort with chef’s-table dining, where refinement, rhythm and guest interaction all matter as much as the food itself.
That background made him a natural fit for a project as exposed and exacting as Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High.
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High opened in February 2025 as part of Gordon Ramsay’s major 22 Bishopsgate launch.
The restaurant was conceived as an intimate chef’s table experience that draws on the heritage of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, while developing its own identity high above the City.
Gordon Ramsay Restaurants said that after a year refining its voice, the restaurant had established a style rooted in that heritage but reimagined through James’s Scandinavian pedigree and broader global experience.
That positioning is visible in both the room and the menu. The restaurant centres around a single counter of just 12 seats, with everyone dining together in one sitting.
Rather than asking the room to focus inward on the pass, the format turns guests outward to the skyline, making the setting part of the theatre. It is a distinctive concept, but one that only works if the food can match the location. Under James, it has.
James Goodyear’s cooking style
James’s food at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High reflects the legacy of the three-star Chelsea flagship but is not intended as a copy of it.
Gordon Ramsay Restaurants has described the restaurant as being reimagined through his Scandinavian-influenced training and global experience, while outside coverage has noted neo-Nordic and Japanese-inspired touches running through the menu. That gives the cooking a clean, focused style that still feels expansive in flavour and technique.
In Michelin’s review, that approach comes through in the balance between luxury produce and restraint. The dishes are built from top-drawer ingredients, but the emphasis is on clarity and execution rather than unnecessary complexity.
That suits James’s profile well: a chef trusted not only to run one of Gordon Ramsay’s most high-profile new openings, but to give it a voice of its own.
Michelin star at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High
In February 2026, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High was awarded its first Michelin star at the ceremony in Dublin.
For James, the recognition confirmed the success of a project that had opened with high expectations and intense visibility. Winning a star within the first year showed that the restaurant was more than a dramatic setting or headline-grabbing concept; it had quickly established itself as a serious fine dining destination.
The timing also reflected how quickly the restaurant had found its footing. Gordon Ramsay Restaurants described the star as a significant achievement for a young destination that had spent its first year refining its identity.
That sense of momentum was amplified further by the restaurant’s appearance in Netflix’s Being Gordon Ramsay, which brought the launch and the people behind it to a much wider audience.
James Goodyear at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High
Today, James Goodyear is one of the standout chefs in Gordon Ramsay’s wider group and one of the most visible young chefs working in London fine dining. At Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High, he has taken a restaurant with an extraordinary setting and ensured the cooking stands on equal footing with the view.
With one Michelin star now attached to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High, James’s reputation continues to grow.
The restaurant may be defined in part by height and spectacle, but the reason it has earned serious recognition is simpler: precise, confident cooking from a chef with the background and judgement to make a very exposed concept feel fully realised.
Other Michelin Star Chefs
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1 Michelin star chefs: James Goodyear, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High
