Jonathan Whittle's cooking style
At Smithfield, Jonathan's job is stewardship as much as reinvention.
The menu stays rooted in Fergus's recipes and in the nose-to-tail cooking that made St John's name: the whole animal, offal and under-used cuts included, with the seasons setting the pace.
Lunch and supper menus are rewritten every day.
The signatures remain: roast bone marrow and parsley salad, devilled kidneys on toast, Welsh rarebit, terrines, pies of every kind, eccles cake with Lancashire cheese, and warm madeleines.
What goes in the glass matters as much as what goes on the plate. The Fegroni, the Dr. Henderson and Black Velvet all feature, alongside an all-French wine list that includes Boulevard Napoléon, made at St John's own winery in La Livinière in the Minervois, and the house Rouge, Bordeaux Blanc and Beausoleil wines.
Beyond the dining room, the bar offers a more relaxed setting for a glass of wine and something to eat, alongside the bakery counter.
Michelin star at St John
St John Smithfield won its Michelin star in 2009, 15 years after it opened, under Fergus and Trevor, and has retained it every year since.
Jonathan did not win the star, but he has kept it. He was head chef when it was retained in the 2025 guide, and again at the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland ceremony in Dublin on Monday, February 9, 2026.
The Michelin Guide calls St John "one of the foremost proponents of nose-to-tail cooking", highlighting a dining room with very little ceremony, a seasonal menu on which potatoes and greens are a constant, dishes for two to share, and warm madeleines worth ordering to take home.
Recognition under Jonathan has not stopped at Michelin. In February 2025, St John Smithfield was shortlisted for Restaurant of the Year at the Good Food Guide Awards, alongside Opheem, Restaurant Jericho and The Ritz, with Osip taking the title.
Beyond St John Smithfield
Smithfield sits at the head of a wider business. Alongside Bread and Wine, which opened in 2003, and Marylebone, which opened in 2022, St John runs its own bakeries, a wine bar in Neal's Yard and the Boulevard Napoléon winery in France.
More than three decades after Fergus and Trevor opened on St John Street, the Smithfield kitchen is in the hands of a chef who learned its ways from the inside.
Jonathan's task is to keep St John always the same, but never the same.
