1 Michelin star chefs: Tom Reeves, Rogan & Co
Tom Reeves is the head chef at Rogan & Co, Simon Rogan’s Michelin-starred neighbourhood restaurant in Cartmel.
The restaurant opened in 2008 and won its first Michelin star in 2018, with Tom stepping up to the head chef role in 2022, having returned to the Lake District as sous chef the year before.
He now leads the kitchen with menus shaped by ingredients from Simon Rogan’s Our Farm and trusted growers across the region.
Originally from Hartlepool, Tom was first introduced to a commercial kitchen in 2009 at the age of 14, working as a commis chef alongside Dave Coulson. That early experience made a lasting impression, particularly when the pair later worked together again at Dave’s Newcastle restaurant, Peace & Loaf.
Early career and background
In the years that followed, Tom developed through a mix of strong restaurant roles and competition experience, including Young Chef of the Year. He later worked in some of Europe’s best kitchens, with his time under Tom Barnes at L’Enclume proving especially influential in sharpening his interest in farm-to-table cooking.
That path also took him to Maaemo in Oslo, the three-Michelin-starred Norwegian restaurant known for its produce-led, highly refined cooking.
The combination of those experiences helped shape the style Tom now brings to Rogan & Co: precise, seasonal and understated, with the ingredient always doing most of the talking.
Tom Reeves at Rogan & Co
Tom returned to Cartmel in 2021 as sous chef at Rogan & Co before becoming head chef in 2022. The restaurant sits in the centre of the village in a pretty cottage beside a stream, and Michelin describes it as L’Enclume’s more laid-back cousin, with dark beams, open fires and a warm neighbourhood feel.
Rogan & Co has long occupied a slightly different place within Simon Rogan’s group: less formal than L’Enclume, but still deeply tied to the same sourcing philosophy and standard of cooking.
Michelin says Simon Rogan’s influence is clear on the menu, with skilfully prepared, understated dishes making imaginative use of exceptional produce from Our Farm and the wider Lake District.
Cooking style at Rogan & Co
Tom’s cooking at Rogan & Co is rooted in the same produce-led ethos that runs through Simon Rogan’s restaurants. Our Farm in the Cartmel Valley supplies a large share of the ingredients used across the group’s UK restaurants, and Rogan & Co’s menus make that connection especially visible through a style that is clean, uncomplicated and focused on flavour.
Recent coverage has described Tom’s food as quietly refined modern British cooking, balancing restraint with depth.
The Good Food Guide highlighted snacks and dishes that feel unfussy but carefully judged, while another recent profile described the menu as grounded in seasonality and sustainability, with Tom refining what neighbourhood Michelin-starred dining can look like.
Simon Rogan and the wider influence
Tom’s work at Rogan & Co also sits within the wider Simon Rogan approach to food.
Simon’s restaurants are built around a close relationship with growing, seasonality and regenerative farming, with Our Farm acting as the supply hub for the group’s UK operations. That framework has played a major role in shaping Tom’s development and the identity of Rogan & Co under his leadership.
Within Simon Rogan’s wider group, Rogan & Co remains its own restaurant rather than simply an extension of L’Enclume. It offers a more approachable, neighbourhood-facing format, but one still held to Michelin-starred standards.
The restaurant first earned its Michelin star in 2018 and has retained it since, including during Tom’s tenure as head chef.
Tom Reeves at Rogan & Co
Today, Tom Reeves is one of the key chefs in Simon Rogan’s Cumbrian restaurant group.
At Rogan & Co, he leads a restaurant that combines the polish of a Michelin-starred kitchen with the warmth and accessibility of a village restaurant, built around produce from one of the UK’s best-known farm-to-table operations.
What stands out about Tom’s progression is the clarity of the path: from early kitchen experience in the North East, through major European restaurants, to leading one of Cumbria’s best-regarded neighbourhood dining rooms.
At Rogan & Co, that experience now comes through in food that is precise, grounded and confident without ever needing to overstate itself.
Other Michelin Star Chefs
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