Lewis de Haas promoted to executive chef at HAM Restaurants

HAM Restaurants has announced the promotion of Lewis de Haas to executive chef.

Lewis has been appointed executive chef of London’s HAM Restaurants, the group behind Bistro Freddie in Shoreditch, Crispin in Spitalfields, Bar Crispin in Soho, and Crispin at Studio Voltaire in Clapham.

Raised in Dorset, Lewis’s passion for hospitality began with his first job at a local café in Weymouth. Known for his environmentally conscious approach, he works closely with sustainable suppliers and refreshes menus every few days to reflect seasonality and availability.

Joining the company in 2021 as head chef at Crispin, he quickly made his mark with a produce-led, seasonally driven approach. His career includes leading the kitchen at The Shed in Notting Hill and Petersham Nurseries in Covent Garden, as well as senior roles with Rocco Forte Hotels at Brown’s Hotel and Caprice Holdings’ Le Caprice.

Owner Dominic Hamdy praised the appointment, saying: “As our company has grown over the past five years, we felt it imperative that we strengthen the overall culinary side of the business. Lewis has had broad experience across many hospitality outlets,

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and he has proven his leadership at Crispin, where he has had a huge impact – I’m thrilled for this to extend across the other sites.

"This expanded role will see him overseeing the kitchens of all our restaurants, as well as Canal.”

In a previous interview with The Staff Canteen discussing the restaurant group’s success, Dominic added: “As we've grown, we've been able to add support staff to our senior management team. We’ve got lots of systems in place that we didn't necessarily have before.

“There's certainly a thread that runs through all of the restaurants and we’ve started being able to attract talent that we didn't necessarily attract beforehand.

“I think hospitality businesses and restaurants are recruitment businesses at the end of the day and it's about bringing together a group of people that share the same ethos and are all travelling in the same direction. I think now that we have four sites, it's really starting to reap the benefits of a slightly beefed out team.”

written by abi kinsella

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