Bill Poon, chef behind Michelin-starred Poon’s, dies aged 81

Bill Poon, the influential Chinese chef and restaurateur behind Poon’s of Covent Garden, has died aged 81.

Bill was one of the defining figures in the development of Chinese dining in London, helping to change perceptions of Cantonese food in the UK through a restaurant group rooted in family recipes, technical craft and a more refined style of service.

Alongside his wife Cecilia Poon, Bill opened the first Poon’s restaurant on Lisle Street in Chinatown in 1973, before launching Poon’s of Covent Garden on King Street three years later.

The Covent Garden restaurant went on to be awarded a Michelin star in 1980, while further restaurants in Geneva and The City followed.

A major figure in London Chinese dining

Bill came from a long family line of chefs. His ancestors are said to include a chef to an emperor and another as having effectively invented the stock cube. His grandparents also ran a famous restaurant in Macau, where his grandmother was known for her knife skills.

That deep culinary inheritance carried through into Poon’s’ wind-dried meats and sausages, made from an old family recipe that remains part of the business today.

Bill started in the kitchen young. In Hong Kong, he trained with a Swiss pâtissier, before moving to England in the mid-1960s. Said to have been disappointed by the quality of Chinese food he found in England at the time, he and Cecilia opened their first restaurant in Chinatown in 1973.

That restaurant, on Lisle Street, became known for authentic Cantonese cooking, including wind-dried meats and claypot rice. Bill later credited with introducing claypot rice to the UK at his first London restaurant.

Poon’s of Covent Garden

Poon’s of Covent Garden became the restaurant most closely associated with Bill’s reputation.

Opened in 1976 at 41 King Street, on the corner of Covent Garden Piazza, the restaurant went on to gain a Michelin star in 1980 and helped set a new benchmark for Chinese restaurants in London.

It also became a dining room for what Poon’s described as “the great and the good”, with guests including Mick Jagger and Barbara Streisand, while Frank Sinatra is said to have ordered takeaway food from Poon’s to his room at the Savoy.

The Poon family later expanded beyond Covent Garden, with Poon’s of Geneva opening in 1985 and Poon’s in The City following in 1992.

Other London sites included Leicester Street, Russell Square and Whiteleys, with the wider family involved across the group. At its peak, there were seven Poon’s restaurants.

Bill and Cecilia retired from the restaurant scene in 2006, though the Poon’s name remained strongly associated with a particular style of Cantonese cooking: generous, precise and built around family knowledge rather than trend-led reinvention.

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A family legacy continued

The Poon’s name has since been revived by Amy Poon, Bill and Cecilia’s daughter.

Amy first brought the business back through a Clerkenwell pop-up in 2018, before developing Poon’s Wontoneria and a range of sauces and products.

In 2025, she opened Poon’s at Somerset House, marking the family name’s return to a permanent London restaurant setting.

Somerset House described the restaurant as a continuation of Amy’s family legacy. That restaurant now features in the Michelin Guide.

The restaurant’s menu draws on Chinese home-cooking traditions, with Somerset House highlighting dishes including claypot rice, wind-dried meats and slow-cooked Cantonese soup.

Reviewing the restaurant for The Guardian earlier this year, Grace Dent described Amy as the “scion of the Poon’s restaurant dynasty” and noted the presence of a framed photograph of Bill inside the dining room.

A lasting influence

Bill’s death marks the loss of a chef whose impact sits not only in Michelin history, but in the broader story of how Chinese food became better understood and respected in the UK.

Poon’s arrived at a time when Chinese restaurants in Britain were often narrowly understood through a limited takeaway or Anglicised dining lens.

Bill and Cecilia helped push beyond that, bringing Cantonese cooking, family recipes and specialist products into a more ambitious restaurant setting.

The current return of Poon’s through Amy’s work at Somerset House underlines the strength of that legacy.

More than 50 years after Bill and Cecilia opened their first restaurant, the Poon name remains part of London’s Chinese dining conversation.

Bill is survived by his family, whose work continues to carry forward one of the most significant Chinese restaurant legacies in the UK.