‘I don’t want to be weighed down by it’ - Robbie Jameson on leaving Humo for Alta
Robbie Jameson insists he is recharged and ready to throw himself into his new role, and will not be “weighed down” by the disappointment of Humo losing its Michelin star.
Scotland-born Robbie had been at Humo since it opened in 2023, initially working under Miller Prada, before becoming head chef himself last year after Miller’s departure.
Last week it was announced Humo would be relaunched later this month as Igni, with former Cycene and Akoko chef Theo Clench at the helm.
It marked another milestone in a turbulent few months for the Creative Restaurant Group venue, with Humo losing its Michelin star when the 2026 selection was announced in February.
Theo’s appointment comes after Robbie opted to move on and take the head chef role at Soho’s Spanish-inspired open-fire restaurant Alta, which opened in 2025 under Mad Restaurants, with Rob Roy Cameron running the kitchen.
Robbie Jameson reflects on leaving Humo
Discussing the transition and how his final few months at Humo unfolded, Robbie told The Staff Canteen: “Theo came in to support the kitchen earlier in the year. He’s a fantastic chef, and I'm sure whatever he's going to do in the old Humo space is going to be brilliant. I wish him all the best of luck.
“For myself, I just thought I was ready for a new challenge.
“I'd been with Creative Restaurant Group for quite some time and it was just that time to try something new and to move on.”
He added: “Working under Miller was fantastic. He's a hell of a chef, has a fantastic palate, a lot of knowledge and really opened up my career and the options that I had. So I’m very grateful to him and to Creative Restaurant Group.
“When I first joined with the company, I was 26, 27 years old. They gave me great opportunities for somebody my age and I’m very, very grateful and sad to leave and to be parting ways, but it's part of life and I have an exciting new role coming up.
“You've got to keep pushing and keep growing as a chef, especially in London.”
Asked if it had always been the plan to move on, once Theo had come on board in January of this year, Robbie said: “No, I don't believe it was on the cards. What happened is, we were a little bit short-staffed after Christmas and struggling to find the right people to come in and support the team.
“I'd been working every day, 12 to 15 hours a day, never taking a day off. Theo was doing some consultation support work while he was looking for his next role. He came in and it was just very helpful to have somebody of that kind of experience around.
“He gave me a bit of support and then it came to a point where I just decided that it wasn't for me anymore and I was going to start looking at other jobs.
“Everything just aligned. The company had spoken to Theo after I'd decided to leave. It's a great fit for him.
“It's a great restaurant and it's a beautiful space. I am excited to see what he does in there. I've eaten one of his restaurants before, so I'm sure it's going to be brilliant.”
Losing a Michelin star
When The Staff Canteen filmed with Robbie earlier this year, he was nervously awaiting an invite from Michelin to the ceremony in Dublin. That invitation never came.
“It's not a nice feeling for any chef to be waiting about for that,” he said.
“From the start we had Miller's concept and his background and his story. When Miller departed, I made quite a lot of changes.
“I think maybe it just wasn't fitting with the kind of concept that Michelin had awarded with at the start.
“I think the quality and the standard of food that we were doing was excellent. I was very proud of the team and what we achieved and some of the new dishes that we managed to come up with.
“You can hang up on these things and it will eat you from the inside, and then it will start to affect the team and stuff, or you can keep your chin up and push forward.
“New day, new challenge, looking for the next big drive, and hopefully we'll be coming up with some fantastic menus and some great ideas within the next couple of months.”
He added: “I think the best thing to do is just focus on what you love doing and every day try and improve yourself and every service is what you should hold your standards to. Just try and have happy guests, returning customers constantly and just focus on having a really successful business.
“These things follow, if you've got the right passion and the right reasoning behind it.
“The best high-end Michelin restaurants that I go to are the ones that seem to have a really, really unique character and you can really, really feel the presence of the person that's behind it.
“I feel like the only thing that you can do is stick true to yourself and keep cooking towards whatever you think is your standard and your goals. If it is of that level, then you can have that amazing achievement.
“I was glad to be part of Humo's journey and being part of the team with Miller that earned the star originally.
“I look forward to, you never know, possibly achieving that again further down the line.
“It's a hell of a goal to push towards.”
Robbie also revealed he had received plenty of support from those within the industry after the news broke that Humo had lost its star.
“A lot of chefs have dropped into my messages,” he said.
“I think losing that accolade takes its toll on some people. And I think the people that have the accolade or have been around it for a long enough time, they understand that.
“I got lots of nice messages from chefs that I've worked with, collabed with, or even just people that I've met throughout the industry, dropping messages asking if everything's okay and saying they were gutted not to see that we'd retained and so on and so forth.
“It is always amazing, the community within the industry is still ridiculously strong, and chefs get a bad name, but there are actually very nice, soft people!”
He added: “I don't want to be weighed down by it and thinking, what could I have done different? Rather than thinking, what could I have done different? I'm now thinking, okay, what can I do next?
“I'm hoping it's the right way to be thinking. It's not a position that you find yourself in often, is it? Keep the chin up and push forward, show the team that you're still there and you still want to drive and push and then you never know further down the line. Anything is possible, isn't it?”
Alta offers Robbie Jameson a fresh start
Robbie this week begins his next chapter.
Alta, which was recently added to the Michelin Guide, opened in Kingly Court in September 2025 and is somewhere Robbie is keen to put his stamp on, after Rob Roy Cameron’s departure.
“That's exactly what gave me a lot of excitement about it,” he said.
“Rob's a fantastic chef. He's got a lovely menu on and I had the pleasure of going there and eating his food recently. What he's done with the space and the concept is brilliant.
“I'm looking forward to going in and the first step is always going to be to try and understand the guests and the clientele and the area. There's no point designing a menu before you understand what the guests would want.
“I'm really just looking forward to the new challenge, getting back into it, because obviously I haven't been in the kitchen for over a month, so it's the longest time I've ever took off.
“I'll be honest, it's been nice to recharge. I had a couple of health issues that I had to kind of focus on and just had to take a bit of time out, recharge, get myself back and ready.
“I think the long days and ridiculous hours after so many years take their toll, but I'm looking forward to getting back to it. Back into the kitchen, back into the fire and hopefully bring a really fresh look and a fresh spin onto Alta and continue to grow what they've done so far.”
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Robbie’s plans for Alta
Before joining Humo, Robbie, a contestant in the 2021 series of MasterChef: The Professionals, previously spent time at The Elderflower in Lymington, having trained in Scotland with the likes of renowned chefs Nick Nairn and Graeme Cheevers, as well as having a spell working in Australia.
Asked how the opportunity to join Alta came about, he said: “I got in touch with Dino (Koletsas) from Mad Restaurants. He asked, do I want to come and see the space? Once I'd seen the actual space of the kitchen, it's very much up my street and what I'm kind of looking for.
“My idea for the start is to go in, try and understand the team for a few weeks, get to understand the lay and the flow of the kitchen, how everything's working.
“And then I've got some fantastic ideas for bringing in a bit of a fresh menu, focusing very much on Mediterranean ingredients, still looking to keep that Spanish influence.
“But as well, obviously, I've been working on a mixture of cuisines and concepts over my career as well. So I look forward to bringing in a bit of myself.
“When I was looking for the next role, I was trying to focus on wood fire roles and open-fire cooking.
“When we first opened Humo, I think there was only a couple in London. Now there's quite a few.”
Discussing his vision, Robbie added: “I've definitely got a goal. I think there's a couple of small details that I'd like to implement into Alta.
“One of the things about that area is it's such a lunch-driven area for where it is. So I really, really want to focus on a kind of high-end, luxury, fast-paced lunch.
“That is what I'm kind of thinking about at the moment. Nothing's set in stone, but it’s got to be something that's very approachable, just because of the area that it's in.
“You've got a lot of other restaurants and a lot of other bars and pubs and everything like that all around this area. It’s such a packed area of hospitality.
“The first thing is understanding what the group and what the guests want, and then building it from there, really.
“I've definitely got some menu ideas, whether they would kind of fit into the concept of Alta, we need to see that soon.”
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