Where the Chefs Eat asks your favourite chefs for their top restaurants in cities across the world. For this edition, we sit down with Xavier Bramble.
As a student studying psychology at Nottingham Trent University and with no cooking experience at all, Xavier Bramble was an unlikely star just a few years ago. Fast-forward to 2026, and he has over 850,000 Instagram followers, has appeared on MasterChef, and has a hit cookbook.
Bramble admits that the speed at which his star has risen “is all pretty surreal, to be honest. It just started with a concept and then having [my book] out there and then having it hit number one and having it on TV and in bookstores and in different countries, it’s all very crazy, really.”
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Lockdown provided the time and space for Bramble to “literally just learn how to cook for myself. It just quickly turned into a passion, and I was soon spending up to eight hours a time in the kitchen cooking.” He has, he tells me, “quite an obsessive personality about anything that I do. I had some basic cookbooks that my mum gave to me, and I was also watching hours of YouTube videos to see what other chefs were doing. I learned a lot, but I also made a hell of a lot of mistakes. I got the fundamentals down, and then I started travelling when I could, and it opened up so many avenues for me.”
Six months into his self-taught cookery quest, Bramble cooked for a friend. The next day, six more showed up wanting the same recipe – and offering to pay him for it. “I realised at that point that I could monetise a passion, so I decided to make a menu and advertise it through Snapchat and get it out there to other students in Nottingham. I hit a gap in the market with students who didn’t want to cook but also didn’t have the crazy money to spend going out to eat. I had that business for about a year.”
As with all modern-day success stories, he then took things online and posted his first video in March 2022. It immediately went viral. “I’d been posting for about six months, and then MasterChef approached me to go on the show. One of the talent scouts had seen my TikTok and decided I’d be great.” He admits that getting knocked out in the first round was a setback; “it was tough actually because I’d really put a lot of expectation into being on the show. And it felt like a really big stumbling block at the time, but I just worked harder than ever after that moment. I then went off to Spain in September 2022 to study abroad for a year. That was just amazing; it opened up my culinary eyes in a way.”
In Spain, Xavier fell in love with stews, the focus of his bestselling book. “My life is very much set out in chapters, and that chapter was when I really honed in on one of the oldest forms of cooking. It’s one of the easiest ways to cook, and it’s a part of every food culture across the world. I wanted to master it. Stews really took me by surprise, and I totally fell in love with them, which is amazing when you think it was about 35° during the summer in Spain, but I was eating hot pots! I started doing videos about them, which went viral.” Bramble describes them as “essentially one bubbling pot of culture, comfort, and joy. They are so diverse and part of the global food culture. One day, I can do one from Japan, then another one from Morocco and one from Peru.”
As we chat, it’s clear that Bramble’s gastronomic passion is unquestionable, and he exudes absolute delight in having found the path he is now on, a joy for learning, and an appreciation for his incredible success. When not cooking, he loves eating out around London and, as such, gives us his top five places to eat in London (including one with a stew recommendation, of course).
Khao So-i, Fitzrovia
I haven’t been to Thailand but, as a kid, I ate a lot of Thai food. I got invited to Khao Soi when it had just opened – it’s still quite new – and I just loved it from the start. They serve this bowl of warm coconut milk infused with Thai spices; you can choose your protein to add, and you’ve got all these amazing toppings: chilli, lime, and radishes. The one that originally opened in Thailand has three-hour queues every day, and I can see why. It was absolutely unbelievable; I was blown away by it, and it’s got a lovely, intimate setting, too. You sit right in front of the chefs, so you can see your khao soi being made, and also the staff are really lovely. It’s phenomenal. The beef shin one is the one I would suggest you go for.
Osteria Romana, Knightsbridge
This is, hands down, the most authentic Italian place I’ve been to in London. It’s extremely similar and, dare I say it, maybe even better than the ones I went to in Rome. I had a Code alla Vaccinara, which is a Roman oxtail stew served with rigatoni. It was incredible and, when I want proper Italian food, this is where I go. It’s very relaxed and very typical of any Taverna you’d find in Rome. It’s got the same vibe. It’s not big, so it’s hard to get a table during peak hours, but their food and a good glass of red wine are incredible, and they’ve also got a really good cacio e pepe. The showstopper is the oxtail though so definitely try and book a table.
Honest Greens, Soho
This is a Spanish-Portuguese import that started in Barcelona and recently opened in London. I’ve become a lot more health-conscious and aware of what I eat in the past few months, so this is a regular place for me. When I was living in Spain, it was my absolute go-to, because you get these wonderful salad bowls. You can choose a protein such as salmon, chicken, or beef, then you mix that up, but the real showstopper has to be their sweet potato fries. To this day, they’re the best I’ve ever had. They come with a sauce that’s a combination of beetroot and garlic mayonnaise. I don’t think there’s a time I’ve been in and not had that. Honest Greens is near Tottenham Court Road. I think it’s going to really take off, not just because it’s really healthy, but because it’s a fantastic place to go. It opens for breakfast, and it’s open till 11 o’clock at night, so you can go any time of day. The interior is great too, and reminds me of somewhere like Bali or Tulum.
Andu Ethiopian, Dalston
Atmosphere is everything for me in a restaurant, and this is quite near where I live in Dalston, where the food scene is unbelievable. It’s a very family-oriented restaurant with the best atmosphere. The Injera – an Ethiopian fermented flatbread – is a must, and I’ll go with friends, so we just order everything and share, eating with our hands. The food is unbelievably tasty, and communal eating is the most wonderful way to eat. We all lean over each other for a bit of cabbage or spinach; it’s great fun. It’s all vegan.
Berenjak, Borough
For me, this is the best Persian food in London, hands down. There are two locations: one in Soho and one in Borough, and I always go to the one in Borough. There’s one in Los Angeles and a few others around the world as well. It’s really hard to get a table, but when you get one, you cherish it. I went with a friend, and when we finally got a table, we ordered everything, including about five stews. They were unbelievable. The black hummus is a must as well, and I’ve never seen black hummus on the menu like that before. It is creamy but smoky, and the very idea of black hummus alone was amazing to me. The rice is incredible as well. This is my number one restaurant in London. And not because I love Persian food over any other, but everything about this place is amazing: the way it’s laid out and the way it’s decorated, the staff are amazing, and when you walk in, you can see the open grill in front of you. There are seats right in front of the grill, or there’s more upstairs if you want a more intimate dining experience. I just love it.
Stews: One-Pot Comfort Food from Around the World by Xavier Bramble is out now (Ebury Press).
Cass Farrar is a freelance journalist and Condé Nast Traveller contributing editor. Focusing heavily on food, Cass has written for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, GQ, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Telegraph and The Financial Times, amongst many others. When not writing, she is happily ensconced by the Dorset seashore where … Read More
Contributing editor