Henry Harris

I grew up with family holidays based around food. My father worked in computers in the 60’s and then our family's love of food led him to change careers. He had Le Grandgousier restaurant in Brighton for seventeen years. He now runs Harris Vintners selling Armagnac, Calvados and Rum to the majority of restaurants in the South of England.

When I left school I worked as a waiter for Karl Loderer at Manley's in Storrington. Karl's dedication to his craft was inspirational and whilst serving his beautiful food on a daily basis, I made the decision to forsake the dining room and stay in the kitchen. A year later, whilst at Leith's School of Food and Wine, I met Simon Hopkinson who offered to take me on as an apprentice at his South Kensington restaurant Hilaire, I spent three years with him before following him as his sous chef to open Bibendum.

Five years later I left to open the Fifth Floor at Harvey Nichols. After ten years of cooking an exciting mix of Modern British dishes I returned to my roots in 2002 and opened Racine.

During this time I also found time to write a few recipes and publish two books:

Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor Cookbook, with Hugo Arnold (4th Estate)

A Passion for Protein (Quadrille), published May 2004

To date, Racine Restaurant has garnered many awards including:

ITV French Restaurant of the Year 2005

Tatler Most Consistently Excellent Award 2005

Restauranteur’s French Restaurant of the Year 2004

Timeout Best New Restaurant 2003

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