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Jason Atherton
Jason Atherton
POINT OF VIEWS
POINT OF VIEWS
confortable et une ambiance nocturne
plus tamisée, ce qui n’a pas été aisé. Le
mélange de cuir et de métal se conjugue
à l’impression de confort procurée par
les tabourets de bar et les fauteuils pour
créer l’ambiance du lieu ; celle-ci s’ac-
corde à son tour au caractère industriel
du bâtiment.
Quelle impression vous fait la mégalo-
pole de Shanghai par rapport à Londres
ou à Sydney ?
J. A. : Shanghai est une ville formidable.
Vous l’imaginez tout d’abord comme
un pays communiste, un monde à part
mais une fois sur place, vous y décou-
vrez une ville gigantesque, ultra créative
et hyper tendance débordant de gens
extraordinaires, d’art, d’incroyables bars
clandestins et bien plus encore.
Jason Atherton is a Michelin starred chef
and founder of The Social Company, his
successful restaurant group which includes
17 restaurants (and counting), in cities from
London to Singapore to Hong Kong and
Shanghai. Atherton began his career
working alongside great chefs including
Pierre Koffmann and Ferran Adria at el Bulli,
before joining the Gordon Ramsay Group in
2001, where he worked for nearly a decade,
before going out on his own. His flagship
restaurant Pollen Street Social opened in
London in April 2011, receiving a Michelin
star within 6-months of opening. This also
marked the beginning of a flourishing
collaboration with Neri&Hu, who have
designed several of his restaurants including
Kensington Social in Sydney, Aberdeen
Street Social in Shanghai and Shosharu in
London, using bespoke furniture and Stellar
Works signature collections in every project.
Each space Neri&Hu have conceived for
Atherton is unique, but there are shared
affinities that tie in with the DNA of Stellar
Works—that is a vision that unites elements
of Eastern and Western aesthetics and
cultures, transforming them into something
entirely new and completely contemporary
and fresh.
Neri&Hu are really good at managing your
expectations, of what is possible, because
of course there are budgets, constraints,
and so forth. There is a huge amount of
trust here in this relationship as well—as
you are stuck with the restaurant for years
to come whether you like it or not.
We have now done at 7-8 restaurants to-
gether and it has become a synergetic
collaboration. We really work well together
and understand intuitively what works. The
latest project we have done, Shosharu, is
my favorite so far. Everything is gorgeously
made, down to the smallest details. We have
gone from being a designer-chef collabora-
tion to business partners as well, opening up
Social in their fantastic shop—the idea here
is that customers can have European style
tapas and experience something different
as they are shopping. It has been very suc-
cessful and people love it.
In your role as a chef and the creative
culinary visionary—how important is the
environment in which your food is pre-
sented? How do you see this connection?
Would you talk a bit about the furniture-
the signature collection and bespoke
pieces in the restaurants?
JA: Neri&Hu have done a lot of bespoke
furniture for our restaurants and, for ex-
ample, at Shosharu, everything is bespoke
for this space—the chairs, the bar, the
tables. Having bespoke furniture is incred-
ible, it’s fantastic because there is nothing
else like it anywhere, which on the one
hand is cool, but it can also be a risk be-
cause you cannot try it out before, like you
could say a Carl Hansen & Son chair—but
in the end, it was completely successful. I
have received so many comments on the
chairs—People really appreciate them—
it’s almost a sub-conscious thing—people
are constantly commenting on how great
the chairs are.
Both Kensington Social and Aberdeen
Street Social have this beautiful play
between the industrial—with metal fin-
ishes and glass—and warm wood and
leather. I think each of the buildings have
a connection to the industrial pasts of
Sydney and Hong Kong as well? Would
you talk a bit about this?
JA: With Aberdeen Street Social and
Kensington Social-both of these were
tricky because the concept was to have
all day dining spaces, from a morning
breakfast to cocktails at night. So to bal-
ance the need for bright light in the day-a
comfortable, day-appropriate space to
creating a darker and moodier ambiance
at night is really challenging. Again, the
comfort of bar stools and chairs and the
mix of metals and leather create the mood
but also fit the industrial aspects of the
building.
What is your perception of Shanghai as
a megacity compared to say London or
Sydney?
JA: Shanghai is incredible. First, you look
at it as a communist country, a machine
of a country, until you go there and it is so
big and so creative and so on trend, full
of amazing people, art, fantastic under-
ground bars, and so much more.
Would you talk a bit about your experience
working with Neri&Hu and Stellar Works
and how their design met your vision for so
many restaurants?
Jason Atherton: Yes, absolutely. As a
chef you always have an idea of what you
want the design of a space to be—you
have a clear vision of it and imagine it—I
was always very aware of how important
the design was—the lighting, seating,
all the details. This can make or break a
restaurant really. But you have to real-
ize your budget and what you can and
cannot do. With my first restaurant in
London, Pollen Street Social, in Mayfair, I
wanted to do something grand and clas-
sic in the spirit of Mayfair. This was a huge
deal, and I wanted to give it something
special, but with the Neri&Hu touch. This
was the brief and then they went to work.
And it was a huge success and the res-
taurant design is still current and smart
years later.
What is exciting about working with
Neri&Hu, is when you sit down at the first
design meeting and talk about your vision-
-they are so open to hearing ideas, whereas
often designers can have their own ideas
and not totally respect your vision—but
5 — Kensington Street Social, Sydney
© Nikki To
6 — Shosharu Restaurant, London