Nathan Outlaw: the chef who loves fish

Ask what Nathan Outlaw's idea of a good time is and he'll tell you it's being elbow-deep in fish guts. He spent a whole year doing this at Rick Stein's Seafood restaurant, and barely cooked a sardine. Not that he minded. “If you're going to work in a fish restaurant, you've got to be a master at prepping fish,” he says. “It made me very quick.” Outlaw, whose facial expressions run from cheery to cheerier, beams. “It's still my favourite thing to do.”

Still, there's not much time for filleting – he's got a new restaurant to open. Until now, anybody wanting to try Britain's only Michelin-starred (he has two) fish restaurant had to go to Cornwall, where Outlaw's fine dining place is perched across the bay from Stein's Padstow empire. His former boss may be more famous, but Outlaw has created waves; the critics are raving, and his eponymous restaurant has fast become one of the country's most sought-after places to eat.

Thus the new outpost of his seafood grill in London's Capital Hotel, which is where we meet. Its restaurant is transforming from Knightsbridge dining room to something more along the lines of Outlaw's simple, relaxed Cornish style. With his large frame, mutton-chop sideburns and meaty hands, he puts me more in mind of a country butcher than an architect of delicate dishes (think a perfect chunk of cod with hazelnut crust, tiny mushrooms and slivers of red onions reminiscent of sails). But Outlaw's talent has long been recognised, coming to the attention of the Michelin inspectors nearly a decade ago.

Even now, it is striking that his is the only Michelin-starred fish restaurant in an island nation. “You would think we'd be dotted with good fish restaurants all along the coast, but they just don't exist,” says Derek Bulmer, who spent 30 years with Michelin and has followed Outlaw's career.

Outlaw is still only 34, having opened his first restaurant at 24. But he started early – as an eight-year-old, helping his father in contract catering on Saturday mornings to help get breakfasts out to 300 people. “My job would be looking after the toast on these big machines, or buttering bread for sandwiches.” Catering college came later, followed by stints under Gary Rhodes and Eric Chavot among others, before the two years with Stein.

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