Restaurants

Marcus Eaves 'I just want to be able to cook the best I can'

The boy wonder
Marcus Eaves, 24, Pied à Terre
Teenagers alone in the house are inclined to get up to no good. We all know that – hell, we’ve all done it. But one day, when his parents were out and Marcus Eaves was bored, he didn’t call some friends round and hit the drinks cabinet. He tried to cook a strawberry sablé from the Roux Brothers’ famously challenging book of pâtisserie. ‘I saw the book, I saw the picture next to the recipe, I thought: Oh this will be very easy. There were no strawberries at the shop, so I got tinned peaches instead. Then the book started talking about crème pâtissière and I didn’t know what that was, and I just got deeper and deeper into a hole… The kitchen was a bombsite.’ Now at 24, he seems to have the hang of this cooking lark, winning the Gordon Ramsay scholarship and snaring the job of sous-chef at Pied à Terre, his favourite restaurant. Feature continues

Other high points on his brief CV include time with John Burton Race at the Landmark London Hotel, and at Claude Bosi’s Hibiscus in Ludlow. Eaves’s brother has become a chef too, at Cheltenham’s esteemed Le Champignon Sauvage. ‘It’s nice to have someone to talk to about it, which we do two or three times a week. It’s been good for our relationship.’ He admits he’s ambitious. ‘Every young chef dreams of opening their own restaurant, but I just want to be able to cook the best I can.’ That’s tinned peaches off the menu then.
Pied à Terre, 34 Charlotte St, W1T 2NH (020 7636 1178) Goodge St tube.