The King & I: One Day with Legendary Restaurateur Jeremy King

ONE DAY WITH | MASTERS & MUSES | WORLD OF CABANA

Over five decades, Jeremy King has transformed London’s restaurant scene, creating glamorous meeting places where royalty, rock stars, artists and politicians mingle with cabbies, footballers and photographers. From Le Caprice and The Ivy to The Wolseley and Simpson’s in the Strand, Sophie Goodwin traces his remarkable career and considers the resilience, instinct, appetite for reinvention, and inherent style behind his success.

INTERVIEW BY SOPHIE GOODWIN | MASTERS & MUSES | 7 AUGUST 2026

Jeremy King sitting for Lucian Freud. Image © David Dawson/Bridgeman.

Throughout his 50-year career as a restaurateur, Jeremy King has turned dining into an art form. From Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and Lucian Freud to Princess Diana, Jeremy has been a close confidant to the key players in the London social matrix since the 1980’s, creating glamorous spaces in which socialites, royalty, dignitaries and Hollywood stars break bread with cabbies, footballers, pop stars and East End photographers. 

It hasn't always been plain sailing for him on the restaurant circuit. Yet time and time again, he has proved himself able to triumph over adversity and to swiftly reinvent both himself and his spaces. And he has now chosen to reveal all in his new memoir: Without Reservation: Lessons from a Life in Restaurants.

Sophie Goodwin sits down with the gentlemanly septuagenarian to understand what makes him tick.  

Romanos at Simpson's. All images © Helen Cathcart

Sophie Goodwin: Who or what defines your personal style?

Jeremy King: "Early one morning Peter Langan came into Le Caprice, much the worse for wear, demanding three glasses of champagne. It was always dangerous with Peter, you never quite knew what he might do, but you knew you probably had to get rid of him, quick. Anyway, that morning, he was wearing a yellow polka dot tie and I said, ‘that's a really nice tie Peter’. He replied ‘You like it? It's yours.’ And he started to take it off. I thought it can't be his because it was perfectly clean. It turned out that he lost his tie overnight, and had just been to Turnbull & Asser to buy a new one.

"That tie became very important to me. Whenever I had a challenging day, I'd wear Peter's tie, and it worked for me. Fast forward a year or so, I get a phone call from my dry cleaners saying, 'we're really sorry, but one of our drivers didn't follow the standard procedure and left everybody's laundry in the van overnight, and it's been broken into and everybody's lost suits and shirts'. I remember I’d just put the tie in for dry cleaning, just a tiny spot of red wine had dropped on it. And although I'd lost thousands of pounds worth of bespoke shirts and suits, all I cared about was Peter’s tie. 

"In fact, now I can't come into the West End without wearing a suit, a suit and tie. I give myself special dispensation on a Saturday morning, but nonetheless I still had to negotiate with myself to go without a tie to the RAC for the Turkish bath, and even now I find it difficult.’

SG: ‘Who do you think is always well turned out?’

JK: "Paul Smith. He wears his clothes naturally. It's easy if you have a mind to, and have got the money, to dress extremely well. But I most admire the people who dress well without money. My daughter, Margot, went to St Paul's Girl’s School and they had no uniform. Some 14-year-olds would turn up in Chanel or Prada and so on. She felt it was really unfair that she couldn't compete, but I told her that the way those girls dressed was just about money. Very few people can dress with style and mix it up."

SG: Princess Diana, a mainstay at Le Caprice, who also became your great friend, had phenomenal style. Would you agree?

Jeremy: ‘Yes. Although strangely I can't remember what she was wearing when I first met her. I do recall the famous sleek, black, off-the-shoulder dress with a sweetheart neckline which she wore to the Serpentine party, known as her ‘revenge’ dress. I also loved the Duchess of Argyll and her way of dressing, her Chanel and Dior suits. Oh! and Bill Nighy.

The Park restaurant interior, photo: David Loftus

Sophie: ‘How do you choose the uniforms in your restaurants?’ 

Jeremy: 'I'm inspired by the building and the nature of the restaurant. People were very worried when I said that I wanted tailcoats and the chef’s hats, toques, as they're called, to be worn by the carvers at Simpsons in the Strand. In any given evening we might have 4 carvers working and they all wear their toques in a different way. The executive chef wears an old-fashioned straight-up one. The toque the carvers wear, is a softer hat. One will have it over to the side, one will have it up and mushroom-like, one will have it up and straight, and so on. I rather like this expression of individuality.'

Sophie: ‘Do you have a dress code in your restaurants?’

Jeremy: ‘I had a guy at Simpson’s last week, slightly eccentric, who came up to me, and said, ‘Jeremy, you know, I love this place, but you've really got to stamp down on how people turn up.’ I said, 'how do you mean?'. He said, ‘there's a guy here wearing a hat inside.’ I didn't even look. He said ‘That just can't happen. I answered that he wouldn’t be there himself if we enforced a dress code. He wasn’t wearing a tie or a proper jacket.’ 

‘We don't have a dress code as I like to think that people will dress based on their own individuality, but also that they might think, 'Actually, it'd be really nice to wear something special for the occasion.' Today somebody arrived for a mother's nineteenth birthday wearing jeans and their shirt hanging out. I mean, it is up to them, but I feel they're missing out.’

Jeremy King, Ruthie Rogers, Rose Gray, Sir Richard Rogers - Credit David Loftus

Sophie: ‘As you attest, ‘an owner runs their restaurant from the boardroom, whilst a restaurateur does it from the floor.’ Engaging and talking and being with people, from Harold Pinter and Lauren Bacall to the Lords Snowdon and Lichfield, you have built your life owning and creating a specific environment where a variety of people feel safe and welcomed. How have you  achieved this feat?’

Jeremy: ‘I'm an observer, and I'm happiest as an observer, and although I react strongly to people, I like observing them most of all. Peter Langan taught me a lot about creating a mood in a room,  to make people feel comfortable, the impact of original art: the walls of Langan’s were hung with Lucian Freud, Patrick Procktor and David Hockney (who also illustrated the menus) and it fed my spirit of equality when  he told me very early on: ‘I want a place where a taxi driver can sit down with a duchess.’

Sophie: ‘Have you ever been wrong about people?’

Jeremy: ‘Yes. It's rare, but I have been wrong. And I love the notion of intuition and instinct, which often defies logic or  explanation.’

Sophie: ‘Do you have a daily routine?’

Jeremy: ‘For a long time I would start my day at The Park, on a particular table, and I enjoy that ritual, the discipline allows you to freeform in other ways, almost in the same way as the great abstract artists do, who understand the need for discipline in order to pull it down.’

My rules are straight forward, and there are three: 

1. Never accept to do in the future what you wouldn't be happy doing immediately.
2. When declining, always give a quick no. 
3. Never give an excuse or explanation: You’re friends don’t need it, and your enemies won’t believe it. 

Sophie: Do you plan to write another book? 

Jeremy: ‘I've actually been very surprised how many people I don't think I've ever seen before just walk up to me and say, I'm really enjoying your book. Perhaps they’ll be a sequel. Or even a prequel!’

Arlington, photo: David Loftus

Sophie: ‘What do you wish you'd known at the start of your career?’. 

Jeremy: ‘Oh, any number of things.’

Sophie: ‘ Would you  have given up your place at Cambridge at the age of 21 to pursue your career in hospitality?’ [Jeremy traded his university place for a managerial position at a Chelsea wine bar called Charco’s]

Jeremy: ‘There's so so much about life that I wish I’d  known earlier. The foolish mistake of foregoing Cambridge, yes: I had an early habit of abandoning myself to the whims of chance.  I wish I’d learnt a way of discerning whether what people say is what they really mean. This actually could be a prequel to the existing book and then a sequel, with the existing book being in the middle, I also wish I'd known about people-pleasing and about narcissism. Joe Allen told me ‘Those who count, don’t care- those who care, don’t count.’

‘Ultimately I would have liked to believe more in myself. I'd love to have had more music in my life for one. I'd love to have written. I would have loved to have been an architect. I wish I'd known that just because somebody says something, it doesn't mean it's true. I wish I'd known to trust myself more.’

Sophie: ‘How do you deal with the unpredictably of life?’ 

Jeremy: ‘I love guessing and I love learning new things and that's an immense pleasure. I also love to know what I don’t know, and I then grow from there.’