Ahead of his return to the industry, Jeremy King has reflected on the most turbulent time of his career after losing his entire restaurant business in April last year.
He tells the Telegraph that after being outbid by its Thailand-based majority shareholder Minor International at auction, staff at Corbin & King believed it to be an April Fool when they heard the news.
”I’ve got through an awful lot of adversity in life by looking for the good side of a defeat or terrible event. Although it was fairly surreal, I peculiarly got rather excited in a strange way, by how my family and kids rallied around to protect me”, King says.
After the newspapers caught up with the news in the UK and across the pond, such was the media frenzy that King says he even used a copy of The New York Times as a passport in the days afterwards.
King has now announced his next project, The Park, opposite Kensington Palace Gardens which is due to open in spring 2024 - a grand café-brasserie influenced by American cuisine.
He tells the publication that he was inspired by chefs like Jeremiah Tower, Thomas Keller and Alice Waters, and says at The Park it will be ’very easy to eat simply and healthily.’
King also reveals that he is keen to get back into the hotel world, after his time running the Beaumont Hotel.
‘There’s unfinished business there. I think hotels are the ultimate expression of hospitality. And each time I move on, I learn more about myself, I learn more about the business, and I get a yearning to do things better than before. I don’t think I’m going to retire. I’ll just carry on.’
