Since he was 14 years previous, Angelo Sato has had one objective: earn three Michelin stars. It’s a lofty goal for any chef, notably one who didn’t attend culinary college. However Sato has been fixated on the identical dream for the previous 20 years, and he’s getting nearer. He lately reopened his two-Michelin-starred Humble Hen after a dramatic renovation, together with his eye on that elusive third star. And in contrast to many cooks of his caliber, Sato has been brutally sincere about precisely what he’s pursuing.
“In case you’re a ship with out a vacation spot, the place are you going to go?” Sato tells Observer in early September. “We’ve got a vacation spot as a crew, so on daily basis it’s about how we will compound our on a regular basis efforts to achieve our objective. The restaurant has a transparent course, and everyone knows what we stand for, what we’re preventing for and what the usual is. It’s my job to ensure all of the investments we make by way of property and atmosphere and meals and coverage and staffing and orders match that objective. That’s why I’m so open about it.”
Sato, 32, grew up in Tokyo as a part of the controversial cult church Youngsters of God, based by American preacher David Berg, till he was 14. The church has confronted quite a few problematic and disturbing allegations previously, though Sato doesn’t essentially have dangerous recollections of the time. He tactfully describes it as “rising up in a sort of totally different surroundings,” and though it was an uncommon upbringing, it did give him a chance to prepare dinner.
“All of us had a job throughout the group,” he recollects. “When there are 100 folks, it’s nearly a cafeteria-style area, so everyone must provision meals. There would simply be a great deal of meals. I cherished cooking, and I used to be at all times going to assist chop stuff and prepare dinner. It was clearly nothing chef-y in any respect, and nothing to rave about. However I at all times ended up gravitating in the direction of the kitchen.”
It might not have been fancy, however Sato took to the job straight away. “I’d be mendacity if I stated I used to be a median prepare dinner and that folks didn’t say I used to be the perfect prepare dinner within the kitchen in every single place I went,” he admits. “The factor I really like most about this business is it’s so effort-based. It’s nearly like going to the fitness center—you set within the work and the rewards are there. It’s very black and white.”
It was at 14 that Sato started watching YouTube movies of Gordon Ramsay’s TV present Boiling Level. He discovered what Michelin was and instantly turned obsessed, claiming the objective of three stars for himself. “At the moment, it appeared outrageous and so far-off and unattainable,” he says. “Which is an effective factor, as a result of on daily basis, you could possibly at all times attempt for one thing. Seeing Gordon, somebody so passionate and obsessed, and seeing how these folks might change their standing by means of the world of meals, that consumed me.”
Sato left house at 15 to start working in kitchens. One in all his first jobs was at three-Michelin-star RyuGin in Tokyo. At 17, Sato moved to London and confirmed up at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, hoping to attain a job. He approached Clare Smyth, the pinnacle chef on the time, straight, a transfer he now says was “pure ignorance.” Nonetheless, she provided him a trial, and he stayed for a 12 months earlier than transferring on to Eleven Madison Park in New York after which again to London for a gig at Restaurant Story. Not solely did Sato by no means go to culinary college, however he by no means truly attended any college, and didn’t have studying or writing expertise in any language upon arriving in London.
“Coming from Japan to the U.Ok. was positively difficult,” he says. “I used to be fully alone, and I used to be tremendous unsocial. And I couldn’t learn or write. I nonetheless battle now, however again in these days, I used to be fairly embarrassed about that. Folks would ask me to learn recipes, and I’d simply fake like I learn Japanese. Now, I don’t give a fuck. I can learn a fundamental sentence, however it’s nothing to rave about. I nonetheless should ask the blokes easy methods to spell ‘apricot.’”
At Restaurant Story, Sato took numerous inspiration from Tom Sellers, who ultimately appointed him head chef of the two-Michelin-starred restaurant. Sellers taught Sato easy methods to “have a lot confidence and perception, and easy methods to be keen to sacrifice financially for the long run.” His expertise there underscored the significance of a risk-reward strategy to being a chef. “All of the folks I’ve labored for and with, I’ve taken one thing totally different from,” Sato says. “If somebody’s profitable, there’s one thing to be taught from them, interval. For me, it was about seeing folks obtain issues and realizing that it’s potential.”
In 2021, Sato opened his personal restaurant, Humble Hen. It was an off-the-cuff yakitori grill with a counter high and an open kitchen within the coronary heart of Soho, and it appeared like an sudden subsequent transfer for a chef with such lofty objectives. He picked the idea as a result of it felt like the correct technique to safe a central London restaurant, not as a result of it was his final plan. “If I advised the owner, ‘I’m opening a 13-seat counter or a chef desk,’ he would have stated, ‘No, thanks,’” Sato says. “In order that was the technique of presenting that plan—to get the location after which slowly refurbishing it.”
Two years later, Sato launched Humble Hen 2.0, a tasting menu expertise for 13 company on the chef’s counter. The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2024 and its second in 2025. The short success inspired Sato to take the subsequent step: a full-scale renovation of the restaurant. In February, shortly after gaining the second star, he closed Humble Hen and borrowed half 1,000,000 kilos from the financial institution. Sato did many of the design himself, placing in months of effort to make sure each element felt good. General, the restaurant was closed for 4 months, with £1 million put into the renovation.
“Like most eating places, it was extraordinarily delayed, and I used to be working out of cash such as you wouldn’t think about,” he says. “That was in all probability the longest six weeks of my life pre-opening. Opening a restaurant with your individual cash is the toughest factor you’ll ever do in your life. You’re paying everybody, all the pieces’s going out, nothing’s coming in. So many issues are going fallacious. You must be mentally prepared for that. However the one method out is thru, and I used to be already in it.”
Regardless of these challenges, proudly owning his personal restaurant has its perks. “It feels good that I can do no matter I need,” Sato notes. “And there’s not a single particular person on this world that may inform me what to do at any level. I at all times knew that for the restaurant to get three stars, it needed to be an impartial restaurant.”
Humble Hen 3.0 debuted in June. The area is glossy and considerate, with suave prospers like handmade crockery from native artisans and a tall fermentation wall for pickles, soy sauce and koji. The lunch and dinner tasting menu, which prices £235 per particular person, spans 16 programs, a lot of which draw on Sato’s Japanese heritage. Some dishes, just like the avocado-stuffed mussel snack, have been on the menu since 2023.
“It’s easy, however it takes a very long time,” Sato says of the dish, which is offered on a mattress of rocks and seaweed. “A mussel is a humble ingredient that we spend in all probability six hours a day on. Everybody does one thing for it, and by the point it arrives in your plate, it’s stunning, it’s scrumptious, and it’s humble. That’s one among our signature issues.”
Seafood is on the core of Humble Hen’s choices, together with a sublime prawn toast, an oyster and o-toro served with candy corn. For Sato, the objective is a layering of flavors and a refinement of the method. After I dined, the primary course was a complete Anjou pigeon that had been dry-aged for 2 weeks, cured in koji, bathed in oil after which slowly grilled over charcoal all through the meal. The legs have been completely tempura-ed, and the liver adorned an accompanying bowl of rice. The dish exemplifies Sato’s curiosity in celebrating an ingredient.
“For us, it’s like, ‘How will we make the most of each single ounce of this chook with out throwing something away?’” the chef says. “Everybody cooks pigeon, they usually at all times drown it in a sauce or a puree, which is scrumptious. It’s not doing something fallacious with it, however I really like the flavour of the grill and charcoal. If it’s a tremendous ingredient, that’s what I need to style. I needed to serve simply the pigeon.”
As a result of Humble Hen gives two seatings per evening (one at 5:45 p.m. and one at 9 p.m.), there’s a actual choreography within the kitchen. There’s no room for error—each dish must be offered with timed precision to make sure each visitor will get the entire expertise. To assist with the timing, Sato serves the desserts over two programs: First, a lighter strawberry providing, after which a decadent array of six pastries and desserts which can be displayed in entrance of the diners . “As an alternative of ending the meal in a mellow method, it appears like an assault from the pastry chef,” Sato says. “It ends you on a whole excessive.”
As Sato and his crew proceed to refine the dishes, the chef stays centered on the general expertise. It’s that side that he feels will web him the third star. The service is attentive however not overbearing, and company can ask questions or work together with the servers and cooks. “It’s nearly like a primary date,” Sato explains of their strategy. “It’s how briskly are you able to break that barrier between visitor and server for it to turn out to be extra of a private relationship. I made a aware effort to rent folks whose primary ardour in life is making folks completely satisfied, versus having a extra technical capacity. All the pieces feels real.”
A kind of hires was restaurant supervisor Aidan Monk, whom Sato met at Evelyn’s Desk. “I went there three or 4 instances within the span of a 12 months,” he recollects. “And I used to be questioning, ‘There are such a lot of good eating places and I can go wherever, why do I at all times return to this restaurant?’” Sato started asking himself why folks usually return to a sure restaurant. “It’s probably not the meals,” he says. “The meals’s essential, however folks return to eating places primarily based on the way you’ve made them really feel while you have been there. The meals is apparent, however what else is there? How do you make somebody hooked on coming again?”
Though Sato has at all times had a pure intuition for cooking, he views his profession as much like that of an NFL participant. It takes work and drive to succeed, in addition to sacrifice. For Sato, it’s three stars or bust.
“I’m not centered on anything,” he admits. “Folks have invited me to each single island on the planet you may probably think about to prepare dinner for a day, and I’ve stated no to each single factor that’s not associated on to serving to us obtain our objective. And that’s strategic. As a result of all these items which can be provided now, if we did have three stars, I’d be charging 10 instances extra for the very same factor. It’s emulating Tom Brady’s profession, the place he took much less cash to start with, and now he’s printing cash. It’s betting on your self.”
