User:Chef James Cochran

This article is about the TV chef. For the graffiti artist, see James Cochran (artist).

James David Alexander Cochran

James Cochran (born 26 February 1985) is an English chef and who made his first TV appearance on BBC2's Great British Menu in August 2018. Born in Margate, James grew up in Whitstable, Kent, where he started his culinary career at the famous Wheelers Oyster Bar as a kitchen porter, leaving Wheelers as a Sous chef. He moved on to Read's, a 1* restaurant in Kent, which prepared him for his move to London and to the prestigious Notting Hill restaurant The Ledbury 2* where he worked under Brett Graham for 5 years. From there he moved over to Brett's 1* gastro pub The Harwood Arms. After a few years there, alongside a few Camberwell housemates he started a pop-up food business called Camberwell Love and spent a few months doing pop-ups all over London, one being at The Steam Passage where he met his current 1251 business partner Dan Henry. Camberwell Love was doing well, but he had an offer to open a restaurant with a friend in Hackney and created Restaurant FIX. This started to get James on the map but after a year, it was beginning to show that they had arrived in Hackney a bit too early; like all restaurants, location is key and they had to close. Whilst at FIX though he was head-hunted to open up another restaurant, with the cocktail bar chain BYOC. He moved into their Soho location and for 6 months did a pop-up style restaurant on the ground floor to test the waters. It obviously worked, as in less than a year they had opened James Cochran EC3 in The City. James' time at EC3 won him 2 AA* and a string of great reviews, one being by Fay Maschler for the Evening Standard where she awarded him 4/5*. James worked at EC3 for 18 months before leaving to set up his new venture at 1251

James is appearing on BBC2's Great British Menu on the 20th August 2018

Early life
James was born in Margate but spent his early life in the beautiful seaside town of Whitstable, where he often went foraging with his late mother. He grew up with a love of food from an early age, eating oysters from the age of 2, and eating his mother’s Caribbean versions of English classics. He started working at Wheelers Oyster bar whilst studying at culinary school.

Career
He started his culinary career at the famous Wheelers Oyster Bar as a kitchen porter, leaving Wheelers as a Sous chef. He moved on to Read's, a 1* restaurant in Kent, which prepared him for his move to London and to the prestigious Notting Hill restaurant The Ledbury 2* where he worked under Brett Graham for 5 years. From there he moved over to Brett's 1* gastro pub The Harwood Arms. After a few years there, alongside a few Camberwell housemates he started a pop-up food business called Camberwell Love and spent a few months doing pop-ups all over London, one being at The Steam Passage where he met his current 1251 business partner Dan Henry. Camberwell Love was doing well, but he had an offer to open a restaurant with a friend in Hackney and created Restaurant FIX. This started to get James on the map but after a year, it was beginning to show that they had arrived in Hackney a bit too early; like all restaurants, location is key and they had to close. Whilst at FIX though he was head-hunted to open up another restaurant, with the cocktail bar chain BYOC. He moved into their Soho location and for 6 months did a pop-up style restaurant on the ground floor to test the waters. It obviously worked, as in less than a year they had opened James Cochran EC3 in The City. James' time at EC3 won him 2 AA* and a string of great reviews, one being by Fay Maschler for the Evening Standard where she awarded him 4/5*. James worked at EC3 for 18 months before leaving to set up his new venture at 1251

Great British Menu
James is currently on this years 2018 BBC2 Great British Menu, he won the London & South East region, regional finals will be aired later this year.

Restaurants
James currently only works in one restaurant 1251 which is located on Upper Street, Islington. He is in dispute with his ex-employees at his last Restaurant called James Cochran EC3, as they continue to trade under his name when he left back in April 2018.

Controversies
James took to Twitter recently slamming his ex-employers for selling off his name in a website named afer himself. They are selling his recipes and price plans where you can buy his name to add to a dish of your choice starting from £25. James had huge support from his fellow chefs, food critics and restauranters and made national press in The Mirror, The Telegraph, The Sun, Daily Mail and The Times.

Personal life
James grew up with his Scottish father and St Vincent mother in Whitstable along with his older brother Matthew. He moved to London 10 years ago and now lives in south London with his girlfriend, and his dog Bella.