Meet head chef Kimmo Makkonen

Kimmo joined Avenue as head chef in January 2012. His vision for the restaurant is for it to be a top-end brasserie. He enjoys cooking with fish and the best seasonal produce and takes pleasure in working with ingredients that are not typical but work in perfect harmony.

Kimmo comes from Jyväskylä in Finland. On leaving school aged 16, he knew he wanted a creative job and, having dismissed his initial idea of becoming a graphic designer, decided to work with food, because “you can be creative while working with people”. He started working at a theatre restaurant in Helsinki, before leaving to join catering school.

After two years he felt that the skills he was learning would limit his cooking career to school catering so he left to look for more inspiration. He took and graduated from a fine-dining course and moved to Helsinki, where he completed a two-year apprenticeship, before working in Reykjavik, Iceland.

In 2004 Kimmo moved to London, drawn by the cosmopolitan nature of the capital and its cuisine. He worked at The Orrery, Blandford Street Restaurant and Aubergine for two years, before also spending two years at The Greenhouse.

During this time he worked with inspirational and Michelin-starred chefs William Drabble and Antonin Bonnet. With Drabble he learnt the classics and traditional ways of cooking and with Bonnet he worked with French and Asian cuisine and gained an understanding of the use of chemistry within cooking.

In 2010 he joined Avenue restaurant under the leadership of Mikko Kataja and two years later he became head chef.