Biography Report: Fergus Henderson and UK Restaurant Industry

This report provides a comprehensive biography of Chef Fergus Henderson, a prominent figure in the UK restaurant industry. It highlights his early life, including his architectural studies and part-time work at Smith’s Restaurant, which sparked his culinary journey. The report details his philosophy of 'nose to tail eating' and his contributions to British cuisine through his restaurant St. John and his published books. It also addresses his diagnosis with Parkinson's disease and his innovative deep brain stimulation treatment, which significantly enhanced his mobility. The report further discusses his awards, including the MBE and a Michelin Star, and the opening of his hotel, St. John Hotel. In essence, the biography showcases Henderson's courage, enthusiasm, and dedication to his craft, emphasizing his lasting impact on the culinary world.

Running Head: BIOGRAPHY 0
Brief Biography of Famous Chef
Biography: Fergus Henderson
(Student Details :)
1/13/2019

Biography 1
Executive Summary
This report is based on the famous biography of Chef Fergus Henderson as well as his
contribution and importance to the restaurant industry of UK. He is well-known for his work
in the British food industry since the year 2005. The Chef is recognized majorly for his own
restaurant St. John as well as creative cooking methodologies. Besides, he wrote three books
which describe how we can utilize the whole meat portion to cook delicious dishes of the
British cuisine.

Biography 2
Famous Chef’s Biography: Fergus Henderson
This report is based on famous Chef Fergus Henderson’s (FH) short biography and his
importance in the restaurant industry of the UK. Besides, it will provide the reasons why he is
an important figure among the restaurant industry of the London, UK (Street, 2012). Thus,
with the help of writing this short biography a good academic writing practice will be
demonstrated.
The Importance of Fergus Henderson’s work
The importance of FH’s work is because of his wise and delicious use of offal as well as
other ignored cuts of meat. It is a significance of his philosophy known as nose to tail eating
(Aronica, 2010). He has been praised many times for cooking tasty food, which often
modify British food through making complete use of the animal.
Moreover, Mr Fergus Henderson took birth in London, UK in the year 1963. Later on, FH
went to King Alfred School and for training of an architect. This was the inspiration of
cooking delicious food for himself. Besides, during his studies at the Architectural
Association, he joined a part-time job at Smith’s Restaurant in Covent Garden and hence
started his career being an excellent chef (Street, 2012). Moreover, Henderson's was
diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the year 1998. Subsequently, he experienced
innovative deep brain stimulation that broadly enhanced his mobility (Cooke, 2006).
Furthermore, FH received the degree of MBE in the year of 2005 for his excellent services in
gastronomy as well as awarded with the Michelin Star award in the year 2009 for working in
the restaurant St. John in the area of Smithfield. Later on, during April month of 2011, he
started his first hotel, the St. John Hotel which is situated in London’s famous street
Chinatown (Street, 2012).
In the context of his family background, his parents were both intelligent architects as his
mother was a keen cook and father was a keen diner and hence Fergus formerly studied
architecture course prior adopting cooking profession (Aronica, 2010). Later on, it comes to
FH’s own restaurant St John’s journey. In this context, when Fergus come across Mr Trevor
Gulliver during a supper as well as found the reckless smoke house in the famous locality of

Biography 3
the district. Hence, with the help of Jon Spiteri, this trio opened the famous restaurant known
as St. John’s.
In the history of reputed chefs of UK, FH was a distinctive personality who possesses
courage, enthusiasm and hard-work towards work as well as personal life. For an example
(Cooke, 2006), when FH diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the year 1998 then he had to
go through a serious brain surgery. In general, the deep brain stimulation surgery Henderson
went with does not cure the disease yet it may assist to control a patient’s shakes and jerks
(Cooke, 2006). Surprisingly, in case of Henderson, the tremor got all disappeared which was
incredible and this all happened because of his will-power for his work as well as love for his
loved ones.
The other example of his excellent work in the field of delicious food and restaurants include
opening of his own St. John restaurant (Lee, 2009). Besides, he has published three important
books on offal, those are as follows:
 Nose to Tail Eating: A kind of British Cooking in the year 1999
 The complete nose to tail: A kind of British Cooking in the year 2012
 Beyond Nose to Tail: A kind of British Cooking: Part II in the year 2007 (Stierand &
Dorfler, 2016).
These above listed books are the guides to prepare ambrosial, delightful and charming British
cuisine food through utilising the complete body of the animal (Henderson, 2018).
In conclusion, the great biography of the famous Chef Fergus Henderson has been
successfully written while covering the importance of his work for the UK’s restaurant
industry. His bravery towards living life and enthusiasm for his work has been demonstrated
with the help of one incident quoted about the deep brain surgery in the year 1998. Moreover,
info regarding his books and awards is been discussed to motivate the readers of this journal.
Finally, FH’s whole career of being a chef right from his birth to opening the ST. John’s
restaurant in the UK has been discussed in order to highlight his devotion and contribution to
the UK’s restaurant industry.

Biography 4
References
Aronica, M., 2010. Chef Bios: Fergus Henderson. [Online] Available at:
https://www.thedailymeal.com/chef-bios-fergus-henderson [Accessed 10 January 2019].
Cooke, , 2006. Fergus Henderson: 'They drilled into my skull. Now I can cook again'.
[Online] Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2006/feb/26/foodanddrink.features6 [Accessed 10
January 2019].
Henderson, , 2018. Recipes by Chef Fergus Henderson. [Online] Available at:
https://chefspencil.com/chefs/fergus-henderson/ [Accessed 10 January 2019].
Lee, H., 2009. Biography: a very short introduction. 206th ed. London: Oxford University
Press.
Stierand, M. & Dorfler, V., 2016. The role of intuition in the creative process of expert chefs.
The Journal of Creative Behaviour, 50(3), pp.178-85.
Street, S.J., 2012. Chef Fergus Henderson of St. John - Biography. [Online] Available at:
https://www.starchefs.com/cook/chefs/bio/fergus-henderson [Accessed 10 January 2019].