Alastair Little

Alastair Little (25 June 1950 – 3 August 2022) was a British chef, cookbook author and restaurateur. He first became known in the 1980s for his eponymous Soho restaurant and frequent appearances on British television. His menus, which changed daily and featured seasonal produce, were influential in modern British restaurants.

Early life and education Little was born on 25 June 1950 in Colne, Lancashire, to Robert and Marion (née Irving). His father was an officer in the British Navy.

Little studied social anthropology and archaeology at Downing College, Cambridge, where he found the college food "horrible" but the wines "revelatory".

Career Little graduated in 1972 and planned to become a film editor; to break in to the industry he got a job as a messenger for a film studio in Soho. He moved to 192 (Kensington Park Road), where he created simple menus that changed daily, a service model "unheard of back then", according to Sheila Dillon.

Reviews were favourable. "Alastair gets more publicity than Princess Diana" said his fellow restaurateur Simon Slater.

In 1995, the partners opened a second restaurant, also named Alastair Little, off Ladbroke Grove in West London. The Times'''s restaurant critic Jonathan Meades described it as feeling "altogether right".

In 2017, Little moved to Sydney with his wife Sharon and opened a pop up restaurant "Little Bistro" inside the CBD Hotel, owned by the Merivale Group. He was the co-owner of restaurant Et Al in Potts Point, in the north of the Kings Cross area of Sydney.

In 2019, he started a home delivery service in London based on the dishes he had created for Tavola called 'ByAlastairLittle'.

Impact Little influenced the development of modern British cuisine.

In his later career, Little contributed food writing to both The Guardian newspaper and Noble Rot magazine.

In 2017 Little was the subject of an episode of BBC Radio 4's Food Programme'' hosted by broadcaster Sheila Dillon.

In 1998, photographer Barry Marsden took his portrait. The resulting black and white image now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Awards In 1993, his restaurant won the Times Restaurant of Year award.