Chef Skye Gyngell Cooks Up A New Restaurant

Michelin-starred chef Skye Gyngell is opening a new, yet-to-be-named restaurant in London's Soho neighborhood this October. Heckfield Place, a new hotel in Hampshire due to open in March 2013, will back the new restaurant, according to Bloomberg News.

Gyngell will be the culinary director of the restaurant that will seat around 120 people and serve produce from Heckfield Place's farm.

"I'm really excited to be going where there are lots of neon lights. It should be more buzzy, with a lower price point, and we'll hold back tables for people without bookings," said Gyngell in an interview with Bloomberg News. "I want it to be informal, more mix-and- match dishes than three-course meals."

The Australian chef left her restaurant, Petersham Nurseries Café, shortly after it received a Michelin star last December. She regards the award as "a curse," because it changed the dynamic of her once small, rustic greenhouse restaurant. Petersham's infrastructure, with its earthen floor, undecorated tables, and unpretentious attendance, couldn't support the crowds of diners the Michelin-star attracted, according to London Evening Standard.