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Jeremy Chan

Ikoyi

Jeremy Chan was born in 1987 in UK to Chinese father and Canadian mother. He lived in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and then ended up in London.

Jeremy before deciding to dedicate his whole life to cuisine, acquiring experience with people like Rene Redzepi, Claude Bosi and Ashley Palmer Watts where he was a silent and diligent apprentice, graduated with honours in Literature and Philosophy from Princeton and worked as a financial analyst.

In May 2015, Jeremy and his best friend and business partner Iré Hassan-Odukale decided that they wanted to open a restaurant together. The pair were looking to combine both of their backgrounds and create something unique and contemporary, but they were concerned about the situation of the restaurant scene at the time.

A focus on sub-Saharan West Africa

Ikoyi builds its own spice-based cuisine around British micro-seasonality: vegetables slowly grown for flavour, sustainable, line-caught fish, and aged native beef. Our kitchen aims to serve produce in its optimal state, harnessing as much flavour as possible while respecting the true nature of the ingredient.

The foundation for the menu is a vast collection of spices with a focus on sub-Saharan West Africa. Actually we have meticulously sourced over the past few years. The Chef explores ingredients such as Grains of Selim, a smoky peppercorn with the scent of eucalyptus, plantains, and scotch bonnet chillies, which we ferment, burn and pickle.

Jeremy’s menu at Ikoyi combines heat and umami and features exciting ingredients.

“I don’t want to make anything that people can obviously relate to, that they have tasted before. I want to make something new and original. The food at Ikoyi is a subjective inspiration about cuisine. There are no direct references in the food, I want it to be completely original. I want the dishes to be original and the techniques and flavours to be new to people. I want the food at Ikoyi to be ever evolving.”