Food for Thought: Meet Head Chef, Joe Holness

If you’re yet to book a table and experience our new resident restaurant for yourself, let us fill you in. Found on our second floor, Seventy Five at Liberty is the most exciting new opening in London’s restaurant scene, offering destination dining with a local neighbourhood feel.

Sure, the name may lend a knowing nod to our founding year of 1875, yet Seventy Five is inherently modern; a contemporary all-day dining concept, a place to gather over breakfast, lunch, cocktails and dinner, or almost anything in between.

And it’s all led by our phenomenal head chef, Joe Holness whose innovative menu celebrates the very best of seasonal produce and locally-sourced, own-grown ingredients in a changing curation of modern British dishes – all made to share.

We made a reservation to sit down with Joe and hear more about his unique culinary approach…

Delicious, tasty food led by the seasons and celebrating the best produce grown on the British Isles. It’s somewhere people can come for a meal that feels elevated and special, without feeling unapproachable.

A restaurant should always feel like somewhere you can go and relax. I don’t want it to feel pretentious or uncomfortable. Yes, we want Seventy Five at Liberty to feel special, but we want everyone to feel welcome, whether you’re just popping in from the shop floor or if you’ve planned to celebrate a special moment with us.

It’s huge. It’s such an incredible opportunity, Liberty is an iconic and prestigious department store. Plus, it has given me the chance to get back to cooking British food, and all against this amazing backdrop.

Food memories: things I ate when I was younger or things I’ve tried in other restaurants throughout my life. I grew up in Whitstable, and have so many memories of being by the sea with my dad, so that really influences my ideas – we have quite a bit of seafood on the menu.

That’s a tough one, but I’d have to say the focaccia. After a lot of trial and error, I perfected the recipe. It’s a bestseller for a reason, it’s delicious and we serve it with a whipped marmite butter.

Personally, I love lemon verbena. But from the menu, I’d say fennel fronds which we use on the Sea Bass Crudo dish. They bring a nice aniseed flavour and are a great way to use the whole product.

The Thyme Beef Sauce we serve with the Beef Sirloin. It’s so good I’d happily have it as a sauce on anything.

Tuna pasta bake. The one my mum makes. It’s got bechamel sauce, tuna, and sweetcorn in it, and she used to crush McCoys crisps on top.

Sea buckthorn. It’s super trendy right now, but honestly, I just think it tastes awful.

Flat white. Cow’s milk.

I actually haven't had a drink since I started this job; I need a clear head. But I’d say Guinness.

My chef's knife.

At a previous job I was tasked to make a layered pasta ravioli using three different coloured doughs. It was super time consuming and took a while to get exactly how I wanted it, so this isn’t something I’ll be rushing to add to the menu at Seventy Five. If you’re after pasta, then we do serve the most delicious British potato gnocchi with wild mushrooms, which is definitely worth a try.