"Having One Hand Never Stopped My Dreams Of Becoming A Chef"
Joe Hill has a CV even the most experienced of chefs would be impressed by. He’s worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Gordon Ramsay and Tom Aikens, been Head Chefs in top kitchens like Soho House, and most recently opened up his own restaurant. What makes it more impressive still is that he was born with one hand.
It’s perhaps not the most obvious profession for someone with a disability, but that only made Joe more determined to succeed and prove himself.
“I’m one of those people, I don’t go into something if I’m going to be half-hearted about it,” he tells Delish UK. “That was always my goal, that I would be a Head Chef or have my own place or something like that. That’s why I got into it.”
“Especially with my hand, I’m very stubborn with things. I don’t want to just be another number in a place, I want to be the best that I can be. I’m like ‘I’m not just going to be a normal chef now, I’m going to be the best in this kitchen!’”
And that’s exactly what he’s become in pretty much every kitchen he’s stepped into. After a brief foray at culinary school, which he ended up quitting after a year because he just wanted to “get in a kitchen and get cooking”, Joe got his first job in a pub that sold pie and mash to the Mayfair crowd. Within three weeks the Head Chef left, and Joe took his place.
Not stopping there, he wanted to extend his expertise, so took on roles at member’s place The Yacht London (“it was really fine dining”), with Dan Smith at the Fordwich Arms (“a good learning curve”), with Jean-Georges Vongerichten to open up the Spice Market at W Hotel in London and onto the Gordon Ramsay Group of restaurants. But it was working as Head Chef at Soho House that became the mainstay of his career. He also took over as Head Chef at Shoreditch House, a job Joe describes as “intense” thanks to him taking on over a thousand covers a day.
But although Joe was always destined to succeed, it wasn’t without its challenges. When he first started out he didn’t want colleagues to even realise he only had one hand in fear of being treated differently.
“When I first started cheffing I tried to hide my hand, which makes me laugh thinking about it now. I didn’t want the Head Chef to see me or give me any different judgment on my work or the way I worked. I just wanted to be treated exactly the same as everyone else.”
“So that really drove me on and it did give me that real stance of ‘I’m going to be the best that I can be.’ Every kitchen I went into I wanted to reach the heights.”
And while other chefs would ask for help carrying heavy pans of stock around the kitchen, Joe would insist on doing it himself. He also spent hours at home practicing how to do certain things in the kitchen in his own way.
“I mean, obviously it was harder,” he says. “I always tried to teach myself as much as possible, because sometimes, with a disability, an able-bodied chef sometimes can’t teach you a way to do something. You’ve kind of just got to go figure it out yourself. Like how to hold something.”
The hard work has now fully paid off. Now owning his own restaurant, Joe has realised his real “dream has come true”. A couple of years ago, Joe, his wife, and three children all moved out of London to Broadstairs in Kent to set up a new, less intense life by the sea. It’s there that he now owns his own place, The Table. But even this has been met with its own challenges thanks to opening shortly before the pandemic.
Like many in the industry, over the last year, Joe has had to reinvent his offerings several times to keep afloat and he’s recently given the place a refurb too, hopefully, so that he can reopen for good.
He describes the new offerings as “quite street foody flavours”, but “quite refined” and based on his travels over the years. Supporting his local community is also important to him - he’s using as much local produce as possible, from locally caught fish to tomatoes and veg from nearby allotments.
“My inspiration for the place was Barrafina: that kind of bar eating, open kitchen; customers seeing what I’m doing, plating up in front of them and me actually putting a plate down in front of a customer and telling them what this dish is about and what it means to me and where it’s come from.”
“At The Table we just love good vibes, good music, good fun... and hopefully good food!”
With such a positive outlook and skillset, there’s no doubt Joe’s new vision is going to be just as successful. But has he got any advice for others in a similar position?
“You’ve just got to have that self-belief. Don’t doubt yourself. You need to be strong with it, you need to kind of own it. Whatever game you get into you’ve got to be dedicated and willing and driven, and you should want to be the best you can be.”
