Tourists don’t often go to Chiswick, a west London neighborhood with an interesting sense of community, because it seems so out of the way. The area is even avoided by some Londoners, who also believe it is too far from the city centre. But those who visit can be lured by The Silver Birch, a fine dining restaurant helmed by chef Nathan Cornwell.
The restaurant, on Chiswick’s high street, first opened in October 2020 under chef Kimberley Hernandez. Cornwell took over the restaurant, founded by Tim Price, in 2024, and since then has focused on creating a refined, compelling tasting menu that showcases the best of British ingredients. While the culinary offering and service came easily, the seemingly remote location proved deceptive.
“The location is great for a restaurant,” said Cornwell, speaking to the Observer in early December. “Not just about respect, but about walking. I’m not saying it’s the be-all and end-all; it should also go with the concept and the food.”
He adds that something underrated about an out-of-town restaurant is that it has good value for its guests. An eight-course tasting menu costs £120, while a five-course set menu is £90. Several snacks and servings of homemade bread and butter accompany both options. “If we were in central London, you would be paying more,” Cornwell noted.
The experience at The Silver Birch certainly rivals any of London’s Michelin-starred restaurants, especially those that focus on the same cuisine, such as Aulis and Cycene. Both tasting menus highlight British produce, including Devon crab, South Down Sika venison and Norfolk squash. At the beginning of the meal, Cornwell appears from the side of the table with a tray of all the ingredients. It is something other restaurants, such as the Moor Hallmade in the UK, but not common in London.
“People don’t realize what kohlrabi looks like,” Cornwell said. “It’s good to explain when you’re serving a dish, but it’s better to show customers what you’re doing and the effort you’re putting in.”
Cornwell has felt a connection to ingredients since before he became a professional chef. He grew up in the countryside of Cambridgeshire, in a town called Ely. His father grew vegetables and took in Cornwell’s fishing, and his mother was a cookery teacher at the local high school. “The best food there is, I saw it when I was so young,” he remembers. “It wasn’t fancy. We’d pick fresh tomatoes in the morning, roast them and put them in stock. But it was something that people couldn’t do as adults, let alone five years old. I think that really killed my love of food.”
The chef began working at a nearby restaurant while still in school, but he received a scholarship to the Academy of Culinary Arts that changed Cornwell’s game. He left home at the age of 16 to enroll in a course, which included three months of school in Bournemouth, followed by placement in a restaurant. As it happened, he arrived at the luxury Lucknam Park Hotel under the tutelage of chef Hywel Jones. He spent three years there as part of his studies, and ended up staying for another two years.
“It was really good to leave home at that time,” Cornwell said. “But it was important in terms of showing you what you need to do and how dedicated you have to be and how strong you have to be. The course was tough, and a lot of people dropped out. I remember calling my dad a few times and being like, ‘Can I come home?’ He always said, ‘No, you’ll see.'”
After Lucknam Park, Cornwell spent time in This Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham before heading to restaurants in Denmark and Sweden. He eventually moved to The Barn at Moor Hall, where he was chef for four years. Cornwell earned the restaurant its first Michelin star.
“It was a difficult time, especially with Covid,” he said. “We had a lot of different challenges. When I ran it, The Barn was a neighborhood restaurant, very upscale. After those four years, it had a thriving lunch and dinner business, and we had a star. It was amazing and crazy—something I’d dreamed of for a very long time. I always said I wanted to be a star before I turned 30, and I did it about two weeks after my birthday.”
Cornwell knew the challenges involved when he agreed to move to London and take over The Silver Birch after leaving Moor Hall. The restaurant “didn’t have much in terms of personality or style,” so it was up to Cornwell to bring his vision to the space. There was more competition than he had at The Barn, which is a small suburb on the outskirts of Liverpool. It was difficult to design food or a garden in the city.
“My strategy was to make it seasonal and very British, and to use as much produce as possible from the UK,” says Cornwell. “I wanted to focus on making it fun, simple and not fancy. I tried to make a menu that I would like to eat on my day off – a few snacks, an aperitif, a few starters, a main course. We tried to do à la carte, and we ended up with a lot of waste. Now we have a very simple menu, and it works well for us.”
Although the dishes change with the seasons, a few have become signatures. Devon crab is presented in a tin of caviar with a dollop of caviar and served alongside buttered cilantro—a truly Instagram-friendly moment. Cornwell first offered his crab dish with a crab shell, but has revised it over the past two years. “It wasn’t like he got infected, but there was a real impact,” he says. “So we always made crab food somehow.” Another constant is the variety of tartare (I also had beef) and pasta. Cornwell also likes to give a nod to fish and chips, another thing he enjoys eating on a day off.
He says: “That’s where some of my ideas come from. So maybe I’ll do a tempura cod cheek on the side. I like to think that I’m cooking my style, and at the same time, I’m cooking food that people want. Obviously I want it to look aesthetically pleasing, but that’s not my main goal.”
Although Cornwell doesn’t have space for her own garden at The Silver Birch, she grows herbs like oxalis and nasturtium in planters out back. He eats as much as he can in London. He and his team collect ingredients such as elderflower, blackberry and meadowsweet from the Thames River, and use them as much as possible. Any elderflower that can be used in summer dishes is ground into vinegar. “We use it as a finish on many sauces and even pickles,” Cornwell said. “Every time you open it, the smell reminds you of summer.”
That emphasis on reducing waste is evident throughout the kitchen. Stocks are used more than once, and peelings from root vegetables are turned into sauces. When I dined in November, the squash pasta was served with a delicious umami broth made from that vegetable waste. “I wanted to do something solid with the rest, but do something really interesting at the same time,” commented Cornwell. “I think that’s a good thing to do.”
Cornwell is happy to present himself with new challenges. He has established a better work-life balance at Silver Birch, thanks in part to his strong team. But you know you can keep changing the food plate. He says: “I like to look back at my pictures from when I first started making pottery, and it wasn’t very well prepared. “It wasn’t sharp. And as I look through the years, I see it becoming sharper, more interesting and more refined. I’m finding my own style a lot.”
The same is true of Silver Birch. A Michelin star is one of Cornwell’s goals, but not just bragging rights. He knows the honor will encourage diners and visitors to head west to Chiswick. It’s a lot of pressure to maintain quality, focus and happiness.
“As a chef, you’re chasing a star, or you’re trying to keep it, or you’re trying to go to the next level,” said Cornwell. “No matter how you lose sleep, you’re stressed, you take out for other people, you ask yourself, ‘Is the toilet paper enough, the hand soap costs three stars?’ I can’t say I’m banking on a star or deserve it, but it might help. It shows the quality of the restaurant, and that brings people in.”
He adds, “I think we have something really special here in Chiswick, which doesn’t exist in other parts of London. I believe it will all come together, but it’s a long journey. Everyone always wants to say they have this secret restaurant that hasn’t been found. We feel like we do, but no one wants to tell you the secret.”
That is, until now—because it’s time to share that secret.
