SEBBY HOLMES
Why the hell am I writing?
Welcome to my little corner of the internet which fuses a love for discovering as much as possible about the culinary world, with a passion for Thai cuisine, food writing and recipes.
I’m currently in my early 30s and have spent the last 20 years working in, running and owning professional kitchens, that sounds like a bloody long time when you type it out, its over half my lifetime so I suppose it is.
I’ve contemplated starting this website for the last few years, as I’ve always liked the idea of having a place to share my thoughts and to collect my recipes and ideas, that is more memorable than the back of a fag packet. It’s not an easy task to keep up with the writing, whilst feeling confident that the restaurant is under control, but fortunately we have now evolved to the point where both can be achieved, even if it is with a camera around my neck at the wok, and the laptop resting on the stovetop. I hope to share with you all my views on hospitality, whilst being the owner and head chef of one of the highest rated Thai restaurants in the UK. Or at least if it is of no interest to anyone, I finally have some of my recipes in a place that won’t end up getting curry and palm sugar stains all over it.
Over the years I have gained a great fulfilment in finding others that love cooking Thai food as much as I do. So I write this blog to share what I have learned so far and what my obsessive addiction towards making things as delicious as possible teaches me along the way, for good and for bad. This is a place to come for a food perspective, written from the inside. It acts as a forum for a wide range of weird and wonderful recipes and articles that are created and produced by myself, with a little help from my awesome team at Farang. All good photography is stolen from my friends along the way, any terrible pictures most probably are my own, I’ll try to keep this to a minimum.
My ramblings within this blog aim to have a key focus on sharing some of my recipes that me and the team create, whilst every now and again sharing with you some of the wacky shit we get up to in this crazy world known as hospitality. From cooking Thai feasting menu’s in five-star hotels in Budapest, to feeding hundreds of people seven course insect tasting menu’s in North London, from feeding the Ambassador of Thailand, to accidentally opening a restaurant in London – I still surprise myself sometimes to be honest.
Who the hell is Sebby Holmes and why the bloody hell do you want to read my words?
Firstly, I am just a normal British guy that fell in love with food and writing, I got a degree in Journalism, quickly realised that meant bugger all in the ways of earning enough money to actually live, so decided to stick with my passion for cooking and then the rest is history. As I mentioned above, I began my career as a chef at the age of thirteen, training in British cuisine before falling for Thai food.
On returning to London I started working at Jane Alty’s acclaimed Thai restaurant, ‘The Begging Bowl’ and worked my way to a sous chef position, before launching 2015’s most lauded new opening, ‘The Smoking Goat’, Soho, where I spent more than a year as head chef, I then decided at the ripe age of 26 it was time to go out on my own.
In 2016, my restaurant ‘Farang London’ was born, I hosted a series of pop-ups, supper clubs and private catering events across the country (and a little around Europe) before bringing ‘Farang’ to Street Feast. In 2017, I took on my step-fathers old restaurant, ‘The San Daniele’, Highbury, as a longer-term location. After being awarded a Michelin bib gourmand and listed in the top hundred restaurants by restaurant magazine within a year, I decided it was going well enough to take it on permanently. No word of a lie being a career chef and owning a restaurant are two things that I had no intention of taking on, however life has a funny way of falling into place sometimes.
After the success of my best-selling cook book ‘Cook Thai’, I want to continue spreading the love and carry on sharing my recipes and discoveries. I have devoted my career and increasingly what feels like my life to hospitality and I love it! Every day is a school day in the kitchen, no matter how long you have been at it. it’s time for me to share what I have learnt so far, and what is still to come from a life in the kitchen, so you don’t have to.
Food is a large part of my life which I would feel naked without, as you are reading this far through this essay of an introduction, I’m sure we share this passion in one way or another. So finally, thanks for taking an interest in my website and please do read on and hopefully you enjoy what you read.
As always, sharing is caring so please don’t hesitate to contact me or leave a comment if you have something you would like to ask, and I will reply as swiftly as possible. Unless of course you don’t like it, in which case you can bugger off.
Cheers,