George Ormond named executive chef at The Barbary

George Ormond has been named executive chef of The Barbary Notting Hill, moving from Marylebone's Lita to run the kitchen at Zoë and Layo Paskin's North African-influenced dining room.

Ormond's route to the job runs through two well-regarded London kitchens. He was head chef at Angela Hartnett's Michelin-starred Murano in Mayfair before taking the same title at Lita, and arrives at the Barbary Group with classical French, Spanish and Italian training behind him.

The Barbary Notting Hill occupies a Grade II-listed building on Westbourne Grove and opened in September 2024, a sister site to the original Barbary in Neal's Yard. Both restaurants cook over an open fire, drawing on the spice routes and shared tables of the historic Barbary Coast rather than any single national cuisine.

A quiet ambition, not a résumé move: Ormond trades tasting menus for a wood fire.

New dishes built around the grill

Ormond has already put his own cooking on the menu. New dishes include lamb batbout with harissa and muscovado labneh, rainbow chard borani with pine nut and Aleppo butter, and wild Cornish sea bass with chermoula and ras el hanout, all built around the restaurant's wood fire and North African spice cabinet rather than a French finish.

Zoë Paskin, co-founder of Studio Paskin, framed the appointment as more than a résumé move. "George brings so much more than an impressive set of credentials," she said. "He is a passionate cook, a natural raconteur, and a true restaurateur with a quiet ambition."

The hire fits a pattern at the Barbary Group, which has built both its sites around chefs trained in classical kitchens who then cook against type, swapping tasting-menu technique for shared plates and open-fire cooking.

A crowded season for chef moves

Ormond's appointment lands in a busy week for London kitchen news. The AA's 2026 rosette awards named six restaurants at its top four-rosette grade, and further north, a MasterChef winner opened his own dining room in Manchester this week.

For Ormond, the move trades a set menu built around one Marylebone address for a wood fire and a spice list that changes with the season, at a restaurant whose format leaves rather more room for a chef to leave his own mark on the plate.