Tom Aikens also named Tom Aitkens, is an English Michelin-starred chef. Aikens briefly worked for chefs in London and Paris restaurants. Under his tenure from 1996 to 1999 as head chef and then chef patron, Pied à Terre earned its two Michelin stars in January 1997.
Aikens’s current restaurants include Michelin-starred London restaurant Muse, which opened in January 2020, and three hotel eateries in Abu Dhabi. He appeared on television, including Great British Menu as one of its contestants and then one of its veteran chef judges.
On 2 November 2006, Aikens opened a newer restaurant Tom’s Kitchen, which occupied a former site of a defunct pub The Blenheim, located at Cale Street near Aikens’s other eponymous restaurant.
Aikens won the Newcomer of the Year at the 2004 Catey Awards for his newly established eponymous restaurant. Among the top 100 most influential figures of the UK hospitality industry, The Caterer ranked Aikens 71st in 2005, 97th in 2006, 94th in 2010, and 89th in 2011.
Tom Aikens Siblings: Meet Robert Aikens
Tom Aikens was born in Norwich in 1970, His twin brother Robert was born earlier. Tom and Robert started attending Hotel School at City College Norwich at age 16. Tom earned a two-year Advanced Catering Diploma in 1989. Robert eventually became a chef also.
Chef Robert Aikens began his career in Norwich, England, training in French and English cooking techniques.
He has had a successful career cooking in Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, as a private chef for the CEO of Citigroup, as both Corporate Executive Chef for Starr Restaurants, and as restaurant Executive Chef at Starr properties in Philadelphia and New York.
In 2019, Robert led the culinary team which recently reopened the iconic restaurant, Pastis in New York.
Robert is currently Executive Chef and Partner of Destination Unknown Restaurants, which is known across DC for Las Gemelas Cocina Mexicana (2021), Taqueria Las Gemelas (2021), Espita (2016), and Ghostburger (2020).
Some recent career highlights for Robert include welcoming President Biden into Taqueria Las Gemelas in May 2021 shortly after their May opening and being a finalist in the 2021 RAMMY awards for the “Best Ghost kitchen or Popup” for Ghostburger’s rampant success in DC.