Ian McAndrew, and what comes next for chefs.studio

By Shaun Smith-Roberts, co-founder of chefs.studio

Ian McAndrew died on 11 October 2026. Many of you will already have heard. If you haven't, I'm sorry this is how you're finding out.

Ian was a Michelin-starred chef and the co-founder of chefs.studio. For most of my working life he was also my mentor and my friend. I've written a fuller tribute to him, which you can read here: Ian McAndrew: a tribute. This piece is about something different: what happens to chefs.studio now.

Where it started for me

I met Ian through a book before I ever met him in person. As a young chef I worked my way through A Feast of Fish, and it changed how I thought about cooking. A couple of years later I had the good fortune to work for him at Adare Manor in Ireland, and then to follow him back to the UK to Flitwick Manor. In 1997 we started two things together. The Repertoire was an online knowledge base for chefs, which Bournemouth University went on to use when training young cooks. Through our company, Culinary Consultancy Co, we took the same idea into real kitchens, where we worked alongside chefs and helped train their teams.

What Ian gave me wasn't a recipe or a technique. He taught me how to be a grown up in the kitchen and how to stay in control without ever raising the temperature. I still lean on that most days, and it's how I mean to look after what he started here.

Why chefs.studio exists

chefs.studio grew out of the same belief as The Repertoire: that what experienced chefs know should be written down and handed on, not lost when they hang up their whites. 

Ian spent much of his career looking after young cooks. When he ran the Master Chefs of Great Britain apprenticeship scheme, he drove the length of the country to see apprentices in their own kitchens. chefs.studio was his way of doing the same for cooks he would never get to meet. Everything on this site, from the butchery series to the work on menu engineering and kitchen management, comes from that idea.

Carrying on

Ian asked two things of me: to keep chefs.studio going, and not to let people forget his name. Since the funeral, his wife Jane and his son Connor have asked me to do exactly that, and I'm grateful for their trust. I intend to keep both promises.

What changes

For many years Ian and I wrote together. A good number of the articles here appeared under his name. They were built on his knowledge and his methods, and he approved them, but much of the writing itself was mine, done with his full agreement. That was how we worked, and it worked well.

That way of working ended with Ian. From today, new articles will carry my name. Where a recipe, technique or method is Ian's, he will be credited for it, as he always should be. When I tell you what Ian thought, it will be because he said it, not because I've imagined it.

What stays the same

Everything already published stays exactly as it is. The series you follow will continue. The ebooks Ian and I wrote together, including Mastering Pasteurisation, remain available, and your membership carries on unchanged.

Help us honour Ian

Jane, Connor and I want to find the right way to mark what Ian gave to our industry, and we would like your help. If you worked with Ian, trained under him, cooked from his books or simply learned from him, tell us how you think his legacy should live on. It might be something for young chefs, something for his recipes and writing, or something we haven't thought of yet.

We would also love to hear your memories of him. With your permission, we may share some of them here.