For years, Mark Sargeant worked alongside Gordon Ramsay, finding fame through books and on television, before going on to try his hand at building a restaurant empire of his own.
Swapping the bright lights of Mayfair for Folkestone, the celebrity chef became one of the driving forces behind a string of successful restaurants and pubs across Kent.
Mark Sargeant grew up in Kent
But after more than a decade of success came a series of setbacks, with Sargeant walking away from the business he helped build before twice having to close restaurants bearing his own initials.
Now 53, the celebrity chef spoke exclusively to KentOnline about his future – including an ambitious return to London.
Born and raised in Kent, Sargeant grew up in Larkfield, near Maidstone, and trained at West Kent College before beginning his professional career in the capital.
He returned to the county to work under David Pitchford at Read’s Restaurant in Faversham, which earned a Michelin star during his time there.
It was while working at Read’s that he first encountered Ramsay during a work experience day, beginning an association which would help shape the rest of his career.
He helped establish some of the country’s most celebrated restaurants, including Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s, where he oversaw a kitchen that earned a Michelin star in 2002.
“I worked for Gordon Ramsay for 13 years; if you think about dog years, it’s similar to that. It’s really, really hard work, but I loved every minute of it,” he said.
During that time, and in the years since, he also became a familiar face to millions on television, appearing on shows such as Saturday Kitchen, The F Word and Great British Menu.
“I’ve had many businesses since I left Gordon,” Sargeant said.
That includes running nine restaurants in Kent, such as Rocksalt at Folkestone harbour, The Wife of Bath in Wye and The Five Bells in East Brabourne.
Today, Sargeant has returned to regular restaurant cooking through a four-month residency at The Victoria in Oxshott, Surrey, working alongside head chef Daniel Lee at the three-AA-Rosette pub.
Mark Sargeant and Daniel Lee, head chef at The Victoria. Picture: Samphire Communications
He insists that cooking has always remained central to his career, even as his responsibilities changed.
“The reason I chose to come out of the kitchen a bit more when I opened Rocksalt back in 2011 was to teach myself how to run restaurants, really, because it’s just such an important thing to understand everything,” he explained.
“But I was never fully out of the kitchen; I’m a chef at the end of the day, so you have to have your roots in the kitchen.
“I’m still always in the kitchen in terms of food development, working with chefs, training them, working on recipes, menu tastings, just not on a day-to-day basis.
“When you’ve got that many sites, you can’t be in the kitchen every day.”
That shift towards becoming a restaurateur began in earnest 15 years ago, when Sargeant joined forces with businessman Josh De Haan – son of multi-millionaire and Saga chairman Sir Roger De Haan – to open Rocksalt.
The restaurant proved a success, helping establish Folkestone as a destination for food lovers and paving the way for the pair to expand across Kent.
Their growing portfolio also included The Smokehouse in Folkestone and The Duke William in Ickham.
For Sargeant, the move offered an opportunity to build something of his own while remaining close to his Kent roots.
However, his partnership with Josh De Haan came to an end in November 2021, when the chef announced his departure from the Rocksalt Group after citing “unresolvable differences of opinion”.
Mark Sargeant, pictured in 2011 when Rocksalt opened. Picture: Paul Amos
The businesses continued without him, and while Sargeant is happy to recall their early success, he is less willing to elaborate on his departure or the direction the group has taken since.
“I certainly don’t wish them any harm, but I haven’t had anything to do with that since 2021” he said.
“I’ve moved on. That was years of my life; it was very successful, and I had an amazing time setting that up, but I’ve not been involved for a while now, so there’s not really much point talking about that.”
It is clear he would rather focus on what lies ahead.
“I always like to look forward, forward, forward. If you don’t succeed, keep trying and trying again,” he said.
After leaving Rocksalt, Sargeant embarked on a fresh venture in Folkestone, opening Brasserie MS in August 2022.
The restaurant, specialising in classical French cooking, attracted positive reviews and recognition from the Michelin Guide, but closed just six months later after disagreements with its financial backers.
He eventually secured new investment and reopened the premises as Restaurant MS in 2023, which had a five-star rating on Tripadvisor when it suddenly closed in February 2025.
The Restaurant MS before it closed. Picture: The Restaurant MS/Instagram
Sargeant is more forthcoming about the difficulties facing his own restaurants, explaining how rising costs and an increasing reliance on weekend trade eventually made the business unsustainable.
“My then-business partner decided to pull out fairly quickly, after about five months, then I found a new partner and just relaunched it under a new name, Restaurant MS, and it did really, really well,” he said.
“The problem is, the current climate is just not easy at all. We’re up against so many things – rising costs of fuel, which affect delivery, and food costs. VAT is destroying most restaurants.
“It’s a really difficult time to run an independent restaurant at the moment. I tried my very, very best, and after 16 months of running that, we just had to admit that we just couldn’t compete.
“It was a Friday, Saturday, Sunday business; you just can’t run a business like that, so sadly that had to close down.”
Sargeant stressed that even some of hospitality’s biggest names are struggling to keep their businesses afloat.
Mark Sargeant has been in the industry since the 1990s
“It’s hard, the industry we’re in at the moment, it’s really hard,” he said.
“You’ve got amazing chefs – two, three Michelin stars – closing restaurants down.
“You can’t charge customers what you need to charge them to actually make a profit, and since Covid, people tend to stay in more; they enjoy cooking at home more.
“So you’ve really got to be clever, and be better than other people around you.”
It is a philosophy Sargeant developed during his years running restaurants across Kent, when he learned that everything from service and decor to the way customers are welcomed can be just as important as the food.
Despite the disappointment of losing his Folkestone restaurant, he has no intention of stepping away from hospitality.
Instead, he is actively searching for premises in central London, where he hopes to launch an entirely new venture in spring 2027.
“There’s not really much I can start saying yet, but yes, absolutely, I’m actively looking. I need to get back in central London, I really do,” he said.
“I took a punt going down to Kent, which was fantastic, and it was an amazing time of my life. It was very, very positive and very successful.
Mark Sargeant speaks exclusively to KentOnline
“I left Mayfair for Folkestone, which was quite a brave thing to do.
“But I just really feel the draw of London; it’s pulling me back, so I would like to think that by spring next year, hopefully, we’ll have been able to find something very exciting up there.
“I’m ready to do something quite different.
“Fine dining is very up and down. It’s not really something that excites me anymore.
“But I feel that people just expect an amazingly fun environment, something exciting as well as being relaxed. The food obviously has to be good; it has to be a whole package.”
Although Sargeant is keeping the details of his London ambitions under wraps for now, he hopes to continue working with The Victoria beyond his initial four-month residency.
The move to Surrey has given him another opportunity to concentrate on the cooking he has spent much of his life perfecting.
He has already completed a four-day takeover of the pub’s kitchen, developing an entirely new menu, and is now working with its established team on new dishes and special dining events.
And despite the challenges of returning to regular restaurant service in his fifties, Sargeant says he has thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
“We’re doing some really fantastic things at the moment with the kitchen team, so I’m really enjoying myself,” he said.
“It’s like muscle memory – you never really lose it. But I have to say at 53 now, it’s getting a bit harder.”
Dining and Cooking