Former long-serving Gordon Ramsay chef James Durrant is to launch a new restaurant, the Game Bird, at the Stafford hotel in St James’s.

Best known for its American Bar, the Stafford is a classic central London bolt-hole, tucked away from the crowds of Piccadilly beside Green Park.

Durrant’s menu will feature plenty of game, including grouse, Rhug estate fallow deer, wood pigeon and game pie, as well as daily stews and hot pies from his native northwest. There will also be a dedicated oyster menu and a trolley of smoked and cured fish.

The restaurant’s name is a reference to Nancy Wake, the Australian wartime spy who frequented the American Bar and lived at the Stafford after returning to London in her 90s.

Durrant worked at Ramsay’s restaurants in Royal Hospital Road and Claridge’s, as well as Maze and Maze Grill. He left London with his family in 2010 to take over the Plough Inn at Longparish in Hampshire.