Highly rated young chef Ben Murphy is leaving the Woodford in South Woodford, less than a year after it opened as his first restaurant.

Murphy, 25, a protégé of the great Pierre Koffmann and with a CV that includes stints at the Greenhouse in Mayfair, Le Bristol in Paris and Eleven Madison Park in New York, is ambitious to push his talents to a higher culinary level.

“The next restaurant will be more completely me,” he said. “More complex, fine-dining food, fewer covers (between 50 and 60) which will allow us to have more interaction with the customers.”

Murphy opened at the Woodford in March and will stay until January 1. He is planning to relocate to a new restaurant closer to central London, and hopes to take many of his current team with him to the next venture.