Richard Shepherd, chef who helped to make Langan’s Brasserie the go-to restaurant in 1980s London – obituary

Richard Shepherd, who has died aged 77, was chief chef at Langan’s Brasserie in Mayfair which became famous as a popular haunt of the famous and notorious during the 1980s; later, he became the sole owner of the business.

The restaurant was founded in 1976 when the actor Michael Caine teamed up with the Irish restaurateur Peter Langan to transform Le Coq d’Or in Stratton Street into a Parisian-style brasserie, the first of its kind in London, with original artwork, live jazz and a famously relaxed atmosphere.

Shepherd, the former head chef of the Capital Hotel Knightsbridge, where he had been one of the first in Britain to win a Michelin star, joined the partnership the following year, introducing a menu that remained little changed over 40 years.

By the mid-1980s the paparazzi were more or less permanently ensconced outside, as such figures as Princess Grace of Monaco, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Mick Jagger, Francis Bacon, Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicholson and David Hockney breezed through its doors, attracted by its combination of food, atmosphere and guests.

Shepherd’s dishes, which he described as “English respecting French tradition”, were a major draw; his handwritten bill of fare, featuring a drawing by Hockney of the three proprietors, boasted some 30 hors d’oeuvres, 20 plats du jour, six spécialités du jour, 14 legumes and salades, 25 desserts, seven fromages and a concise list of wines and champagnes. They included snails, avocado vinaigrette, Dover sole, roast duck, profiteroles – and his signature dishes, spinach soufflé with anchovy sauce and créme brûlée.

The restaurant worked because Shepherd organised every aspect, turning out 400-500 covers a day. His duties were not confined to the kitchen, however. In Caine’s frequent absences, he was expected to keep a close eye on Langan, whose reputation as a bon viveur soon morphed into that of hellraiser.

As time went on Langan’s behaviour became increasingly disconcerting and outrageous. Cruising menacingly around the restaurant, he would plonk himself down at diners’ tables, uninvited – usually unwelcome, sometimes entertaining, but never sober. Customers came to expect to see him the worse for wear and gossip columns reported on his drunken escapades – which included biting customers’ dogs and eating cockroaches. He would often end the evening comatose on the floor or slumped in a chair, to be found by the cleaners the following morning.

Fed up with his antics one night, Shepherd told the staff to put Langan’s chair and table outside on the pavement to keep him out of trouble; he ended up being banned from his own restaurant. “It was very difficult to watch,” Shepherd recalled. “To begin with, it was all an act, but by the end, he couldn’t distinguish between what was acting and what was real.”

In 1988, aged 47, Langan set fire to his house in Essex and died of his injuries a few days later.

Over the next few years, with new culinary stars emerging in London, the brasserie’s appeal seemed ready to wane. But its popularity endured, and under Shepherd, who bought Caine’s share of the company in 1999 to become the sole owner of the brasserie and the group’s other restaurants, it remained one of the most visited restaurants in London.

Shepherd attributed its longevity to “a combination of the history, the celebrity and the notoriety”, but also to “no-nonsense food and service at good value for money”.

Richard Shepherd was born on April 30 1945 at Weston-super-Mare, the son of Eric Shepherd and Florence, née Sullivan. Educated locally, he worked in hotels and restaurants during his school holidays, becoming convinced by the age of 12 that he could do the job better than the chefs he worked with.

In 1960, aged 15, he became an apprentice at the Mount Pleasant Hotel in Great Malvern and, aged 18, landed a job as commis chef at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand. A year and a half later he moved to the Savoy Grill under Silvino Trompetto.

In 1967 Shepherd travelled to the South of France to the Grand Hôtel in Cap Ferrat, and then to La Réserve de Beaulieu as chef de partie. “They gave me a hard time as an Englishman but that only drove me harder,” he recalled.

Returning to England, he worked at the Dorchester but had trouble from fellow staff for refusing to join a union. He took a job as chef de cuisine at the Capital Hotel where, in 1974, he was awarded his Michelin star, but in 1976, after falling out with the hotel’s owner, David Levin, over plans for expansion, he handed in his resignation.

“I drove home and Peter Langan was sitting on my doorstep,” Shepherd recalled. “He had opened Langan’s some months before but it wasn’t going right. I had a lot of pride in those days, and I felt let down by the Capital, so when Langan said ‘come with us, kid,’ I said yes.”

It was to be something of a baptism of fire since, a few months into the job, Shepherd discovered that the brasserie was insolvent and would have to close down because of accounting “irregularities”. The business was saved only after Shepherd went to his suppliers and the taxman with £260,000 worth of post-dated cheques and begged for more time. After three years he had brought it back into the black.

Shepherd went on to embark on other restaurant projects over the years, including a Shepherd’s in Portugal, Langan’s Bistros in Brighton and Marylebone, a Shepherd’s in Westminster and Langan’s Coq D’Or in Earls Court. In 1997 he did a deal with P&O Ferries to run Langan’s restaurants in 11 lines. At its peak the chain had an annual turnover of more than £10 million.

In 2012 he sold his shares in the businesses after nearly 36 years at the helm.

Shepherd was a member of the Club 9 group of chefs in the 1970s and later co-founded the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts. In 2000 he was appointed CBE for services to the industry.

In 1969 he married Christine Van den Bosch, who survives him with their son and daughter.

Richard Shepherd, born April 30 1945, died November 23 2022