From Michelin kitchens to Sussex gardens, a chef who believes great food starts with passion, not pretension.
If you ask Chef Steve Toward how long he’s been cooking, he’ll smile, look thoughtful, and say, “Thirty-seven years.” Then, after a beat: “But really, since I could reach the kitchen table.”
Food has been stitched into his story from the start. His grandparents were farmers in Northumberland and his mother would bake in the family kitchen. While other children were out kicking footballs, Steve was in the kitchen, whisking cake batter and learning that the smell of warm bread could tell a story all by itself. “That’s where it started,” he says. “Once food gets in your blood, it never leaves.”
A European education in flavour
At nineteen, Steve packed a suitcase and with three words of German (“ja, nein and Bahnhof”) flew to the Black Forest to train in a Michelin-starred kitchen. “It was a huge leap back then and I couldn’t speak the language”. But that move began seven years of high-intensity training across Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, Portugal and Denmark, working in Relais & Châteaux hotels that between them held ten Michelin stars. He still talks about it with awe.
“The discipline, the precision, the respect for ingredients, it changed everything. In the early ’90s, Europe was years ahead of us in skill and technique. It was the best education a chef could have.”
There are stories he tells with a grin: the two-star restaurant in Lago Maggiore where the head chef began every morning picking mushrooms from the garden for the staff; or the time he learned to make perfect curry from a fellow cook while temping in a prison kitchen between jobs. “You never know who’s going to teach you something,” he says. “If someone can show me a new trick, I’m listening — that’s the joy of it.”
Building Stoves Dining
After returning to Britain, Steve settled on the Sussex–Surrey border and spent eight years as Head Chef at Langshott Manor, before deciding to create something of his own. “I didn’t want bankers breathing down my neck or half a million in debt to open a restaurant,” he laughs. “So I built Stoves Dining — a restaurant that travels to you.”
Stoves Dining delivers fine dining in private homes and gardens: bespoke events, corporate hospitality, and Steve’s favourite invention, the Chef’s Garden Table, a high-end gazebo restaurant that pops up under the stars through summer.
“It’s part fine dining and part theatre,” he says. “We explain every dish, where it’s from, how it’s cooked. Plates are cleared, wine topped up, but it’s also very relaxed. Food should be personal, but it’s not just about the food. It’s about the entire experience. ”
The small team numbers just four, but between them they carry over a century of experience. “It’s intimate, and that’s what people love. You’re not just eating dinner; you’re part of the story.”
Why food matters
Ask Steve why food matters and he doesn’t reach for lofty quotes, he tells a story. He calls it The Bean Story.
“I’ve interviewed more than a thousand chefs over the years and I always ask what their favourite food is. Some say truffle or foie gras, all the usual answers. But one brilliant young chef said, ‘I love baked beans,’ and then spent five minutes talking about texture, sauce, how to make them from scratch, etc. That’s passion. That’s the difference between someone who cooks and someone who creates.”
For Steve, passion is the one ingredient you can taste. “Food isn’t about showing off,” he says. “It’s about taking something simple and giving it your full attention.”
Local roots, local respect
Sussex suits him. The mix of coast and countryside mirrors his own dual love of land and sea. Steve champions Hastings’ beach-launched fishing fleet, the farm shops and dairies that keep the county fed, and the small producers who make food with integrity.
“I’m proud of the variety here: brown crab, line-caught bass, mackerel, lamb from the Downs, incredible cheeses. The trick is to use what’s around you. Support the people who make it, and you get flavour you can’t fake.”
That ethos shapes the Flavours & Founders project he’s developing with local collaborators, a series of immersive events celebrating Sussex makers, ingredients and heritage dishes (and perhaps including a plan Steve and Sussex Exclusive have cooked up to resurrect the forgotten Sussex Churdle, a local cousin of the Cornish pasty). “It’s about connection,” he says. “Farmers, chefs, producers, readers, everyone sitting at the same table.”
The man behind the apron
For all his accolades, Steve’s manner is relaxed, curious and unpretentious. He’s as happy talking about foraging for salsify as he is discussing camera angles for TikTok. “I’m learning,” he says. “Food changes, media changes but people still want honesty on a plate.”
And if you ask what keeps him cooking after nearly four decades, he doesn’t hesitate.
“I love watching someone take the first bite of something I’ve made. That little pause before they speak, that’s why.”
Stoves Dining operates across Sussex, Surrey and London, offering private dining, chef’s-table experiences and seasonal collaborations.
