Meet the head chef behind the new 'neighbourhood bistro' Bavette opening on Town Street in Horsforth

Former head chef and managing director of The Culpeper Group Sandy Jarvis will be opening Bavette with his husband Clement Cousin next February.

The restaurant, located on Town Street in Horsforth, will be serving mainly traditional French cuisine with a few British, Spanish and Italian dishes. A range of wines will also be available, some of which will be supplied by Clement’s brother and father who are winemakers in France.

Sandy, 39, said: “We're calling it a ‘neighborhood bistro’, which is really, really important to us. We wanted to find somewhere that we could sort of integrate nicely into the community.

“We're doing traditional, mainly French bistro food, but we wanted to be somewhere that's really super hospitable, really warm, and a friendly place that people want to return to.”

Sandy worked as a chef in London before opening The Culpeper in Shoreditch in 2014. The pub found great success and three more sites were opened including one hotel and two traditional pubs. Sandy then became the managing director of the group.

He had also met his now-husband in London, when they were both working at the same restaurant. Sandy said they both longed to open their own bistro but ideas of Bavette began last year.

He said: “We always kind of thought that we would one day do something, just the two of us, and then decided that we wanted to wanted to do it up here.

“We never kind of talked about it hugely too much, but it would always be a bistro, classical French food is what we both really love. It's what I really love to cook.”

And Sandy will be returning to his cooking roots, taking on the role of head chef at Bavette while Clement will manage the restaurant.

This new restaurant also marks Sandy’s return to Leeds. He had spent many years in Wetherby before his move to London and he is excited to be back.

Sandy said: “Not only just the fact that I'm from here, but also I think it's a really lovely city. It's a really, really nice size. There's enough going on but you don't kind of feel lost in the middle of it.

"The people we like, the kind of the mentality and the kind of honestness here and all that kind of thing, we really liked. And also the quality of supplies around here – sustainability is really important to us and being able to work really closely with small producers will be really important to us and just being in a city that's also on the doorstep to amazing countryside and amazing farming is really good as well.”

The new restaurant is just one of the many new restaurants opening on Town Street.

Sandy said: “I think the plan is just to have a restaurant that that first of all survives.

"The big part of hospitality that we both love is people coming in, having a nice time around the table, and the food and wine is just sort of the vehicle for that. Just having a neighborhood bistro that people really like returning to, that's our goal, that's our plan.”

Find out more about Bavette via its website and social media channels.