Shopping bag.

It wasn’t the so-called ‘curse’ of the Michelin star that led to Skye walking away from Petersham nursery, more so a hankering ambition to prove herself (to herself) on a new stage. ‘I’d been there for ten years and in a way I felt like there was nothing else for me to do here.’ She pauses, searching for an analogy. ‘It’s like, if you’d written one book or one album, you want to see if there’s another album in you. Is there another book in you?’

And so then to Spring, which opened its doors towards the tail end of 2014: not the next chapter, but a whole new book. It is a striking venture both in an immediate sense and also as you begin to unravel the ethos and work that goes into creating such a place. It’s almost impossible to believe that this grandiose space was previously a fusty, dilapidated old tax office and Skye remembers vividly her trepidation upon first viewing: “it had swirly orange carpet everywhere, pillars were painted chocolate brown… all of the windows were covered with these funny old blinds so you could see no sunlight. It was dark and dank and the walls were the darkest beige you could ever imagine.” Today though, it is a place transformed. This is no small part due to Skye’s sister, the Australia-based interior designer Bryony Fitzgerald, being able to realise the chef’s vision so perfectly. “I would be trying to express what I wanted on the phone to her, like I wanted it to be feminine but I really want it to be strong, very modern but also very soft… She said, ‘yeah, yeah, you want these wooden floors and these sofas.’ In the end I just said, do you know what, can you just come over to London and do it?” The resulting interiors capture the spirit of the down-to-earth luxury that Skye has perfected in her cooking, whilst also elevating it within a setting that feels like ‘fine dining.’

As Skye waxes lyrical about her sister’s work, and that of the designers who created her distinctive staff uniforms (Kim Trager and Lowell Delaney of Trager Delaney and Maureen Doherty of Egg) it becomes apparent that women played a key role in every aspect of the restaurant’s creation. This is almost unheard of in the male-dominated restaurant industry, and extends to the kitchen – 11 of the 20 chefs are women. “I think there are women out there who are so capable of doing amazing things and I was naturally drawn to this, the generosity of spirit in everyone who came together to make this happen. In terms of the kitchen, it’s a very hard industry to be in, especially for women who want to maybe get married and have kids. We have a manager, Grace, who was saying ‘oh, well I’m 26 now and all my friends are getting out of the industry.’ It just made me think: okay, how can we make it an industry where women want to and can stay.” It’s a touching statement with particular resonance given that you, dear Semaine readers, will be reading this in the week that much of the world are celebrating Mother’s Day. It is also a statement that is heartfelt and easy to understand, much like the qualities that go into Skye’s cooking.

“You won’t see foams here, or strange dehydrated things… I mean, I wouldn’t even know how to do a foam!” What you do see and taste are dishes crafted from the absolute finest produce. Almost everything is either made on site – from the butter and the cheeses to the liqueurs and the tonic water – or on Fern Varrow, a biodynamic farm in the black hills of Herefordshire that produces exclusively for Spring. It’s a remarkable, perhaps unique relationship for a restaurant to share with a farm, but Skye sees it as an essential part of the project: part of a serious commitment to sustainability. She mentions hesitantly throughout our talk how she doesn’t feel completely comfortable with the idea of having created a ‘fine dining’ experience – yet when she talks about the tough, rewarding work she does with her suppliers, there is absolute conviction. “I think especially as you get older, you have to look up from the stove and see the issues. Not just what’s in front of you, but how food actually matters you know? It is really important and the health of our soil, our eco-systems, our farming communities – our planet – depends on it.” Knowing that this ethos is what translates into the incredible food that Skye and her team prepare, what could be a finer dining experience than that?