Cornish chef Tom Brown to open training restaurant in Penzance

A Michelin star, a Cornish upbringing, and now a restaurant named after his father. Tom Brown is bringing all three home to Penzance.

Cornish-born chef Tom Brown is teaming up with the Penzance Regeneration Company and Penwith College to launch a training restaurant on the first floor of the town’s Grade I-listed Market House, opening in summer 2027.

A training kitchen inside a Grade I landmark

Market House, Penzance’s most recognisable building, is a Grade I-listed neoclassical granite structure completed in 1838. The Penzance Regeneration Company is behind a community-led project to bring its derelict half back into use as a street food hall, a training restaurant, and a town centre help desk for accessing Penzance Council and other community services.

The training restaurant will give hospitality students the chance to sharpen their culinary and front of house skills in a live, professional setting, while building their employment prospects and future earning potential.

Penwith College, part of Truro and Penwith College, will act as the restaurant’s education partner, linking its hospitality courses and apprenticeships directly to the new site. Students and graduates will get work placements, apprenticeships and employment there, creating what the partnership calls a clear route from college into hospitality careers.

Truro and Penwith College Principal Carl Riding said the partnership would give students “an exceptional opportunity to learn in a professional restaurant, supported by experienced industry professionals.” He added that it “connects education directly with employment, helping young people develop the skills, confidence and experience they need whilst supporting the future of West Cornwall’s hospitality sector.”

📷Credit: Lateef Okunnu / @lateef.photography

From a Padstow apprenticeship to a Michelin star

Tom began his career working in restaurants across the Duchy, training at the Kew Inn before a stint with Rick Stein in Padstow. A meeting with Nathan Outlaw led him to the St Enodoc Hotel in Rock, where he rose through the ranks to head chef.

After three years there, Tom moved to London to become head chef at Nathan Outlaw’s eponymous restaurant at The Capital hotel in Knightsbridge. The restaurant earned a Michelin star within a year of opening.

Tom has gone on to become one of the UK’s leading chefs, but Cornwall has stayed close. He’s now head chef of Tom Brown at The Capital, the restaurant that carries his own name back in Knightsbridge, where his cooking won a fresh Michelin star in February 2026.

📷Credit: Lateef Okunnu / @lateef.photography

A name that means home

The new Penzance restaurant will be called AG Brown, after Tom’s father and fishing companion.

“I was lucky enough to have some very supportive people give me opportunities when I was starting out in my career, and I know how important that first step can be,” Tom said. “AG Brown is a chance for me to come home to Cornwall and help a new generation of young people discover just how exciting and rewarding hospitality can be.

“I want the restaurant to be a place where students are properly supported but also challenged to be the very best they can be. There’s so much incredible produce, talent and potential in West Cornwall, and I want AG Brown to help showcase that while giving young people the skills, confidence and experience they need to build successful careers.”

📷Credit: Lateef Okunnu / @lateef.photography

What the students will do

AG Brown will operate as a charity under the umbrella of the Town Deal-funded Market House project, with a small core kitchen and front of house management team overseeing commercial delivery and training. Most of the restaurant’s team will be students and graduates from the college, working through placements, apprenticeships and their first jobs in the industry.

Tom will set the restaurant’s ethos, oversee delivery standards and develop a menu built around sustainably sourced local produce, with a focus on fish and seafood, simple and produce-led. He’ll continue to be based in London as head chef at The Capital, but will return to Penzance regularly to run masterclasses and mentor students through the year.

Martin Tucker, Chairman of the Penzance Town Deal, said: “Having someone of Tom’s calibre, who was born and raised here in Cornwall, and who understands the journey from starting out in a local restaurant to working at the highest level, is incredibly exciting. AG Brown will bring together education, employment, local produce and enterprise in a way that we hope will have a lasting impact on Penzance and the wider community.”

📷Credit: Lateef Okunnu / @lateef.photography

A street food hall alongside it

AG Brown isn’t the only new food venture at Market House. At street level, the Penzance Regeneration Company is turning the old Market Hall into a street food hall, with three kitchen pods and a bar.

The pods will go to innovative local food entrepreneurs, giving growing businesses an affordable, supported space to develop their ideas and build a customer base before eventually moving on to operate independently.

Susan Stuart, a director of the Penzance Regeneration Company, said the two ventures would “bring new and diverse food offerings to the town while also creating opportunities for local young people and businesses to grow, develop and improve their prospects.”

She added: “We see the food offering at Market House as strengthening Penzance’s growing reputation as a destination for good food and drink, while encouraging more people to visit and spend time in the town centre. Crucially, the offer will be complementary to, rather than competing with, the town’s existing food and hospitality businesses.

“The food hall and restaurant will operate year-round, daytime and evening. As well as helping to boost the vitality of the town centre during the day, the ventures will make a meaningful contribution to the evening economy, bringing more activity and footfall to Penzance throughout the year.”

Part of an £88.7m programme across Cornwall

The Market House project sits inside the wider Penzance Towns Fund. Cornwall was the only area invited by the Government to submit proposals for four of its towns, Camborne, Penzance, St Ives and Truro, and each Town Deal Board put together a Town Investment Plan with Cornwall Council after extensive public consultation. In spring 2021, the Government confirmed Cornwall would receive up to £88.7 million through the Town Deals programme.

Cornwall Council is the Lead Authority for the Towns Fund in Cornwall, supporting the governance role of the Penzance Town Deal Board and administering the fund on its behalf.

📷Credit: Lateef Okunnu / @lateef.photography