Chef Sam Holland on Travel as Creative Fuel

One of social media’s favourite chefs, Sam Holland earned his stripes in Michelin-starred kitchens ranging from the Scottish Highlands to the bright lights of London. Here Sam talks to Marriott Bonvoy about the role travel has played in his life and culinary career.

Sam Holland has always been inspired by food – by the urge to re-create a dish he recently enjoyed in a restaurant, perhaps, or by bouncing ideas off fellow foodies. To add fuel to his creative flame, we invited Sam to go on a culinary journey of discovery with three of Marriott Bonvoy’s greatest chefs: Asterios Koustoudis of Tudor Hall; Michele Bacciu of Le Grand; and ​​Alberto Fol of Club del Doge Restaurant. Here Sam talks us through the collaboration and reveals which gastronomic destination is calling to him next.

Sam Holland on a culinary journey of discovery, immersing himself in the refined dining experience at the King George, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Athens (Photo: Marriott International)

Culinary styles vary spectacularly between continents – it’s one of the reasons many of us love to travel. Which country or regions have most influenced your own cooking style?

I'm classically trained in traditional French culinary techniques – I went to the Leith School of Food and Wine in London and then on to a prestigious hotel in the Southern Highlands of Scotland, where the cuisine was very much fine dining. Then I came back down to London to work in a Michelin-starred kitchen at Chez Bruce, which was also very French. 

But I’ve also been inspired by English cuisine – growing up with Sunday lunches and having lovely meals cooked by my granny and my lovely mum.

So I'd say it's a mix between English and French, but I'm just a fan of food in general so any knowledge that I've picked up along the way has definitely stayed with me. 

With a passion for tradition and creativity, Sam Holland puts his own take on classic British dishes(Photo: Marriott International)

So French cuisine is very important to you, but what is your absolute favourite food destination?

Italy. I love the culture of Italian cooking. I love how they're obsessed with certain recipes and they have to do it a specific way. And they’re rightfully just extremely proud and passionate about their cuisine. So anytime I go to Italy, I always want to dive into their local cuisine because I just think they know what they're doing. As for where in Italy, I'd love to visit Rome and just eat my weight in pasta and drink nice wine.

And when I’m cooking for someone the first time, my go-to is a lovely carbonara.

Chef Sam Holland’s passion for Italian cuisine finds its perfect match in the timeless charm of Venice (Photo: Getty Images)

And beyond Italy, how does travel influence your cooking?

What I love about being European is that you can jump on a flight for two hours and you're in a completely new country with a new language, new architecture and, most importantly, new food. And when you’re away, often the best way to get a sense of a place is to go to a local restaurant and try food from a local chef. It’s like a nice gateway into the history and culture of a destination, and it’s something I’ve been incredibly excited to be able to do on this trip to Athens, Venice and Sardinia. 

Sam Holland with Chef Alberto Fol of The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice (Photo: Marriott International)

Outside of Europe, I’ve got my eye on Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia. Fragrant food is something I'm really desperate to try more of.

On this trip, you’ve visited a few luxury hotels – what makes you happy when staying in a hotel?

Friendly service, a comfortable bed and, obviously, a nice restaurant. Marriott have all three in abundance! In fact, I found out that you can purchase Marriott bed linen, so Clark [Sam’s girlfriend] and I have been quick to go online and order it, because I don't think we've ever slept as well as we did on this trip. I was really impressed with the Cala di Volpe gym, too. They've got an incredible outdoor gym overlooking the ocean as well as an indoor one.

Sam Holland at the Hotel Cala di Volpe, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Costa Smeralda, which offers an elegant dining experience that blends rich Mediterranean cuisine with the coastal beauty of Costa Smeralda (Photo: Marriott International)

* Sam spent time with the head chefs at King George, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Athens; Hotel Cala di Volpe, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Costa Smeralda; and The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice

You mentioned your mum and granny, and your recipes do often celebrate family and comfort food. How do you balance nostalgia with innovation in your cooking?

As a chef, you want to keep growing and learning. With that comes experimenting with recipes and dishes naturally becoming more elevated. Perfection is the goal but, as any chef will tell you, it’s very hard to achieve. We keep trying!

Chef Sam Holland is known for his modern approach to cooking, combining classical techniques with a focus on bold, seasonal flavours (Photo: Marriott International)

Let’s stay with your family a while longer! What's one dish you associate with your Granny Tess that you've reimagined for modern tastes?

Chicken Véronique*! I’ll tell you a story.

On the set of The Impossible [a 2012 film that Sam had a small part in, with his brother Tom playing one of the main characters in his cinematic debut], there was a very close-knit community between the cast and crew.

It was a very multicultural crew, too. So, for example, the Italians were in charge of the make-up; the Spanish were the directors and the producers; and then of course some British cast. Each week it was the job of one department to make a dish for everyone. We had some lovely pastas from the make-up crew and some great paellas from the producers, as well as some fantastic Thai food.

My granny and mum [Sam and Tom were 15 and 12 at the time] took their turn to make a chicken Véronique and it went down an absolute storm. It became our go-to dish – whenever Tom would come back from a long stint away or we were celebrating something, it was chicken Véronique. My granny taught me how to make it when I was very young and throughout my years of culinary school and working in kitchens, I’ve always tried to think of ways to make it even nicer than it is already.

So that is definitely a dish that I've taken from my granny and tried to put my own creative spin on it. 

*Chicken Véronique is a dish of chicken in a creamy sauce infused with tarragon and dotted with grapes

It sounds like Granny Tess’ chicken Véronique hits all the right notes! How do you achieve that across an entire menu?

You want to make sure that you touch a lot of bases. So don’t have starters with a really strong flavour and then a main course with a really subtle flavour. You want to build it gradually throughout the course of the evening, like a journey, and don’t repeat ingredients. 

You’ve also got to look seasonally – what ingredients are really nice right now. We really go through the seasons here in the UK. For instance, in the autumn, we use a lot of peaches, pumpkins and warm autumnal spices. That then blends into the winter where we get out the beef bourguignon and the chicken pie. And so on. It’s a cycle.

Clearly the Hollands are a creative bunch. What sparks your creativity in the kitchen?

Anytime I'm with someone who knows a lot about food, or if I'm eating a dish which has blown me away, I become obsessed with re-creating it at home. I’ve had that instinct since I was a kid. Also, bouncing ideas off other people. During this trip, I’ve been able to do that with Asterios [Koustoudis, head chef at Tudor Hall, part of King George, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Athens], Michele [Bacciu, head chef at Le Grand, part of Hotel Cala di Volpe, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Costa Smeralda] and ​​Alberto [Fol, head chef at Club del Doge Restaurant, part of The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Venice] – and that has really stimulated my creative juices.

Sam Holland concludes his gastronomic adventure with a simple truth: to make mistakes is human, but to learn from them is what makes a cook (Photo: Marriott International)

What I most admire about chefs is their willingness to make mistakes. Of course, you need to know which ingredients go with each other – like pumpkin and spices complement one another, as I’ve already mentioned – but one of the best pieces of advice I ever received was from my first head chef at an iconic Scottish hotel. He said to me that he's in the position that he's in because he's made more mistakes than the whole kitchen combined. 

You'll never know what new invention you've made until you try it!

Published: December 01, 2025

Last Updated: April 13, 2026