Career
Stephenson spent two years with Jamie Oliver"s Fifteen restaurant in Cornwall having set up their bar in 2005. Whilst there he was one of a team which harvested and roasted Arabica coffee beans, grown in the rainforest biome at the Eden Project to make the first cup of coffee made from beans grown in Britain. He became Brand ambassador for the Reserve Brands Group in 2007, and was on the training staff of The Connaught, The Dorchester and The Ritz London Hotel.
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Stephenson came 3rd in 2009"s United Kingdom Barista Championships having been trained by Origin Coffee of Constantine, Cornwall.
Stephenson co-founded Fluid Movement with Thomas Aske, Matt Whiley and Bryan Pieterson, a consultancy company for the drinks industry which pioneers molecular mixology. Stephenson opened his first cocktail bar Purl in Marylebone in 2010, the Worship Street Whistling Shop in Shoreditch in 2011, and in 2012, Dach & Sons in Hampstead Whistling Shop was awarded Time Out London’s best new bar in 2011 and for three consecutive years was in the World’s Fifty Best Bars.
He was awarded "CLASS Bartender of the Year" in 2011 and was referred to as one of "London"s best bartenders" in a 2013 Telegraph article. Stephenson was also included in the Evening Standard"s Top 1000 influential Londoners in 2012 in the category of "scenesters and drinkers".
He has also released the Curious Bartender series of drinks books
Stephenson is the owner of Surfside Cafe Polzeath Cornwall. Something for the Weekend
Good Food Channel"s Market Kitchen.