His flagship restaurant Pollen Street Social gained a Michelin Star in 2011, its opening year,[2] and retained it until its closure in 2024.

[4] The son of a Skegness hotelier and her vulcaniser husband, Atherton ran away to London at the age of 16 while his parents were on holiday.

[6] In November 2007, Atherton and Gordon Ramsay oversaw the launch of Maze in the Hilton Prague Old Town.

"Should you hold a knife to my throat and force me to say which one of the chefs in the Gordon Ramsay group I thought was the best, my answer would be Jason Atherton.

His flagship restaurant has been awarded one Michelin star, Pollen Street Social, opened in April 2011 in Mayfair.

In 2015, Atherton opened his first stateside restaurant The Clocktower[22] within the New York EDITION hotel at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Building.

In June 2016, Atherton opened his first restaurant in Cebu, Philippines - The Pig and Palm is a 70-seater with a chefs table, tapas bar, main dining area and a lounge area, designed by architect Lyndon Neri of Neri and Hu, who also designed Atherton's other restaurants Pollen Street Social, Sosharu and Kensington Street Social.

He is a regular guest on "Saturday Kitchen" and in June 2008, Jason won the third hugely popular series of BBC2's "Great British Menu", cooking both the starter and main courses at the "Gherkin" building in London.

[27] Atherton has become a regular guest on BBC One's Saturday Kitchen, alongside host James Martin.

[28][29] In 2008, Atherton won the London and Southeast heat of the BBC Two programme Great British Menu – the judges were his old boss Oliver Peyton, alongside Prue Leith and Matthew Fort.

He eventually won the starter and main course section in a public vote, in a meal served at The Gherkin, hosted by Heston Blumenthal.