If you had to design the anti-Gordon Ramsay, Jason Atherton might well be it. He's so scrupulously polite and softly spoken and understated and, well, just so sensible. Could he really have worked for Ramsay for the best part of a decade? Been his protege? Opened his award-winning Maze restaurant in London for him (and six others scattered across the globe)? I'm expecting at least a little bit of a chip off the old block, a certain swagger of the hips, but to the naked eye at least, there's nothing. It's not as if he's unambitious – he's opening his first restaurant, Pollen Street Social, in March – but there are no plans as yet for world domination. He's not interested in becoming a TV superstar, and he didn't want to put his name above the door, he says, "because if we did open more than one restaurant, I wouldn't want to walk around London and see my name everywhere." 

And then there's the fact that in his new place, the one he's been planning and dreaming about for 22 years, he will be embracing the decidedly un-macho world of puddings: Pollen Street Social will have a "dessert bar". "It'll be what looks like a cocktail bar at the end of the dining room, and stood behind there will be the pastry team, but not in chef's jackets – they'll actually look like they're making cocktails. It's such a skilled art. The only part of the kitchen where everything has to be measured, it has to be weighed. If you put one too many olives in the tapenade, nobody is going to know. When you make a lemon tart, if it hasn't got the exact amount of eggs in it, it's not going to set. I really want to celebrate pastry."

It's a bold move, made more so because he's doing it in a recession. And funding it himself: 75% of the finance is coming directly from his savings. "I've put all of my money into it. There's not a penny left."

Did the recession at least give him pause for thought?

"Not really. There's never a right time to do anything. It's like having a baby. We're about to have our second child. You just get on with it. I had a great job working for Gordon and creating the Maze brand. But it always had Gordon's name above the door and although I enjoyed my 10 years there, when this chance came up, I thought, 'I'm 39, if I don't jump ship now, I'll never know.'"

It's quite a year he has ahead. The restaurant opening in March, the baby due in August, turning 40 in September. He's married to Irha, a Filipina he met in Dubai, and they had their first child six years ago. "It was when we opened Maze, so it's our lucky omen. We hope so anyway."

Because it is a huge gamble. He worked for a parade of three-star Michelin chefs, including Nico Landis and Marco Pierre White, before Ramsay. And, it's not about money, he says: "Salary-wise I'll never pay myself that again. Because, you know, I ran seven restaurants. It was a big job." 

But back to the puddings. What's with the beetroot sorbet? "I'm a big fan of using vegetables in desserts. Jerusalem artichoke makes a great ice cream. Or confit parsnip."

As a pudding?

"Yes. The trouble in Britain is that we're so conservative. And when you've lived and worked in Spain, they're so avant garde, and willing to try new things. Why not?"

His greatest influence is probably Ferran Adrià, the acclaimed chef of El Bulli, for whom he worked for a spell, and there are Spanish influences in Pollen Street Social – an emphasis on sharing, for one. It's "social" he says, because "it's really important to me that people understand this is not just a fine dining restaurant. It's your fine dining restaurant. You can come and just have a glass of wine, or a coffee, or sit at the bar."

The style of food is changing, too. He says there are no signature dishes yet, but he's been re-inventing old classics. "One of the dishes we're working on is an Escoffier rib of beef which we're trying to modernise, and you'll get a recipe card so you can cook it at home. But the idea is that the garnish is on the plate, and you share the meat."

The pressure on Atherton is not just commercial: he built up a formidable reputation while working for Ramsay and everyone wants to know how he'll fare by himself. Is there any competition between the Ramsay proteges? You and Marcus Wareing and Angela Hartnett?

"Yes, of course. But we're good friends. I go for dinner with Marcus, once, twice a month, and Angela once a month. We've gone through a lot of hard times. And they're great chefs."

I came across an interview Atherton did, for the financial pages of a newspaper, when he was in his mid-20s, in which he said: "I can't work the hours I do now past 40 so I want to accumulate as much as I can now."

He guffaws when I read it to him. "And here I am now! Forty in September, and still doing the same shit! It's changed though. When you're that age, 10 years seems such a long time, but it goes like that. And you know, you grow to love it, I really do love my job. At that age, it was more difficult. The long hours. I didn't see my friends. Then as you settle down, you realise it's your lifestyle – and I love it."

Pollen Street Social, London W1S 1NQ, opens at the end of March; jasonatherton.co.uk