Face to face
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ith grandparents who, for a quarter of a century, ran a restaurant in Eyam outside Sheffield, an uncle who was a chef and a father who ran a fish business, it was perhaps inevitable that Simon Conboy would become involved with food. He started in the family kitchen aged 12, went to local catering college at age 17 and then worked in local restaurants. But the big city called and, aged 20, he moved to London to work as the Junior Sous Chef at Café Fish, before moving as Sous Chef to the popular Bleeding Heart Restaurant in the City where he ran the sauce section. A year later, he shifted to Scott’s, which was yet to be re-invented as part of the Caprice Group, again as Sous Chef. His first job as Head Chef came in 2003 at the Level 2 restaurant at the Tate Modern then, after a brief period at the private members’ club Home House, he moved to the Lanes Bar & Restaurant at the Four Seasons, Park Lane. He then worked as Senior Sous Chef at The Forge restaurant in Covent Garden, before he worked at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with 850 covers a day. His last job before the shift to Dubai was at Le Deuxiéme. He’s now eager to make his mark in the casual Rivington family of restaurants, keeping to its general style but revealing both his own style and passion for food. How different is the menu here to that served in Rivington Grill in Souk Al Bahar? Well, the core menu is pretty much the same with the same food such as classics like roast beef or mussels, but the main point of difference comes with the blackboard specials. Also, because of our position here, we serve more seafood plus, of course, the addition of the bar means we have more casual food on offer as well, such as crab cakes or fish goujons. The blackboards are a great testing ground for new dishes. Overall, we try not to overlap too much because, of course, we tend to have different clienteles. What direction do you want to take the menu in? Being near the water here, I’d love to have daily fish specials from the market but menu planning is critical. I want us to be seasonal from Europe and the southern hemisphere, but we have to evolve to be different from both Souk Al Bahar and the Rivington Grill in London. How we’ll do that is through a progression led by the chefs. We see what other outlets are doing, decide on the seasonal ingredients and, of course, use our experience. I want to try new ideas even if that’s just giving an old Rivington dish a twist. At the end of October we’ll have a regular BBQ out on the terrace so the feeling will be much more laid back. We’re not about delivering a high-end fine dining experience here, just good, honest food in a relaxed atmosphere. Does London have any influence on the menu? Many of the London dishes just don’t translate to this market - we don’t serve pork, for instance. They also can focus on game and duck eggs,
“I LIVED IN ITALY FOR A WHILE AND REMEMBER FINDING THIS SMALL HOTEL JUST OUTSIDE PISA, WITH A SMALL RESTAURANT FULL OF LOCALS. YOU KNOW THE FEELING - ‘THIS MUST BE A HIDDEN GEM’ - BUT IT WAS SOME OF THE WORST FOOD I’VE EVER TASTED!”
Preparing the grill.
Seafood gets a grilling.
Healthy salads are a must!
Grilled and ready for the plate.
37 36-38 Face to face - Conboy.indd 37
9/23/12 4:42 PM