CODE Quarterly | Issue 12 | Autumn 2017

Issue 12 Autumn 2017

Quarterly The eyes & ears of the hospitality industry Ruth Rogers | The ramen audit | Ella Canta | Celebrating front of house | Smoke & Salt

“Growth is never by mere chance, it is the result of working together.”

James Cash Penney

Growing a business is like nurturing a sapling.

It starts small — a thought, an idea. If you create a desirable and unique product and benefit from favourable conditions, your business tree will likely take root, grow and flourish.

CDG Leisure are London’s leading leisure agency, advising both tenants and landlords.

We deliver winning results for your business with integrity.

Join the journey.

3-5 Bateman St, Soho London W1D 4AG

T/ 020 7100 5520 W/ cdgleisure.com

Contents 5.

Staff briefing

7.

In season: shopping page

8.

CODE breaking: restaurant news

10.

The big interview: Ruth Rogers

16.

Restaurant design: Ella Canta

20.

Ross Shonhan’s ramen audit

24.

Head to head: does authenticity matter?

26.

What we’re eating this edition

28.

A two-part special on the future of service

34.

New opening: Smoke & Salt

38.

Who’s cooking the books this season

40.

In conversation with... Henry Harris

44.

24 hours in San Sebastian

46.

Travel: the Greek islands

49.

What’s trending on Instagram

50.

Staff meal: Caravan suggests supper

Publisher Adam Hyman Editor Lisa Markwell Creative Director Alexander Taralezhkov

The eyes & ears of the hospitality industry Contributors Chris Ammermann Heath Ball Callum Edge Chloë Hamilton Katie Hammond Laura Harper-Hinton Nicolas Jaouën Miles Kirby James Lewis Matt Paice Ross Shonhan Paulo de Tarso Emyr Thomas Cover: Slav Vitanov

Head office CODE Hospitality 6th Floor Greener House 66-68 Haymarket London SW1Y 4RF Tel: +44 207 104 2007 contact@codehospitality. co.uk @CODEhospitality @codehospitality CODE Quarterly (Online) ISSN 2398-9726

New offers on the app include:

DIRECTORY

XU, Soho Taiwanese cooking from the trio behind BAO Humble Grape, Islington Neighbourhood wine shop and bar Dickie’s Bar, Mayfair Late night cocktails at Corrigan’s Mayfair

For full list of participating restaurants and bars, see p51

Magpie, Soho Meals on wheels from the Pidgin duo -3-

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

THE CODE APP

Lorne, Victoria Modern British from Katie Exton and Peter Hall

Staff briefing What’s hot.

As we put together the final touches to this issue of the Quarterly, we were momentarily distracted at CODE HQ by a Twitter conversation about journalists and influencers disclosing on social media whether or not they were spending their own money at a restaurant. Most of us understand the need for new restaurants to invite journalists in to experience the food, not least because most publications these days simply do not have the budget to fund research.

However, along with the forthcoming advertising requirements, we’re starting to see people use hashtags such as #invite to make it clear via Instagram and other social media that they’ve been kindly invited in and haven’t had to hand over their credit card at the end of the meal. In a world where transparency seems to be ever more relevant, we support this new move in telling your followers that your meal was a freebie - then it’s up to the followers to form a view. #paid, of course, should indicate receiving a fee for attendance, but that is a little more ‘transactional’ than some may wish to admit. We’ll see.

Over the summer, we’ve welcomed Lisa Markwell to CODE as Editor across all of our platforms and I hope you’ll like the new direction we have taken with this magazine and the Bulletin. We are also working on some new ideas that I hope we’ll be able to tell you more about in the coming months.

Thank you for your support and as ever, questions and comments can be sent to me at: adam@codehospitality.co.uk

Sweet and sour 2.0 Beef-fat doughnuts at White Gold in NYC, capezzana olive oil ice cream at Quality Chop House

Pint, no pie Beer pairings are appearing at smart restaurants. Just make sure no wine before beer…

Further afield Food from Bahrain, Nigeria and the Himalayas is jetting into London

Posh pubs Dead Rabbit at Claridge’s, The Wigmore - boozers are scrubbing up well

What’s not.

Adam Hyman Founder, CODE Insta: @adammhyman

I’ve been a fan of restaurants since my parents drove me up to London for my 13th birthday to celebrate at new hotspot Joe Allen. The glamorous setting, the starry clientele and smart versions of a teenager’s favourite food started a life-long obsession. I’ve had the pleasure of being a restaurant reviewer and food writer, alongside other jobs, for years now and the thrill of opening a well-written menu and the first sip of something delicious never fades.

When Adam asked me to join CODE to bring some editorial expertise to the brand, I was delighted to accept. Not only do I have sincere admiration and respect for the hospitality industry, but I know that there are so many fascinating stories worth telling. You don’t need me to tell you that we are in challenging times, but there’s no shortage of creativity or tenacity.

Meanwhile, along with Adam and art director Alexander Taralezhkov, I have made a few changes to the Quarterly with this issue. I hope you like the evolution; I’d love to hear from you with comments and ideas on lisa@codehospitality.co.uk

Lisa Markwell Editor, CODE Insta: @holdsknifelikepen -5-

“Who’s having the…”

If you write down the order in the first place, it makes it far easier for everyone

Instaplates Ceramics shaped to not only make a backdrop for a food pic but to secure your phone.

It’s a no from us

Hand job When the liquid soap is not labelled and you get the hand lotion instead

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

This is demonstrated in this issue of the Quarterly - from restaurant veterans Ruthie Rogers and Henry Harris sharing their wisdom to newcomers Aaron Webster and Remi Williams on how to make a start-up a reality, and a look at tomorrow’s stars of the Gold Service Scholarship. I believe that if there ever were lines between what’s ‘industry’ and what’s ‘interesting’, they deserve to be rubbed out. So you’ll find chef-related book reviews, tempting shopping ideas and guides to food-focused holiday destinations to pique your interest.

In a spin There’s a time and a place for the DJ’s decks - it isn’t in every restaurant

A SINGLE-SOURCE TASTE

EXPLOSION “Not only a top ethical choice but an out of the world taste explosion” Sareta Puri “ManiLife is hands down my favourite peanut butter ever, completely different to every other nut butter out there.”

Fiona Robertson, PROPERCORN You've never tasted peanut butter like this.. 10/10.”

Jackie Meldrum, Tinned Tomatoes

@sashacitrus

Don’t just take our word for it.

Take everyone else’s.

Ask us for a sample: stuart@mani-life.com

In season September’s harvest doesn’t just bring fresh edible produce, there are some beautiful new designs and ideas too. So go shop...

Sweet on sour

The right vinegar can elevate any dish, so we can be forgiven for collecting bottles. Long-time food and travel expert Andy Harris’s Vinegar Shed website is dangerously addictive; we’re very tempted by the ‘mother’ and pot to create our own too; visit vinegarshed.com

Spot check

The Polka Pants brand has plenty of fans for its chic, comfortable chefs’s trousers – although aimed at women, we hear some men own them.

Even better, now you can customise your strides too, from length to fabric; these wild ones are Gizzi Erskine’s choice. Prices start at £60; visit polkapants.com

Flavour of the month

Enlightened chefs have been working with goat for years now, and the word is spreading to consumers (it works well with spicy rubs, like the one above). Spearheaded by the big billy of goatmeat, Cabrito’s James Whetlor, this year’s Goatober initiative will have chef-led events in London, Bristol, Manchester, Somerset and Northern Ireland. For more details visit cabrito.co.uk/events

Can you handle it?

Flame on

At the Meatopia event in London, CODE watched chefs working with these dramatic wide-brimmed firepits and was intrigued.

The OFYR outdoor cooking device is from the Netherlands and although it’s a punchy £1,695, there’s room on that brim for 50 pieces of meat/fish/whatever.

More details from ofyr.co.uk

Seal the deal

Form and function excellence makes Crane Cookware so desirable. We are certainly drawn to this new double-hob cast-iron ‘Herringbone’ griddle pan by French designer Inga Sempé. The trade price is £60, for more information email info@cranecookware.com

-7-

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

We could fill an entire CODE Quarterly with knives to buy, but let’s cut to the chase, there’s nothing like working with a professional to create your own. Chef Henry Harris (see p40) recently visited Joel Black and the resulting steak knives looked amazing. Black does courses too...

Visit joelblackknives.com

CODE breaking In addition to our weekly email Bulletin, here we round up this quarter’s biggest news in the global restaurant scene. By Chloë Hamilton

London

Duddell’s

Earlier this year news broke that the Taipei-born Din Tai Fung would be bringing their hugely popular xiaolongbao to London but then everything went mysteriously quiet.

Fortunately dim-sum-hungry Londoners will be appeased with Duddell’s, a Michelin-starred Hong Kong import, opening its first overseas restaurant in London Bridge in November, with Daren Liew (ex-Hakkasan) at the helm.

It joins another Hong Kong import, Serge et Le Phoque, which has just opened in The Mandrake hotel in Fitzrovia.

ByChloe.

Hip US vegan powerhouse, ByChloe. has announced that their first overseas site will be in Covent Garden with matcha kelp noodles, guac burgers and long queues on the menu. Meanwhile in Shoreditch, celebrity LA chef Matthew Kenney has just opened his purely plant-based venture Essence Cuisine, which is #meatfree #dairyfree #glutenfree and #refinedsugarfree. With KERB’s recent Livin’ on the Veg festival a debut sell-out, it’s safe to say veganism has well and truly taken root.

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Wool Yard

Pop Brixton creator Carl Turner has submitted plans to develop another recycled shipping-container scheme, this time on a brownfield car park site in Woolwich. The Wool Yard project (catchier than Pop Woolwich) hopes to bring a hub of creative activity to a disused site, with approximately 40 per cent of the space allocated to small scale F&B operators and the remaining 60 per cent to be used as studios and co-working spaces.

Richard Caring

Richard Caring is continuing to grow his dining empire across London. The owner of Caprice Holdings is understood to have acquired the former La Tasca site on James Street in Marylebone, as well as the former Café Rouge site in Knightsbridge. The restaurant group is also set to take over the former Grain Store site in King’s Cross.

The eyes and ears of the industry -8-

The team behind Glasgow’s celebrated Ox and Finch restaurant have announced they’ll be opening their first Edinburgh site, BABA, at 130 George Street in October.

The food is inspired by the eastern Mediterranean and will feature mezze plates and a charcoal grill, whilst ingredients are sourced closer to home with haggis and Scottish lamb appearing on the menu. David Barnett, most recently of The Torridon will be joining the team as Head Chef.

Filmore and Union

Leeds-based restaurant group Filmore and Union has been backed by the British Growth Fund to the tune of £3.5m. The investment follows a crowdfunding campaign of almost £1m in 2015 and signals accelerated expansion for the health-conscious group.

Founded by Adele Ashley in 2012, the free-from specialists currently operate a portfolio of 14 delis and restaurants across Yorkshire and Newcastle.

The Zetter Group

The US operator Eataly, with markets in New York, Boston and Dubai, is set to open its food ‘theme park’ in Bologna, Italy in November. It has been in development for some years and has cost $106m to bring to fruition.

The 20-acre site will showcase farming, food production and cookery with experts in artisan production on hand to explain the ethos to visitors. Entry is free to FICO and there will be a staggering 40 restaurants spread over the park.

Uovo

London is not the only city experiencing a rekindling of its love for pasta. In LA, new restaurant Uovo is intended to give diners a truly authentic version of the Italian classic, with special bright-yolk egg pasta made in Italy and flown over. The operator behind Uovo is Lele Massimini, who previously created Sugarfish – the mid-range, high-quality sushi restaurants that have a huge following in LA and NYC.

D&D

D&D is to grow its presence in New York after announcing it is to open two new restaurants in Manhattan. The group, run by Des Gunewardena and Davide Loewi, already operate Gustavino’s on 59th. As well as opening a Bluebird Cafe in the Times Warner Building by Central Park, D&D will be opening an 11,000 sq ft restaurant in the Hudsons Yard development next year. Yet more London restaurants are conquering the Big Apple.

HOME

Marea

Chef Elizabeth Cottram made her name as a semifinalist of Masterchef in 2016 and has joined forces with Mark Owens, former Head Chef of The Box Tree, to open HOME. The relaxed fine-dining restaurant on Leeds’ Kirkgate (most recently home to Darbar) has 65-covers and offers both a standard and vegetarian 10-course tasting menu with a focus on local and seasonal ingredients.

There’s no shortage of big names opening in Shanghai, but even there, the news of an early-2018 arrival of New York superchef-restaurateur Michael White is causing excitement. Marea (Italian for Tide) is smart Italian – for which read two-Michelin-starred - in a cosy setting in the US; it will be interesting to see how it translates on arrival in the city’s Plaza 66 mall.

-9-

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

The Zetter Group has been confirmed as the anchor hotel operator in Manchester’s London Road Fire Station development. The fabled Grade II-listed site formerly housed an ambulance station, a bank, a coroner’s court and a laundry but has lain vacant since 2001. This will be The Zetter Group’s first move outside of London and will be accompanied by a number of other hospitality and leisure operations, yet to be confirmed by developers Allied London.

FICO Eataly World

Rest of the world

Rest of the UK

BABA

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Jean Pigozzi

Ruth

Rogers

-10-

Forever in whites There are few people in the restaurant world as revered as Ruth Rogers – both by those in the industry and the clientele who flock to The River Café. On the occasion of its 30th birthday, Rogers talks to Lisa Markwell about pasta, gender equality …and why she still goes into the kitchen every day

2017 has been a year of anniversaries for restaurants but perhaps the most significant is that of the River Café, celebrating 30 years in business.

Much has been written over the years about the surprising combination of its unprepossessing location and its celebrity clientele, but at its heart, the reason for the River Café’s staying power is its leadership.

The restaurant was established in 1987 by Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, in the same year that saw some other notable openings: Simon Hopkinson at Bibendum, Rowley Leigh at Kensington Place and Marco Pierre White at Harvey’s. All of those restaurants, of course, have changed entirely. But the River Café has not.

The erstwhile ‘canteen’ for Ruth’s husband Richard and the team at his architectural practice

And, she adds, coming to a beautiful setting to work with great people helps.

It’s certainly true that in an age of roll-outs and diffusion spin-offs, the River Café is highly unusual to remain in just one location. “At one time,” Rogers muses, “we talked about a pizzeria in Thames Wharf but it didn’t happen”. There was talk of a second branch in Mayfair recently, but that didn’t happen either, for different reasons.

Rogers sighs. “Hmmm. Well, with the last one, we were very keen but Grosvenor Estates lost their nerve, I’m afraid.” One can imagine disappointed sighs around Mayfair when that news broke. At a recent Financial Times event, Rogers said there would be no second River Café but during our conversation she

“It’s exciting that there is a global enthusiasm for food; London now is like New York was a few years ago” in Hammersmith offered elegant, authentic Italian cuisine – good ingredients and a strong tradition, as they put it. It became open to the public and the rest is well-rehearsed history. Marvellously, Fay Maschler, the food critic for the Evening Standard, wrote a review saying, “I am going to tell you about a restaurant run by two women with no professional experience, miles from anywhere, that you are not allowed to go to.”

Of course, London’s restaurant scene has changed immeasurably since then. So what is the secret of the River Café’s eternal youth? “For us it’s all about the people I work with,” says Rogers (known to all as Ruthie). “Having one restaurant has been both a challenge – most people by 30 have 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 – but also a pleasure, it means being able to keep the quality up all the time.”

did give glimpses of hope. “At the moment, I’m not looking for a site… but if there is a beautiful site, I’ll look at it. It’s all about the exact place and location. To be honest, it would have to be a beautiful, sustainable restaurant – and in Mayfair!”

Does she agree with some who say that right now London is a better restaurant city than, say, New York or Paris? “I don’t know that one is taking over from another. It’s exciting there is a global enthusiasm for food; London now is like NY was a few years ago. But it’s not about placing one city above another.”

She maintains, though, that it’s important to see what is happening in other cities. “Look at Copenhagen and what they’ve done for foraging; I went to Noma last April for the day and had an incredible lunch. Rose and I went to Norway years ago in

-11-

search of salt cod and had fantastic food then – I’ve never ventured out to those places that are really hard to reach, though,” she says. Fäviken will have to wait; although Rogers has recently returned from an extensive tour of Japan.

She makes a good point about travel. “I find that in cities the culture of food is more important than just the restaurants; people on the coast will tell you where to catch fish; in New York it’s where to get the best bagels.”

Pasta is having a bit of a moment on the London restaurant scene – Rogers admits to not having visited cult-favourite Padella, but notes that Jordan Frieda (Trullo and Padella’s co-founder) trained at the River Café, as did Stevie Parle, who is poised to add pasta bar Pastaio to his stable this autumn. Of course, pasta has always been on the menu – still written daily – in Hammersmith.

The River Café was possibly London’s first restaurant to combine informality with very high-end food; now there seems to be a real movement towards this (think Elystan Street and Core by Clare Smyth).

Why does Rogers think that works?

“Let me answer that question with a question. Why dress up and be scared of the wine waiter or have a great time and not eat well? Why shouldn’t it be possible to have both?”

Well quite.

I hesitate to ask another question now. But, how does Rogers think restaurant-goers have changed over the years in what they want? “As people travel more, we become less of an island mentality. Being part of Europe, travelling to Spain, Italy, France. And the diner understands more… they understand the brilliance of pasta pomodoro, and there’s not so much ‘I’m not spending £3.50 for stale bread and tomatoes’ any more,” she laughs. A customer had famously grumbled about Pappa Pomodoro in the early days.

For everyone, not just the restaurant itself, Rogers says, “links have gotten stronger and stronger with Italy, the wine, the olive oil,

the people who supply mozzarella.

In terms of the food world itself, it’s become so much more multicultural.”

She’s referring to hospitality staff as well as produce. It’s a broadening that she supports. “But,” she adds, “there’s also a big gender change.

More women have learnt to cook professionally – now there are so many great women chefs.”

Rogers speaks with warmth and authority about her own business

who want to learn and know more, and who know that they don’t know it all yet,” she says firmly.

“I’ll ask them what they like to cook at home, which cookbooks they use and love, which chefs they follow on social media - to see how interested they really are in food.

To work in a restaurant,” Rogers explains, “it’s not just about cooking, or service – you need so many talents.

You have to be able to teach others,

needs to promote itself better.

“There are fewer people going into the trade, that’s correct. It’s up to the professional to prove that it’s a good place to work… And I think restaurants are now learning that they have to treat people professionally – no more of these stories about having to arrive at 5am and working seven days a week. At the River Café, we make sure there are no more than three shifts in a row for staff and we

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

“Unless I’m with family and friends, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be” and the wider industry, as one would expect. But having run the River Café in partnership with Rose Gray, it must have been a huge adjustment to continue after Gray’s death in 2010.

Rogers continues with the admirable guidelines the pair established all those years ago, notably an equal gender split. “Of course, we started the River Café as two women and that dynamic has just stayed with us,” she says firmly. “And everyone does the same work, and gets paid the same.”

The alumni of the River Café are numerous and noteworthy (see family tree p14). One can understand why the restaurant has no difficulty finding staff, but what does Rogers look for in an applicant? “I suppose the number one criteria is curiosity, I need people

be ready to be criticised, in fact, always to be ready for whatever the day brings and to be very flexible too.”

Current head chefs Sian Wyn Owen and Joseph Trivelli are certainly central to the ongoing energy of the River Café and both are credited as major contributors to the forthcoming book about the restaurant (of which more later).

What about the much-discussed shortage of trained staff for the industry? Rogers thinks for a moment.

“I don’t know if that’s true; it’s just that there are so many restaurants opening! It means everybody is competing to hire the best staff.”

“But,” she acknowledges something that other chefs and restaurateurs also say: the industry -12-

are really careful about that.”

“But training? For me, it doesn’t matter if you left school at 16 or did a degree in classics or are a qualified doctor – as we once had – it’s about being the right person for us. The doctor was a career changer; she had gone back to learn how to be a chef and then worked with us.”

For many people, their first interaction with the River Café will have been with their cookbooks.

(In fact, for many it will have been their only interaction, due to the difficulty in securing a table there, or affording the sturdy prices…) The ‘blue book’, published in 1995, was a paean to the most rustic yet elegant dishes of Italian cuisine. But more than that, it imbued the spirit of the restaurant, with candid

Jean Pigozzi Matthew Donaldson

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Clockwise: Ruthie with head chefs Sian Wyn Owen and Joseph Trevelli; fish; gnocchi

-13-

A river runs through it Sam & Sam Clark Moro Morito

April Bloomfield The Spotted Pig The Breslin Tosca Café

Ed Baines

Randall & Aubin

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall River Cottage

Theo Randall

Ruth Rogers & Rose Gray The River Café

Theo Randall at the InterContinental

Jordan Freida Trullo Padella

Jamie Oliver

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Fifteen Barbecoa

Tomos Parry

formerly Kitty Fisher’s

Sam Harris

Zucca (now closed)

Stevie Parle Dock Kitchen Craft Palatino

-14-

changed enormously.

So there will be familiar dishes, just evolved a little? “Yes, and how we have evolved too. And we took the photographs with Matthew Donaldson, who is not a usual food photographer. We started re-shooting them inside the dining room at the

you, but with a wonderful sauce…

I do not approve of the tyranny of being told what you can and can’t eat.” She finishes emphatically: “It’s simple really, just don’t eat junk or have sugary drinks.”

You might expect after 30 years of relentless work that Rogers would

kitchen. We had started writing the recipes down, things we cooked every day and then [legendary literary agent] Ed Victor said “you need to do a book”.

And now Rogers has a new book, River Café 30. Published next month, it is both her love letter to the restaurant and, most poignantly, Rose Gray, as much as it is cookbook.

“It’s our story,” Rogers confirms. “I wanted to talk about what it was like to be Rose’s partner.”

After a pause, she continues.

“There are many books out there. So it was important to make it different.

Wonderfully, Johnny Pigozzi came back [he had shot pictures for the original book] and did new black and white documentary-style photographs – it’s like a day in the life of the River Cafe.” And as you would expect from a restaurant with such a stellar clientele, there are contributions from Ed Ruscha, Peter Doig and Damien Hirst.

“Then,” Rogers says, returning briskly to the food, “I took 90 recipes from the original blue book and looked at them again. There are ones we thought had changed, because it’s easier to get certain ingredients now, or maybe we have learnt to use a bit less garlic, or more fresh tomatoes, or different herbs that are now accessible.” As she said earlier, our knowledge of food has

River Cafe. Then one day it was sunny and so we took some outside… but they didn’t match the others so we had to re-do lots – basically if it was sunny, that was a shoot day!”

The image of the restaurant’s staff, rushing to cook a dish and place it on one of the famous terrace tables, is vivid. Rogers has no truck with fancily styled food photography.

“What I believe is that you should be able to look at the picture and then you can make that dish, there is nothing artificial. You can make it and put it on the table looking the same.”

Those intimately familiar with the original recipes will be pleased to hear that Rogers and team have also included 30 that have never been published. And does she ever look at other cookbooks? “I do look at new books and there are some really good ones, I’m not going to single one out!” she laughs. “However I do always go back to the classic Marcella, or Richard Olney, Alice Walters, Simon Hopkinson…”

Rogers is not a fan of clean eating, or indeed the backlash. “Well, I don’t know, I never bought into the spiralised thing! At the River Café we have always served pasta. In Italy, from the south to the north there are people looking trim and they’re all having pasta. I acknowledge that white flour and egg is not great for

be forgiven for taking her foot off the accelerator and letting Wyn Owen, general manager Charles Pullan and team run the restaurant. But the woman who once told the Evening Standard that she’d “die at my stove” shows no signs of slowing down.

“I’m in the River Café if I’m in London - it’s important to be there every day. And if I’m not in the kitchen, I’m upstairs working on projects. I try to do as many shifts as I can in the restaurant and I write the menu every day. It’s all about teamwork, of course.

“Unless I’m with family and friends, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Every day when I’m driving to the restaurant I think to myself “How lucky am I?”

-15-

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

black-and-white photography and spirited, informative text.

Did they know it would become a classic? “I know that Rose and I were seven or eight years into the restaurant before we did our first cookbook and funnily enough it started as a manual for chefs in our

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Martha Ortiz of Ella Canta & Simon Rawlings of David Collins Studio

-16-

She sings, we listen A very different kind of Mexican restaurant arrives in London this autumn, courtesy of star chef Martha Ortiz and a David Collins studio. Adam Hyman gets the inside track

I’m rather envious of the address of Ella Canta, the new restaurant by celebrity Mexican chef Martha Ortiz. Located at No.1 Park Lane, the Mexican dining room is located in the InterContinental hotel that overlooks Hyde Park Corner. Despite Theo Randall’s excellent pasta at his eponymous restaurant in this hotel, I can’t say that this is a hotel I often frequent. It hasn’t got the charm of Claridge’s or the aesthetics of the Rosewood.

Ella Canta – translating into ‘she sings’ – has by far the better setting compared to Randall’s Italian, with floor to ceiling windows that give diners views of the crossroad that brings Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Piccadilly as one. Large circular lenses of textured glass, inspired by

the work of Mexican artists Feliciano Bejar, distort the flashes of red from the passing Thomas Heatherwickdesigned Routemasters following their designated routes around the capital.

Ortiz’s restaurant in Mexico City, Dulce Patria, features in the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants and she’s famed for her use of colours in her cooking, which she says is how she portrays her femininity – being a successful chef, especially in a Catholic country full of macho male chefs, is something she feels very passionately about.

London has had a flurry of decent Mexican restaurants open over the past year, including Breddos, El Pastór and Santo Remedio. However, Ortiz, 47, is the first to have a restaurant in Mexico and then open in London.

It’s also the first time in a while that David Collins Studio has designed a restaurant in London. The studio, famed for the interiors of The Wolseley and the Connaught bar, has worked closely with Ortiz on the project; it was overseen by the studio’s creative director, Simon Rawlings.

On the day I visit, Rawlings is dressed in a crisp, khaki suit with a pair of designer sneakers, overseeing a photo shoot. He welcomes me in through the restaurant’s own entrance off the street (something all hotel restaurants should have).

One of the first things to catch your eye in the reception area is the start of a 45-metre walnut wood carving that runs the length of the restaurant – inspired by Mexican furniture designer, Eugenio Escadero. Even to

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Textured glass at Ella Canta

-17-

-18-

Clockwise: Textured glass detail; interior element inspired by architect Ricardo Legorreta; hand-crafted eggshell, ivory and black lacquer table-tops

Oaxaca – looking at the crockery that has been set on the table, dismissing some cut-glass water tumblers as they’re too formal. Tablecloths will not be a feature at Ella Canta as every single table-top in the restaurant has been finished in hand-crafted eggshell, ivory and black lacquer that is trimmed with walnut – a nod to the Mexican pottery by Gustavo Perez.

Although chef Ortiz has to share a communal kitchen with other parts of the hotel, the décor of her restaurant is far more distinct than the other parts of the hotel. She has worked very closely with David Collins Studio blending tradition with modernity, and using mid-century references in the design and furniture. The strong shapes, soft colours and clean lines in the restaurant have been influenced by the architecture of Ricardo Legorreta.

-19-

Ella Canta is opening at a time in London when our restaurant scene is flourishing and Mexican cuisine is gaining more prominence – Londoners have moved on from TexMex. At the time of writing, I have yet to dine at Ella Canta, so I cannot comment on whether Ortiz’s food sings. However, its interiors certainly do.

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

my novice eye, it’s clear that a lot of money has been spent to make the former site of the Cookbook Café look like this. Handmade Mexican ‘amate’ wallpaper lines the walls behind custom lighting that bask the space in a warm, soft glow – the sort of light one can imagine at dusk in Mexico.

I notice that Ortiz has arrived and is inspecting her restaurant.

She’s dressed in a pair of fitted black trousers and a crisp, white shirt with a large collar and flowing cuffs – I cannot decide whether this is her take on a chef ’s jacket – and a chunky pair of high-heeled boots. Her hair is tied up and she’s wearing a fierce shade of red lipstick. She walks through the different sections of the dining room – that go from blush pink, sunbleached red, blue and tan, inspired by the architecture and landscapes of

The ramen audit Between 2012 and 2017 the UK ramen scene has changed beyond all recognition. Everyone wrote back then about the ‘revolution’ – which really was going from no choice of ramen to getting a small choice – but in reality it’s been a five-year evolution. One of the main players, Bone Daddies’ founder Ross Shonhan looks back, forward and sideways (to Japan)

I began to look for a site by knocking on doors around Soho at places that looked tired and quiet, asking if I could buy their restaurant. It’s the only way I knew how: without demonstrable financial backing, property agents wouldn’t show me a thing.

But I had the confidence to open a ramen bar in London because I couldn’t find ramen here that I liked.

And I knew that, when made well, it’s fucking delicious. I wanted to do my take on Japanese ramen and contemporary culture, but through a London lens. Eventually I found a site and a backer and we opened in 2012.

Then came the ramen revolution.

Despite its reputation as a cheap, fast-food, the ramen story is as rich as the dish itself. Whilst its origins are uncertain, it most likely arrived in Japan in the nineteenth century with Chinese migrants hawking simple bowls of noodles, pork broth and toppings to local construction workers. Then after the war, inexpensive American flour provided a hungry population with the ability to make this simple, hearty food, and the invention of dried instant noodles shortly after allowed anyone to cook ramen just by adding water.

The workforce turned to ramen for fuel. It’s easy to see why: it’s warming and comforting; a full

area having its own style and using local ingredients to best effect.

For instance, Tokyo ramen uses a light, chicken-based broth and curly noodles, whereas Sapporo ramen is usually rich and miso-based, sometimes topped with a knob of butter. Hakata ramen, on the other hand, is known for its milk-hued tonkotsu pork broth. And then there are many types of noodle: flat, round, fat, thin; all varying in koshi (texture) and shape. Seasoning is divided into shoyu (soy sauce), shio (salt) and miso, and toppings vary hugely. It’s kind of limitless.

Soon after we opened, four other ramen restaurants launched within

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

“It’s warming and comforting; it satisfies food cravings, but also has nutritional properties. It’s real food” You can’t talk about ramen in the UK without mentioning Alan Yau. Anyone who knows anything about Yau will appreciate that he doesn’t do things by halves. When he opened the first Wagamama site 25 years ago, he used to do what we do: the kitchen would boil a heap of bones to make the broth for the next day; they used quality ingredients. Yau was undoubtedly a trailblazer. But he left and what they do now definitely isn’t ramen and it shouldn’t be called that.

I won’t pretend that it’s not shit.

Back when we started Bone Daddies, there were a few small, family-run bars around town, mostly serving ‘kit’ ramen, which is less about cooking than assembly: they’ll buy in everything readymade, boil some water and put it all in a bowl.

Although it tastes like the cheap ramen you get in Japan, it’s full of MSG and other chemicals. Like any food around the world, you can get a good version or a rubbish version – these aren’t great.

meal in a bowl. It’s got the elixir of your mum’s chicken soup. It satisfies comfort food cravings, but also has nutritional properties. It’s real food.

By the eighties, ramen became a craft food, but not like Japanese kaiseki cuisine bound by tradition or, closer to home, something like boeuf bourguignon, where the ingredients and processes can’t really change. It’s a dish that’s only been around for some hundred-odd years, so experimentation is encouraged.

There are no rules: ramen chefs are the punks of Japanese cuisine. The only condition is that ramen must be balanced and delicious.

In a broad sense, a ramen bowl has four constituents: noodles, broth, tare (seasoning) and toppings. There are something like 26 nationally accepted forms of ramen and more than 34,000 ramen bars in Japan, however interpretation has made this categorisation less obvious. People typically talk about ramen in terms of the region it represents, with each -20-

six months and Soho became the epicentre of the boom. But this was just the tip of the iceberg: whilst London quickly came to love tonkotsu ramen, there were a lot more styles out there waiting to be sipped and slurped.

We offered more than one soup when we launched, as I knew that not everyone in London eats pork or chicken – I didn’t want to alienate our customers. We had three, sometimes four stocks on at a time. We also developed a ramen specifically for vegetarians: we use a mushroombased stock that’s so ‘meaty’ it’s hard to tell it’s only made from vegetables.

It was a challenge, but it paid off. We were the only UK restaurant singledout by the Ramen Museum of Japan in their audit of Europe.

Now there’s decent ramen all over the city, not just in Soho. No two ramen bars are alike: you can get a variety of noodles and broths, from Kanada-Ya to Nanban, and Shoryu to Tonkotsu – and they’re

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Tonkotsu ramen at Bone Daddies

-21-

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Ross Shonhan, founder Bone Daddies

-22-

just the big names. You could have a different bowl for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a month. This gives Londoners the opportunity to find their favourites: to go here for Tokyostyle ramen and there for tsukemen (a dipping noodle), which is exactly how it is in Japan. My advice is to taste as many bowls as you can before you make up your mind about where to go for each style.

We’ve got five Bone Daddies and two other sites: Flesh & Buns, London’s first dedicated bao restaurant, and Shackfuyu, serving Western-style Japanese dishes. When we started them, there were few reference points – a lot of people thought Japanese food was just about raw fish and rice – so we did it our own way. Our concept was almost so far ahead of curve that it didn’t work, but recent trends (bao, tacos, and the like) have helped better educate our audience.

But even in Japan there’s been a revolution. Only in the last ten years have the different ramen styles travelled to other regions. It’s like the spread of Tex-Mex or BBQ from the Deep South to American states further north. The world is getting smaller, particularly with social media, and it’s a natural human condition to want what others are having.

Ramen has also seen the influence of yoshoku (foreign food).

Something like green curry ramen served at Tokyo’s Bassanova might sound like a total bastardisation, but there is a logical journey behind the dish – curry, after all, arrived in Japan via the British and became quintessentially Japanese in its soft, fruity form. So it’s not difficult to see why the likes of kimchi, Mexican, and ‘lady’ ramen – a more delicate, tomato-based broth, aimed (controversially) at women – have taken off.

To say that something is ‘not ramen’ is wrong: it’s not about authenticity; it’s about evolution.

Whilst I think a chef has to understand quite a bit about the history of ramen to evolve the dish, if their story makes sense, I don’t see a problem. Telling your story – that’s the spirit of any restaurant, really. If you’re not pushing forwards, you can only be going back.

As told to Callum Edge

ラ

ーメン

-23-

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

“Something like green curry ramen served at Tokyo’s Bassanova might sound like a total bastardisation, but there is a logical journey behind the dish”

Head to head In a new regular series, we ask two industry figures to face off on something exercising the food world. The first subject is authenticity: is being true to tradition an admirable position, or is it stifling creativity?

“THE PURSUIT OF AUTHENTICITY IS THE SCOURGE OF MODERN FOOD THINKING”

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Matt Paice, owner, Killer Tomato

Earlier this year, foodie neurotics shrieked in outrage when Nigella wrote a recipe for carbonara sauce that included cream. Two years ago, an Italian TV chef provoked national outrage when he suggested that amatriciana would be nice with garlic.

Meanwhile, when Infatuation featured the Vietnamese pork tacos at Killer Tomato, garnished with a sliver of cucumber, on Instagram, their mentions filled up with Spanish speakers clutching their pearls: “cucumber on a taco?!” Spend a few minutes following the #taco hashtag and you’ll find scandalised Mexicans holding forth about permitted toppings for fish tacos from New York to LA. This sweaty small-mindedness is consistently indulged. I can’t stand it.

Authenticity is not to be embraced but to be shunned, and the reasons for that are ingredients, price and location.

Take ingredients first. Cacio e pepe is the archetype of Roman peasant cooking but at London’s Palatino it is made with Tellecherry black pepper imported from India.

Why not gentrify a dish if you can improve it? Especially if you’re sipping a £50 Liberty Wines Chianti in a Zalto glass, rather than glugging a tankard of cold, fizzy red alla spina in Trastevere (PSA: amazing hangover cure). Why not use rare-breed pork in your carnitas if it makes taste better than battery pig does? Being tied to authenticity can mean being tied to crappy ingredients.

How can you separate authenticity from price? A taco is a humble snack for the working stiff; why would it be more authentic for me to charge silly money by importing cactus – a veggie taco staple – at great expense when it is no more thrilling than a green bean? Should our green salsa be based on fresh tomatillos, cheap as onions in Oaxaca but £15 a kilo over here, if I’d then have to start chiselling customers for £2 refills?

This would be a kind of Range Rover River Café authenticity, the leathertrim equivalent in hand-thrown crockery and £30-a-bottle olive oil.

And then location. Your Chef ’s Table box-set addict would be first in line to say that a restaurant’s food should have the soul of its locality.

But how could I possibly seek to recreate the joy of the tacos de ojo (eye-socket meat) I ate in Mexico City, grabbed at 2am en route between a mezcaleria and a rave in a multistorey car park, served up by three old geezers crammed into a hole in the wall? The minute you try and transport that experience to a table-service restaurant in London, you have already destroyed the sense of place. If I wanted to run a truly authentic taco restaurant I’d be operating under a tarpaulin below the Westway on the Harrow Road.

I concede that the rejection of authenticity can take you to some weird places. Taco Bell routinely creates Frankenfoods like the quesarito – it’s a burrito combined with a quesadilla! – and I can hardly

-24-

defend Pizza Hut’s hot-dog-crust pizza, 30 tiny sausages encased in dough pointing up at you like just so many … well, you can imagine.

But the dangers of slavish adherence to authenticity are greater, as demonstrated by French cuisine, preserved in aspic; a country where ‘sauce curry’ and panna cotta are seen as surfing the zeitgeist. Whereas here in London we’ve got everything from tuna sashimi pizza at Freakscene to Sichuan crème brûlée at Laughing Heart. Authenticity belongs in the history books.

“AUTHENTICITY IS THINGS TASTING LIKE THEY’RE MEANT TO TASTE” Paulo de Tarso and Nicolas Jaouën, co-founders, Margot

Paulo: Authenticity for me is how something was properly made in the beginning; it’s ingredients speaking for themselves, things tasting like they’re meant to taste. Lasagne was invented in one way and there’s a recipe for lasagne, just like there’s a recipe for tiramisu. A croissant is made with butter and if you don’t make it with butter, it doesn’t taste the same. It’s not meant to be made with anything else.

Nick: First and foremost at Margot, our food needs to taste good. We get tomatoes and lots of vegetables from Italy but we actually source as much as possible from the UK. Most of our fish comes from Cornwall, girolles come from Scotland, rhubarb comes from here as do Jersey Royals and

-25-

what you know you like. I’m a creature of habit. To be honest, I’ve probably been to to Barrafina and Hereford Road 200 times.

For me these new culinary mashups won’t last. They’re quick hits that will make money for four years, people will try it and then move on to the next thing. Authenticity will always win – it’s something that takes a long time to build up, to get the customer coming in, trying it and coming back. But once it’s there it will stay for 30, 40, 50 years. The idea with Margot is that we’ve created something that outlives us. We want Margot to be here the day we go.

P: We’re not doing anything crazy.

We have an amazing chef cooking good, simple food that people want. Why reinvent the wheel?

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

asparagus of course. But there are some things we cannot do without Italian produce, simply because of the sun.

P: For example, we have a pumpkin and sage ravioli (my favourite dish as a boy) on the menu. It’s a traditional dish from Modena and the pumpkin we use comes from Italy. If the pumpkin came from the UK it wouldn’t be authentic because it’s just not the same and you can taste it. Taste is the most important thing.

N: That said, Italian food doesn’t need to use hugely expensive ingredients to be authentic.

P: Yes, you don’t need to buy a bottle of olive oil for £25. Italian food, let’s be realistic here, is very simple and there are plenty of great neighbourhood Italian restaurants that turn out great food without breaking the bank.

Though authenticity is key to what we do, it’s natural for chefs and restaurateurs to strive for something new and fun.

Michelin-starred chefs in particular get bored of creating the same things and that’s when these mash-ups come up along.

We spent lots of time with Alex Atala doing Taste of London and he’s working on some incredible things, I would love to do some Brazilian-Italian mash-ups with him.

Sushisamba is another great example - and even someone like Alain Ducasse creates food that reflects his roots near the FrenchItalian border.

N: But things like sushi burritos are crazy. It’s one thing not caring about authenticity but does it taste good? That’s the interesting question – will people go back and buy it again? Londoners like to try new things so you’ll go try the newest thing once but you’ll always come back to

-26-

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Publisher Adam Hyman and Editor Lisa Markwell make it their business to sample the world’s restaurants with regularity. This edition of CODE Quarterly was fuelled by‌

-27-

Why are we waiting?

People return to restaurants at least as much for good service as for good food. Overleaf, we introduce this year’s Gold Service Scholarship while here James Lewis of Gauthier eplains why front (of house) is central It’s easy to overlook service, or take it for granted as an obvious part of the restaurant offering. Most people start restaurants because they love cooking, they have a great food concept. Of course we have to be polite to guests, and make sure we serve them quickly and efficiently.

That’s a given. It just comes as a shock to many when trying to accept the fact that as restaurateurs we are here to serve others.

We are servants.

The reason traditionally that for 100 or more years we British have been so terrible at restaurants had nothing to do with our terrible food, I believe it was the fact that we can’t get to grips with the (harsh word) subservience of professional service.

Continental Europe is brilliant at it.

So is America. They have the inbuilt ability to absorb brutal or arrogant treatment of customers with good grace and shake it off the moment they finish their shift. I won’t get into a tedious investigation into the

guests. They were hosts, they I like to imagine these ‘restaurants’ were places that weary travellers or adventurous tourists would have stopped at, legs aching with walking, cold, wet and uncomfortable. The restaurant would have provided first a warm welcome, then shelter, then warmth, then cleansing, then sustenance. In that order.

The modern restaurant can learn a lot from this in how it approaches service. The customer is first and foremost paying to be looked after. To be made to feel like they want for nothing.

But it’s more than that, and simple fawning grins and prompt delivery of orders is not enough. To be really, really good you have to first be able to deal with subservience, then be able to become a personality in your own right, and at the very pinnacle of your career you can be in command of your guests – all completely complicit – as the very reason they return at all.

and imposing character made his role even more compelling, often playing the villain, freezing out or blanking certain guests and occasionally insulting others unpredictably. But the guests prized their memberships like gold dust and returned as frequently as possible. His masterstroke was that at the end of it all, the guests were gladly paying the hefty bill.

My favourite personal experience of service was a couple of years ago in Nice, at Le Petite Maison. It is run by a terrifying maitre d’ Nicole Rubi, famous for blunt refusal of tables and acrid dismissing of complaints.

Her restaurant, the original of a now worldwide mini-chain (of no financial connection, I might add) is full every service with a steady and loyal crowd of local faces, who seem to always take tables of at least six and stay for a minimum of four hours.

I can remember watching as Nicole circled the room like a schoolteacher, barking at staff

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

“Restaurants would have provided first a warm welcome, shelter, warmth, then cleansing, then sustenance. In that order” historical suggestions for reasons behind this, but the simple fact is, We thin-skinned easily-offended Brits unfortunately struggle with service.

I speak from personal experience of course, as I lasted only a couple years of waiting tables of a 1980s home counties pub before I could take no more angry customers shouting at me for forgetting orders and burning my thumbs in gravy. I swapped my baggy black chinos and shirt for a chef ’s apron, which I was even worse at. If anyone got food poisoning eating out in rural North Hertfordshire in the early 90s, there’s a very good chance I was involved.

Maybe etymology can help.

Look up the word ‘restaurateur’ and you will find it comes from the French ‘to restore’. The point of the restaurateur is to restore, restore good feeling, restore a sense of wellbeing.

In early 19th century in France, the restaurateur was a private individual who devoted part of their house to providing meals to

One with perhaps the greatest understanding of the power of personality in service was the late Mark Birley, who during his reign as Mayfair club owner (Annabels, Mark’s Club, Harry’s Bar) knew exactly how to make every one of his guests prize his hosting skills above any others in the world. He employed the very best – and his staff were loyal beyond belief, some staying with him for 20 years or more.

He would spend a huge proportion of his time devoted to the details of his clubs, with carefully chosen scents and decorations memorised to flatter the memories and personalities of his beloved guests, making sure they felt as if they were constantly the personal invitee to an extremely exclusive and exciting private party. Nothing would be left to chance. If he knew a cherished guest loved a certain dish he would have the kitchen prepare it in advance no matter what the trouble or expense. His unpredictable -28-

for their inefficiencies, barking at customers for their petty requests, until at some point she approached our table and curtly took an order for another bottle of rosé. I was halfway through a plate of tomatoes and she looked at my plate, then produced a bottle of olive oil and gave my food a caring, generous splash, followed by a scattering of salt. It was just as if my mother had done it. She cared about my wellbeing and I could feel this was her primary concern, her lovely loyal customers who visit her day in, day out all made to feel cared for and looked after by her brisk, firm motherly character, ruling the roost and telling everybody off if they drop something on the floor.

This to me is perfect service, just like visiting the home of a large family, where gaggles of children, relatives, wives and husbands are whipped into line at mealtimes by a loving, strong, fierce, warm maternal or paternal figure. The greatest hosts all hold this quality.

Manuel, played by Andrew Sachs, in Fawlty Towers

-29-

The Gold standard Restaurants depend for their future on great staff – and the Gold Service Scholarship is committed to supporting this vital skill. Adam Hyman introduces this year’s competition You don’t go to a restaurant for the food or because you’re hungry. You go for so much more than just the dishes that are placed in front of you.

You go to socialise, to break bread with a friend, an acquaintance, a client, a lover. So much happens in the dining rooms of restaurants – business relationships start, friendship form, people get engaged, I’ve even heard of people agreeing to get divorced over their supper (amicably, of course). And a lot of this happens thanks to the people working as front of house.

maitre d’ who greets you will treat you the same as everyone else and will try their upmost best to look after you and get you seated. You go back to these places because their priority is to give people a good time - to care for them, to look after them.

A good maitre d’ will never want to turn down seating a table - they will try their very best to juggle their reservations book. They are the conductor and the diners are their orchestra. It’s not a science, it’s an art. It’s also not rocket science. Being welcomed like a rock star, getting a

says Alastair Storey, chairman of the Gold Service Scholarship. Storey, CEO of contracting catering firm Westbury Street Holdings, which itself owns Baxter Storey, has worked in hospitality for more than 40 years and decided to set up the Gold Service Scholarship with hotelier Willy Bauer in 2012.

“We’ve been going for five years now and it’s really about the search for the next level of excellence,” notes Storey. “We also want to promote the hospitality industry as a good place to work. Like any

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

“A good maitre d’ is the conductor and the diners are their orchestra.

It’s not a science, it’s an art” I recall a phrase told to me by Russell Norman of POLPO who’d heard it over dinner in New York (it turns out to be a restaurant business mantra). “It’s not about the steak, it’s about the sizzle.” I often choose to eat somewhere because I know the service I will get. It’s not about being treated better than anyone else in the restaurant - it’s because you know the

cold, crisp glass of something put in front of you pronto and having the menu often assure that punters are happy - even if there’s a delay in being seated at their designated table.

So it’s crucial to nurture this most vital of industry skills.

“Front of house is what makes the difference between a good restaurant and a great restaurant”,

-30-

industry, of course it has its problems - especially when it comes to wages at the entry level - but the prospects for getting on in the industry if you’ve got the right attitude is great.”

One of the beautiful aspects of hospitality, that is also mirrored in the scholarship, is that it is open to anyone. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, what your background

Patron of Gold Service Scholarship: Her Majesty The Queen Opposite: Willy Bauer & Alastair Storey Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

-31-

is, what education you’ve received it’s about giving the best hospitality.

Open to anyone employed fulltime front of house in the food and beverage industry around the UK and aged between 22 to 28 years old, the Gold Service Scholarship gives the next generation of front of house the opportunity to not only learn from the best but be mentored by such people as Silvano Giraldin of The Waterside Inn and Thomas Kochs of The Corinthia hotel. It also allows applicants access to certain parts of the industry that they may not be able to practice as much in their current place of work - access to wine training for example.

At CODE, we believe in the importance of preserving the skills of front of house and passing down the knowledge. With more and more restaurants focusing on fast casual dining and geared towards no reservations, there’s a grave danger of the role of the maitre d’ quickly being phased out. But there’s a skill in seating a room, welcoming a guest and offering the best hospitality.

Writing this at such tumultuous times with the ongoing uncertainty around Brexit and its worrying impact on the industry, we need to promote hospitality more than ever.

It’s so vital to the UK economy.

As Storey says, “When the

hospitality industry is competing directly with other leisure spend such as the theatre and cinema - it needs to be looked at as an entertainment business.” Actors forget lines, servers drop glasses - but the show must go on. Maybe it’s no coincidence that the best restaurateurs often compare each service to being on stage.

Stephanie Beresforde

Jennifer Santner

Silvano Giraldin

Thomas Kochs

Santner won the Gold Service Scholarship in 2016 when she was restaurant manager at Fenchurch Restaurant at Sky Garden.

Santner is now working as restaurant manager at the Lecture Room and Library at Sketch.

WINNERS

Winner of the 2017 Gold Service Scholarship. Beresforde has worked at Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant in Padstow and Scott’s in Mayfair. Beresforde is currently working at the recently opened JeanGeorges at the Connaught.

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

TRUSTEES

Giraldin is a director at Roux Restaurants.

He’s the former maitre d’ and general manager of Le Gavroche, where he has been working for almost 40 years.

Kochs is the managing director of the Corinthia hotel in London. Born in Germany, Kochs has worked at the Berkeley hotel before becoming hotel manager at the Connaught. He was then appointed general manager at Claridge’s.

Entries close on 29 September; visit thegoldservicescholarship.co.uk

-32-

E D O C h it W w e s i t r Adve Issue 13

inter 2017

Q u ar te

rly

ospitality rs of the h ea & es ey T he

industry

f dition o e t x e n e tise in th get in touch. r e v d a To , uarterly itality.co.uk Q E D O C dehosp o c @ t c a cont

-33-

A winning combination Chefs Aaron Webster and Remi Williams have left the world of formal fine dining to create Smoke & Salt with the conviction that everyone should be able to eat great food. Without big money behind them, they talk to Chloë Hamilton about the trials and triumphs of opening a restaurant in 2017 and doing it all themselves I met Aaron Webster and Remi Williams on a rare sunny afternoon in the midst of a dull fug of nonsummer. Pop Brixton had an easy, late afternoon bustle to it and Smoke & Salt had a hand-written note taped to the door to say they were unexpectedly closed but would be back open later. A broken drinks fridge had forced them to shut for lunch service. A passer-by peered through the window of the shipping container looking for signs of life.

This shipping container is the latest – and biggest – step in Webster and Williams’s master plan. It also happens to be the former home of

little extra pressure, Smoke & Salt is not likely to be following them to the West End any time soon. Rather than hurtling on to the scene, they’ve been growing steadily and organically over the past three years. The two first met at The Shed, a seasonal British restaurant in Notting Hill, in 2014 and were soon running the kitchen together. They found they shared an itch to break the British-only bounds and experiment with a more multicultural culinary palette, so after six months, set off to form Smoke & Salt.

As for many fledgling restaurateurs these days, running a

from New Covent Garden Market before dawn and then prepping in Williams’s home nearby in Islington.

After that they helped a friend from The Shed open a site in East Dulwich, a rotational residency restaurant called Platform One, for which they were the debut team in the kitchen. “We didn’t know what we were doing and she didn’t know what she was doing,” remembers Webster with a laugh, “but we made it work”.

Next up was their “first proper venture”, a residency in the dining room above The Chapel Bar in Angel; an unusual space that looked shuttered-up and had no signage.

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

“We write a list of all the things we need to do and, without dividing up the tasks, we know what we’ve each got to get done ” Kricket, which following a highly successful two-year stint, has moved on to the bright lights of Soho. Big boots to fill, my colleague had said to me an hour ago. Big boots to fill, wrote the Evening Standard. “That’s pretty much the catchphrase,” says Webster. “Whilst Williams was away this weekend I had about five or six people come in and make that same remark: big boots to fill.”

Though the shadow of the former occupant’s success might be adding a

supper club provided a useful testing ground for their ideas. At this point they had their name and were keen to make use of traditional skills – pickling, curing and preserving – in modern ways, “but we didn’t know whether we would end up doing street food or fine dining,” says Webster.

For their first events, they found a tiny Japanese restaurant on Holloway Road that was closed on Sundays and Mondays. They would spend the three days prior sourcing produce -34-

Though the feedback on the food was good, it was an unpredictable operation: “We wouldn’t get walkins,” says Williams, “you had to know we were there. Sometimes you’d have 16 covers on the books at midday and by dinner it would be two. Or it could be the other way around.”

I ask Williams, 30, what the hardest part of this process has been. He answers easily: that it’s the amount of effort put in without knowing whether it will work; a fear

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Dishes from the eclectic Smoke & Salt menu

-35-

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

that the cooking, the sourcing, the shopping, the drinks, the staffing, will amount to less than the sum of its parts. “Mentally,” he says, “that’s a very difficult thing”. For Webster, 28, the hardest part is the ever-present financial pressure; making ends meet and not losing money. They tell me that for all of their supper clubs, they never lost a penny – a feat that Grub Club founder Liv Sibony said is harder than people think. “People said to us, you’re never going to make money doing this,” says Webster “but it wasn’t luck that we proved them wrong”. Indeed, from over 10 years’ combined experience in kitchens on both sides of the Atlantic, they knew how to cost dishes, where to buy produce in bulk and how to schedule events in the most economical way. In the supper club days they even transported their food around

seemed inconveniently timed, the earnings from the event paid for the restaurant tables.

Neither Webster nor Williams trace their career back to a childhood spent in the family kitchen. Williams studied chemistry at university before taking up a year-long cooking course and his career took him to the prestigious kitchens of Craigie on Main and Deuxave, both in Boston.

Webster made it through the first year of a business degree before changing tack and taking up the culinary arts. He recalls his first four months in a Michelin-starred kitchen and absolutely hating it, not eating or sleeping properly. He stuck with it, cutting his teeth at The Latymer and Dinner by Heston, but for a long time struggled with a love-hate relationship with cooking.

So what won them the gig? One

someone to do it for us. We’ve got to do it ourselves.”

This grit and determination to get things done, by whatever means, fills the Smoke & Salt brand with charm and character. Webster and Williams would much rather grow slowly, swapping a free dinner for logo designs and taking on staff that have passion over experience (one of their team of six was, until recently, a software salesman), than give away half their business for a tempting chunk of upfront investment.

“We’ve always written our business plan to be attainable,” says Webster.

Their bricks and mortar dream isn’t for a spot in the West End, but rather a neighbourhood restaurant somewhere in southeast or southwest London. “These neighbourhoods are crying out for great food,” he says, “and there’s more of an appetite

London on public transport, rather than incurring the expense of an Uber. “We would be carrying delicate strawberry cheesecakes on the tube, trying not to knock them,” recalls Webster.

So how did this spot in the shipping container come about?

There were personal savings, help from family and friends and emails to everyone they had cooked for over the past three years. There was also a cook-off against five other restaurateurs vying for the container.

“The guys at Pop Brixton said if we could get the money together by the end of May, we could have it.

Hands down.” But a week before opening they still weren’t sure if they would have the funds. As it happened Williams had been long been booked for a two-day pop up in Sussex just before doors opened. Though it

meal demonstrates what. The food at Smoke & Salt is terrific – a wealth of ideas, well executed. Webster and Williams’s dishes include rillettes-style duck, trombetta courgettes and fried yellow plantain with beer-braised onions. A harvest pudding with grilled peaches, English strawberries and sweet corn sounds unmissable.

On running a small business, both chefs emphatically credit each other equally with the tasks in and out of the kitchen: “We tend to write a list of all the things we need to do and, without dividing up the tasks, we know what we’ve each got to get done,” says Webster. Although sometimes things like printing menus and ordering bar stock can fall to the bottom of the list. And sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to schedule social media posts. “But we can’t afford to hire

there than ever”. Beyond that, their long-term dream would be to build a David Chang-style empire, with the freedom to work on a range of casual operations alongside a return to fine dining fare. But in the meantime, they’ll be getting on with fixing the drinks fridge and getting through this evening’s dinner service.

-36-

Smoke & Salt is now open at Pop Brixton 49 Brixton Station Road, London SW9 8PQ smokeandsalt.com @smokeandsaltldn

Remi Williams & Aaron Webster

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

-37-

On the shelf Autumn brings a bumper crop of new food books.

Lisa Markwell selects a reading list

Roux goes rogue?

Not quite, but the women of this illustrious family have a refreshingly relaxed take on cooking – the roast chicken recipe had our mouths watering – and a fun, inclusive narrative too.

Mother and daughter teach each other, as well as the reader.

New French Table,

by Emily and Giselle Roux£25, Mitchell Beazley

CODE is never at home to watch The Big Family Cooking Showdown on TV, but has much admiration for judge Giorgio Locatelli in his restaurant business (the terrible explosion which closed Locanda Locatelli for months would have finished off many chefs). His third book is enormous fun, filled with family-friendly recipes (although with the rigour you’d expect of this chef). He certainly takes his pizza seriously...

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Made at Home, by Giorgio Locatelli, £26, Fourth Estate

Claridge’s green is so distinctive that this book is recognisable across a busy kitchen. And the hotel’s kitchen is always busy, so no wonder it’s taken 161 years for this title to be published. There’s no way to replicate the starry atmosphere of Brook Street but with these 100+ recipes you can have a good stab at some of the bar and foyer’s ultra-luxe comfort food. Oh and if you’re planning to host a dinner for 100 guests, there’s a guide to that too!

Claridge’s: the Cookbook, by Martyn Nail and Meredith Erickson, £30, Mitchell Beazley -38-

Hercules is rightly acclaimed for shining a light on lesserknown cuisines and dishes (her first book Mamushka focused on the Ukraine); this is a lyrical look at Georgia, Azerbaijan and other foods of that part of the world, with a side order of cultural and social history.

Kaukasis: The Cookbook, by Olia Hercules, £25, Mitchell Beazley

This is one of the most keenly awaited cookbooks of recent years. Stephen Harris created a brilliant, Michelin-starred destination in Kent from what was a “grotty rundown pub by the sea” and now he has created a magical version of The Sportsman in print. The book is as pared back and desirable as the menu you find on the pub’s wooden tables. There are 50 recipes, including the restaurant’s classic dishes – that famous slip sole with seaweed butter, for instance – but also lyrical essays on everything from Harris’s first days at a stove to Seasalter’s landscape.

The Sportsman, by Stephen Harris, £29.95, Phaidon

The subtitle of this book says it all “Japanese recipes to (actually) cook at home”. Nanban’s Anderson has a witty rebuttal of our excuses for not embracing the cuisine and gives some smart, simple recipes to change all that. No sushi mat?

Use cling film and a tea towel... Well, it’s hard to argue with that.

Japaneasy, by Tim Anderson, £20, Hardie Grant

Stuffed with theatrical and artistic references, this comes 20 years after the original restaurant cookbook and continues The Ivy’s glamorous image. CODE is a big fan of the calves’ liver dish and is pleased to see this, and other classics, in recipe form.

And if you’d rather not cook, the anecdotes make this a fun read.

The Ivy Now, by Fernando Peire and Gary Lee, £30, Quadrille

This is the stylist, chef and food writer’s lovely, warm-hearted follow-up to her Modern Way to Eat. Once past the slightly curious conceit of ‘six seasons’, the book, with more than 250 recipes, is most certainly modern, but this thoughtful approach (seasonal, vegetarian) is not about to go out of fashion.

The Modern Cook’s Year, by Anna Jones, £26, Fourth Estate -39-

“Lifting the lid on the restaurant world” might suggest Sirieix is not going to win any friends in hospitality, but there are few better champions of our industry and as well as some eye-opening yarns, there’s much to inspire future generations into the frontof-house world. Not sure about the Bond pose, though Fred!

Secret Service, by Fred Sirieix, £16.99, Quadrille

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

At last, the long-awaited desserts and baking book from Ottolenghi. Those who follow Yotam’s Instagram test-kitchen posts will have been salivating for months. There are myriad sweet treats here (pineapple and star anise chiffon cake, for instance), plus a funny story about his toughest audience: his children.

Sweet, by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh, £27, Ebury

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

In conversation with...

Henry Harris

-40-

Henry Harris Some industry figures become its figureheads. In the first of a new series, Lisa Markwell meets the chef ’s chef

When in 2015 Henry Harris announced he was closing the much-beloved Racine, his restaurant in Knightsbridge, after 13 years, it caused ripples in the hospitality industry. If such a well-respected veteran could not make it work with a loyal clientele and a prime location, what hope for the rest of us?

Between that date and autumn 2017, Harris has been busy working as a consultant all over the industry, from private clubs in London to countryside pubs but he, and we, always hoped that he’d return to the kitchen somewhere. Now it has been

I know that problems both with the landlord and the changing face of Knightsbridge [so many empty properties] precipitated you walking away from Racine. How did you make that decision and break the news to your staff and customers?

Racine was run like a business and I had responsibility for welfare of people working for me. What happened was that I was selling the business, they would still have jobs, and I had to keep it confidential until the deal was done. So I had told the

texted me within moments of the news breaking I wasn’t desperate.

Matt offered me an intensive month working on the food offering at the Groucho Club, followed by a day a week to keep an eye on things.

I like Groucho – the whole ethos, the people who work there, it’s run like a family. And I knew they had a talented head chef. So I thought, well, perhaps if I don’t get a new place overnight, I’ll do this in the meantime.

I was given a very clear instruction – you are not here to run the kitchen.

Matt said ‘I don’t want to walk in and

“When Racine closed the staff kept the news quiet for which I was so grateful... At the final staff party there were 32 of us and 4OO shots on the bill” staff (other than the GM and head chef, to whom I did tell the truth) that we were closing for a few days to update the air conditioning so we had a staff party and then on the following Monday I told them the reality – they kept it quiet for four days until the sale went through, for which I was so grateful. At that party, we went go karting, then for pizza and then we had an open bar – there were 32 of us and there were 400 shots on the bill!

When you locked the door after that final Thursday lunch, what was going through your mind?

I thought I was going to be able to buy a restaurant within a couple of weeks. There were so many empty sites in different neighbourhoods – I had a bank ready to lend money to me, a couple of people expressed interest in investing in whatever I did next which was nice (although I wanted to do it alone). So when Matt [Hobbs, CEO of the Groucho Club] -41-

find they’re short staffed and you’re on the pass or grill. That’s a waste of what we’re paying you for.’ I stayed there for a year.

Had you put dreams of your own place on hold for that period?

I was looking for sites all the time. The television producer and restaurant expert Melanie Jappy, who used to come to Racine a lot, told me about a restaurant in Kensington Park Road where the current concept wasn’t working. I talked to the landlord and things looked like happening, but after instructing solicitors to sign a deal, it all stalled. Builders told me how much it would cost to make right and I realised I couldn’t make the sums work.

And that site is now Core by Clare Smyth. Any regrets?

I remember there being an issue with the courtyard at the back of the

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

revealed that Harris will be working on the relaunch of the Truscott Arms pub in Maida Vale, as well as other pubs recently bought by the same group.

I have been aware of Harris for many years – as a fan and former editor of Simon Hopkinson I knew that Harris was one of his protégés at Bibendum (and Hilaire before that).

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to attend a guest demonstration that Harris gave at Leiths School of Food and Wine and, like the other students, was rapt at both his marvellous techniques and recipes and his eloquent, unvarnished commentary on the business of restaurants.

When CODE put news of Harris’s new venture in its weekly Bulletin, we received so many responses that it was clear everyone wanted to know more. So I sat down with him to discuss closures, openings, menus, staff and the business as it stands in 2017.

building… So I’d be interested to know what’s happening with that [wry smile].

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

What came next?

My next consultancy task was with a couple I’d met through my partner in Racine; they had bought the Dog & Badger in Medmenham and cottages to do up to a luxurious standard.

They had opened and traded for six months but it wasn’t going well and they asked me to audit the operation and recruit and establish a new team.

After some months I got a good team in place, then the owners had a meeting and said ‘moving forward we never wanted to go into this’. I thought ‘well, that’s the end of my well-paid consultancy’!

I assumed they were going to sell.

Then they said they’d like to give me the pub. It was a substantial seven-figure development – I said it was exciting and interesting, but can you define “give”. They would have kept the freehold and given me a low buy-in. Then they could have carried on buying pubs and doing this, as a business. On paper it was a nobrainer – not too good to be true, but good.

We proceeded to move forward; the pub was to their taste and I wanted to make changes so that there was a shared sense of ownership, rather than ‘housesitting’.

At the same time my father was dying, and I thought ‘choose your battles’. I wanted to have a say in the art, lighting, cutlery and more, but I had a lot on my mind. I thought, when we make money we can do other changes. My father [Harris’s father was in the drinks business for many years] was pretty sharp right up to the end, and he was advising me on the investment, so I was going with it.

That must have been a terrible conflict, to be with your father and to finalise a potentially career-changing contract?

Dad died on Friday and I went down on the Monday for a meeting.

You just have to get on, after someone dies. I asked [his wife] Denise to go with me because I was feeling a bit vulnerable. And she did and they weren’t doing anything malicious,

but they were thinking about their business. They were talking about the menu which was mine, that was not to be touched – French country food.

They kept saying we need pub dishes, and I was too tired for them to keep going on about it.

They said business has been declining, that their friends thought the food was wrong. They wanted to serve monkfish curry and shepherd’s pie.

And at that point I realised I wanted to get out. I just said “it’s not for me” and asked not to have another meeting, but we talked on and off for the next few days until, on Saturday, I confirmed I would leave, having recruited a superb GM and a

You had years of experience as a chef-patron at Racine to draw on and your instincts seem to have been sound about various projects, but did you ever lose heart that you would have something else to sink your teeth into (no pun intended)?

head chef for them.

They said “our dream was only ever to have The Ivy in the countryside” and I said that’s not such a bad idea, and you can have that, but it’s not my dream. I asked for a week to handover, to talk to the chef I’d got in for them and then leave. I’ll bury my father and then take some time off.

So how does that work? You’re not cooking anywhere and they might never have been to Racine – does your reputation seal the deal?

I had to audition and cook for them, which went very well [large smile]. I did a starter of warm salad of seared squid with asparagus, chargrilled spring onions and some wilted pata negra ham. It was rather good actually. Then cote de boeuf with a snail and bone marrow persillade, watercress and roast potatoes, and some cheese. For pudding, a tart tatin – the idea was cook something that could be served in the pub but they also wanted me to sit with them as well. I now remember that I drank a bit of Japanese whisky…

Wow. Quite a salutary tale.

The couple felt that I was making the wrong decision and that I could have made it a great success. Despite everything, I did like them as a couple – I am sure I could have benefited from their entrepreneurial spirit, but I stepped away (and my wife Denise had felt it was the right decision too).

-42-

Well then I met Andrew Knight – a former Fleet Street grandee, a truly wonderful man – who had bought a townhouse in Shipstonon-Stour. It has been undergoing substantial renovation to change it into a restaurant with rooms. I spent a six-month fixed-term contract as a restaurateur (not chef) to get everything finished for them and help the new team establish the business.

During that time I met my current partners, Holborn Leisure. They had a consultant on board who was advising them on business plans, architects etc, and I was asked to consider joining as a consultant to devise menus and train staff; a one-day-aweek consultant on their first pub, with a view to working second day on their second pub, and so on. It would have been a very good arrangement – but I looked at it and wanted a greater sense of accountability. I sat down with them and said they needed a chef-partner who was always on call (!) for these reasons and they had heard I was a good person to do it.

The news that caught everyone’s attention has been the return of the Truscott Arms, a north-west London pub that had been much admired under previous owners and chef [Aidan McGee], but there’s also the Three Cranes.

So it’s all in the planning stage, but before Truscott Arms it looks like we will be opening the Three Cranes in the city.

It’s a lovely old pub on Lower Thames Street (the name refers to actual cranes, not birds) – that at the moment is open just serving beer.

When we’re ready, I want to make sure there’s a nicely curated four or five beers on tap, and I’d love lots of the wines to be from Bordeaux – apparently wines used to come in to that actual wharf, so it’s nice to reference that.

There will be tiny menus (it’s got a tiny kitchen). Starters will be a salad, a terrine, a soup, and then a grill – lamb chops, couple of steaks, then

I think that people are paying absurd premiums to get a lease on a property they don’t own. We’ve allowed a culture to develop to suggest that’s the way to get a property. Our business is cooking food, a landlord’s business is making money from his property … so you have to expect him to want to make the maximum.

What makes me furious is councils who are putting out public messages of concern and support for their boroughs are actually more concerned with the business rates they can squeeze out. They will happily see high streets full of mid-market mediocre restaurant chains who will pay their inflated rates every month.

While councils push through punitive business rates, at the same time you lose the butchers, the bakers, the couple running their little restaurant. In France if a bakery closes down, it’s not allowed to be anything else. They understand

chef and it’s nice for them to have someone to talk to about ideas and so forth.

Not only is there a shortage, but I keep hearing stories about applicants not taking jobs seriously. I hear you have a good story about hiring…

At Racine I had placed six ads in about a year, and this one man had applied every time and every time had been invited for an interview.

He never turned up. Each time I’d email, saying did you forget, get wrong date or whatever, and he’d say sorry.

So the last time, he applied again and I emailed him and said Dear XX, thank you so much for sending your CV, I’d like to invite you NOT to attend an interview tomorrow.

Within half an hour, I’d got an aggressive response. I replied telling him about the six times, he denied

“For my next project, I’m going to find the right people who share a common vision and who want to work with me as well as for me”

cheese and ice cream. I’m hoping for mid-to-end October, but it all depends on the build. It’s going to look like it’s untouched but with better tables, light fittings, mirrors and so on. I’m very involved in all that.

What are you views on the restaurant property situation…

So now you have a task on your hands finding chefs, kitchen staff and front of house for multiple sites. With the much-discussed shortage of trained people, how will you get it done?

There is a crisis in hospitality, and there is a chronic shortage of staff.

There are so many better employers in hospitality now because they have had to offer better staff meals, look after them, etc.

I’m going to find the right people who share a common vision and want to work with me as well as for me. My job title is chef director but I find it a bit annoying to be called that – can’t I be admiral of the fleet?! But look at St John, for example – Fergus will talk about food when he goes in, and head chef will do the actual dishes because that’s his job. My point is that the buck stops with the head -43-

it and said someone had used his account. As if. I called up Gumtree and explained and they banned him.

Now I have got a very good profiling technique! But I’m not going to share it…

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

You sound really engaged in this project. Does that mean you’ve put any thoughts of a place with your name over the door on hold?

It’s not in my brain-space at the moment, nor should it be. I’ve made a commitment – I would only be thinking about my own place if I wasn’t fully engaged in this, and I am.

I do keep my hand in though [chuckles]. I cook at home all the time. Last weekend I went to the local butchers, which is open on Sunday.

I saw a marvellous 1.25kg rump steak, so got that, and then my daughter wanted Yorkshire pudding… so I made those. A full Sunday roast, basically.

about protecting the heritage. Here people go to Westfield for restaurant experience and pick up vac-pac steak from Waitrose on the way home.

24 hours in... San Sebastian

1pm Casa Camara

Or another one of my favorites is Casa Camara up in San Juan (15 minutes out of San Sebastian towards France). It’s been family owned for more than a 100 years. The restaurant sits on the water and you could be mistaken for thinking you were in Venice. They keep the live lobsters and shellfish in cages during high tide and pull them up through a hole in the middle of the the restaurant - inevitably, the seafood here is very good. I came once when the local rowing race had been on, the teams where in having lunch and singing songs, it was very cool. (Worth booking, and they take reservations by email.) casacamara.com At first sight the sheer amount of places to eat in San Sebastian can be daunting, but don’t be shy of fighting your way through the crowd. I avoid the super-fancy famous places like Arzak and Asador Etxebarri. When eating, my tip is always to check the menu/ blackboard, they all have more and interesting pintxos than you see on the counter. The old town is where most of the action is day and night. But saying that, during the day I tend to venture out of town…

12pm

3pm Sebastian

In the port there are loads of restaurants touting seafood and they can feel a bit touristy; you don’t want to choose the wrong one. I like the place called Sebastian which has great opportunities for peoplewatching and really good seafood. restaurantesebastiandonostia.com

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Elkano

I prefer to fly into Bilbao as opposed to Biarritz, which is closer, for one reason - to stop for lunch at Elkano in Getaria, 30 minutes outside San Sebastian. Last time we arrived, Anthony Bourdain was there filming, and there’s a YouTube video of him, Daniel Boulud and David Chang eating the turbot there.

When you try the food you can see why, I think the fish I have had here is the best I’ve ever had. If in season get the Percebes (gooseneck barnacles); they look like dragon toenails, but taste amazing. Don’t miss the cheesecake ice-cream for dessert. The local Basque wine is Txakoli, a slightly sparkling white wine, perfect with seafood and only costs around 14 euros a bottle. restauranteelkano.com -44-

4pm La Viña

If you have a mid-afternoon slump, get a sugar hit at La Viña. They serve the best cheesecake you’ll ever eat. Apparently the recipe is a well-guarded secret. lavinarestaurante.com

DAY

It has become a favourite food destination but how do you get past the tourist traps? Let Heath Ball of Highgate’s Red Lion & Sun pub give you his insider guide

6pm 10pm Bar Nestor

Famously, the most amazing tortilla, which only available twice a day at lunch and dinner. Get there early to get a piece as when it’s gone it’s gone.

Nestor is more famous for its Txuleta (beef),

amazing char with a generous amount of rock salt.

I love tomatoes, and the tomatoes in olive oil with salt are mind blowing. It’s a tiny place that is very popular so get there early. barnestor.com

7pm Iraeta

8pm

Over the river in Gros is the legend (and my mate) Gerald. Originally from Kent, he’s lived for years in Australia and owns the iconic Gerald’s Bar in Melbourne. He now spends half the year in Oz and the other half in San Sebastian. His wine knowledge is amazing and his place is a great spot.

He uses local ingredients but is not restrained by tradition, so he does everything from Pad Thai to burgers. It’s very cool and very fun. He’s a font of local knowledge and a real gentleman. Gros, by the way, is where the surf beach is, and where all the locals tend to socialise; it’s not so touristy and also tends to be a lot cheaper. Don’t limit yourself just to the old town. geraldsbar.eu

11pm Sidreria Aginaga

La Cuchara de San Telmo

Suckling pig and the beef cheeks are always standouts, but explore the menu.

Like most places it’s tiny and fills up fast, with queues out the door. They have a new policy now; they have tables around the back against the wall of the church.

Go around and speak to the waiter/waitress and ask for a table. They do not do pintxos at the tables but you can get half portions or full portions of the food, and more relaxing if in a small group. If you just want a glass of wine and a couple of pintxos head inside.

They won’t let you order pixtxos and sit at the tables. lacucharadesantelmo.com -45-

Cider is very popular in Basque country. They are loads of cider houses just outside town. They work on a set menu price around £30 euros each including bottomless cider. They all run a similar menu: salt cod omelette, Txuleta, cheese, walnuts. The food isn’t mind blowing but it’s a great experience and this one is really good. Make sure you get the local cider, it will have a Basque flag on it; some Sidreria’s buy apples from all over Europe to keep up with the demand.

Sidreia Aginaga only uses local apples. aginagasagardotegia.com

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

NIGHT

But… if the queues and tourists put you off Nestor, there is Bar Iraeta in the Gros district. They have two sites a few doors away from each other, but Bar Iraeta is the original and more atmospheric. They take reservations and are super nice people. My local friend asked me not to tell too many people about it as it’s a real locals spot. I ate there for the first time recently and it was very good. (They also had a better wine list than Nestor.)

Aita Larroka Kalea 2 20001 Donostia

Gerald’s Bar

A kind of blue Think you know the Greek islands? If you imagine a mixture of traditional houses and glitzy beach clubs...

Well, you’re not wrong. Emyr Thomas reports

In association with Bon Vivant Travel

The beauty of Greece is that it is deliciously familiar and all the better for it. We keep going back because the luxurious accommodation, stunning sea views and breath-taking sunsets, making the Islands the perfect holiday destination.

Mykonos and Santorini are the appropriately Homeric ideal of cosmopolitan chic and romanticism, as these hotels show.

Kivotos Located in Ormos Bay, Kivotos is built into a rocky slope with 39 rooms and suites dotted around the property, each with an individual design and some with private pools. Kivots is full of style and character with pieces of art and antiques creating a unique look and atmosphere; feeling more private villa than hotel. While the pool and swim-up bar is the focal point, those wanting more privacy can walk down to the secluded rocky beach where you’ll have a piece of Mykonos all to yourself. kivotosmykonos.com

Mykonos

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Christos Drazos

Myconian Villa Collection Designed for privacy and total relaxation, the Myconian Villa Collection is a luxury hotel located above Elia Beach. It’s a standalone hotel about 20 minutes from Mykonos Town, but a part of a wider gated community with four sister hotels, each with a different look and atmosphere. There are 69 rooms and suites as well as 16 villas, each offering sweeping views over the Aegean, many with terraces with private jacuzzis and pools. While the design retains the elements of the classic Mykonos white style, there are beautiful pieces of furniture and artwork on the walls that add character. The view from your room may be mesmerising, but the serious action takes place around the beautiful pool and restaurant. mykonosluxuryvillas.com Bill & Coo Hotel Bill & Coo is all about the setting there is no better spot to enjoy sunset than with a chilled glass of something around the pool area with the iconic Myconian windmills as a backdrop as the sun sets. Just a few minutes walk from Mykonos Town, Bill & Coo is a great base - close enough to enjoy the restaurants and shopping but a world away when in the privacy of one of the 30 stylish suites. The hotel’s restaurant is a favourite of Bon Vivant Travel - a modern, inventive and relaxed take on a tasting menu with that stunning view. bill-coo-hotel.com

-46-

Mystique Situated on Oia’s famous cliffs, just a few minutes walk from Canaves Oia Suites, the stylish Mystique offers dazzling views of clear blue water and the Aegean Caldera. The 35 suites are designed in neutral tones of cream, beige and grey using driftwood and local stone to create a stylish but homely look. Every suite opens on to a terrace with sea views and a daybed, where you can sit mesmerised by the view. The vibe at Mystique is total relaxation - the hardest part of your day will be the ten steps you’ll have to walk to Mystique’s Charisma restaurant for lunch. mystique.gr

Santorini

Christos Drazos

Canaves Oia Suites The village of Oia and the Canaves Oia Suites are on the northwest tip of Santorini, which means it’s the perfect location from which to enjoy the famous Santorini sunsets. Built into the cliffs in true local style, the view steals the show: whether on the terrace of your suite, at the restaurant, lounging by the main pool or cooling off in the new infinity pool, you are surrounded by truly breathtaking views.

A beautiful blend of modern and authentic with soothing blue and white interiors, the vibe at Canaves Oia Suites is effortlessly chic. canaves.com

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

-47-

THE ORIGINS OF WIT Wine In Tube was created in 2007 by passionate French wine growers to offer high quality packaging to facilitate the sampling of their wines.

Facing great enthusiasm, this concept was launched to the market in 2009 and so began the journey of this extraordinary product; fine and luxurious wines by the glass without opening a bottle.

TECHNOLOGY WIT is a patented glass bottle of 100ml. The identity of the content’s origin is maintained by screenprinting. The process of transferring the wine is done under a controlled and oxygen free environment, to prevent it from undergoing organoleptic degradation. WIT then guarantees a perfect seal over time as the tube was designed for the proper preservation of wines.

HOTEL AMENITIES Stand out from your competitors with an innovative product with a lower cost than the regular hotel amenities.

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

BAR & RESTAURANT To remain competitive, reduced costs are essential. Selling wine by the glass is now mandatory but it is a delicate operation. Investing in WIT means you will minimise your losses and write off the investment of vacuum machines.

CONFERENCE & EVENT Easy to upsell wines during meeting breaks with no waste and easy stock management.

-48-

Instagrab With a new opening or a menu change comes the inevitable flurry of social media snaps. So what’s caught the eye of the super-snappers this season?

Bibendum’s duck gelee with caviar, Jean-Georges at the Connaught’s truffle pizza, a variety of game pithiviers and Jacob the Angel’s coconut cream pie are all in the frame

Staff meal What do you eat when you get home after service?

For this issue, the Caravan founders suggest a hearty rice dish

Issy Croker

Fried brown rice with brussels sprouts, fried eggs, greens and chilli

Issue 12 | Autumn 2017 | codehospitality.co.uk

Whenever we cook brown rice, we always do a bit too much, just so we can fry the leftovers for breakfast. It’s really important for this recipe that the rice has been well drained and completely cooled to ensure you get those delicious crispy grains of rice. The mustard greens can happily be replaced with kimchi or another leafy green such as chard, spinach or kale. You can use wok water to provide steam for cooking vegetables - as the steam is produced, the water evaporates to leave the full flavour of the soy and vinegar. It’s a handy thing to have in the fridge, and will keep for a long time. This is a seriously full-of-flavour dish that we have enjoyed many times with friends at home.

Ingredients - serves 4 - 6 6 tbsp rapeseed oil 150g brown onions, thinly sliced 300g Brussels sprouts, sliced 800g cooked brown rice 5 spring onions, thinly sliced 200g mustard greens, kimchi

or spring greens 6-8 eggs, fried 1 handful of coriander,

roughly chopped 100g peanuts, roughly chopped 6 lime wedges

Fried shallots, optional

For the chilli paste: 50g fresh ginger, peeled

and roughly chopped 4 garlic cloves 1 small handful of coriander

(leaves and stalks), roughly chopped 3 red chillies, roughly chopped 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

For the wok water: 100ml water 50ml light soy sauce 50ml Chinese black vinegar, optional

Method Put all the chilli paste ingredients into a food processor and blend to a paste.

Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

Next make the wok water. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Heat a tablespoon of the oil in a large frying pan and fry the onions over a medium heat until browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and transfer to a large bowl. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and fry the Brussels sprouts in the same way, then transfer to the bowl with the onions.

Adding a tablespoon of oil to the frying pan for each batch, fry a quarter of the rice over a high heat with a quarter of the paste for 3-4 minutes. Then add 50ml wok water to the pan and allow this to reduce by half. Remove from the pan and add to the bowl with the onions and sprouts. Keep this bowl covered with a piece of foil to keep it warm.

Repeat with the remaining three -50-

batches of rice, adding the spring onions and mustard greens at the end on the last batch to heat them through.

Transfer the fried rice, onions and sprouts to a serving dish and top with 6-8 fried eggs. Scatter over the coriander, peanuts, lime wedges and fried shallots and serve in the centre of the table for guests to help themselves Adapted from Caravan: Dining All Day,

by Miles Kirby, Laura Harper-Hinton and Chris Ammermann, £25, Square Peg

Dickie’s Bar

Humble Grape

The CODE app is available to anyone working in hospitality.

Simply prove your employment in the industry* and enjoy unlimited access to exclusive dining offers for £11.99 a year.

LONDON 100 Wardour St 28°-50° Maddox Street 28°-50° Marylebone Lane 45 Jermyn St. 68 and Boston All Star Lanes Bayswater All Star Lanes Brick Lane All Star Lanes Holborn Ametsa with Arzak Instruction Antidote Aqua Kyoto Aqua Nueva BAO Fitzrovia Bar Boulud Beagle Bellanger Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill Bonnie Gull Seafood Shack - Soho BungaTINI Burlock Cafe Monico Cahoots Ceviche Old St Chicken Shop Kentish Town Chicken Shop Whitechapel CHICKENliquor Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels Corrigan’s, Mayfair Coya Crosstown Doughnuts Camden Crosstown Doughnuts Shoreditch Crosstown Doughnuts Soho Crosstown Doughnuts Victoria Crumbs & Doilies Damson & Co Dehesa Dickie’s Bar Dirty Bones Shoreditch Dirty Bones Soho Dirty Burger Shoreditch Ducksoup Ember Yard EuroCave UK Flat Iron Curtain Road Fox Bar Foxlow Balham Foxlow Chiswick Foxlow Clerkenwell Foxlow Soho GinTonica at The Distillery Granger & Co. Clerkenwell Hawksmoor Air Street

XU

Lorne

Magpie

THE CODE APP

DIRECTORY

Hawksmoor Borough Hawksmoor Guildhall Hawksmoor Knightsbridge Hawksmoor Seven Dials Hawksmoor Spitalfields Hawksmoor Spitalfields Bar Helene Darroze at The Connaught Hix Oyster & Chop House HIX Soho Hixter Bankside Holborn Dining Room Humble Grape Battersea Humble Grape Fleet Street Humble Grape Islington Hutong | The Shanghai Bar Jar Kitchen Jikoni Joe’s Southern Table and Bar Covent Garden Jose Pizarro Joyeux Bordel Kurobuta Marble Arch Les 110 de Taillevent London Lantana Cafe Little Bat Lobos Meat & Tapas Soho London Cocktail Club Bethnal Green London Cocktail Club Islington London Cocktail Club Shaftesbury Avenue London Cocktail Club Shoreditch Lorne Lucky Voice Soho M Victoria Street Mac & Wild Devonshire Square Mac & Wild Fitzrovia Magpie MARCUS Mark’s Bar at Hixter Bankside Mark’s Bar at HIX Soho Mark’s Bar at The Old Vic Maze MEATliquor N1 MEATliquor Queensway MEATliquor W1 MEATmarket MEATmission Megaro Bar Merchants Tavern Mr Fogg’s Gin Parlour Mr Fogg’s Residence Oklava

Opera Tavern Opium Outlaw’s at The Capital Palatino Paradise Garage Passione Vino Percy & Founders Perilla Petit Pois Bistro Pharmacy 2 Picture Fitzrovia Picture Marylebone Pidgin Pip & Nut Pitt Cue Pizarro Pizza East Kentish Town Pizza East Shoreditch Pizza Pilgrims Covent Garden Pizza Pilgrims Dean St Pizza Pilgrims Exmouth Market Pizza Pilgrims Kingly St Polpo at Ape & Bird Polpo Notting Hill Radio Alice Rawduck Restaurant Ours Revolution Personal Training Rivington Greenwich ROKA Aldwych Rotorino Salt Yard Sardine Spring Spuntino St. JOHN St. John Bread & Wine St. JOHN Maltby STK London Supper Ten Bells Tandoor Chop House Tapas Brindisa Rupert Street Tapas Brindisa Shoreditch Tapas Brindisa Soho The Club Chinois bar at Park Chinois The Drapers Arms The Frog The Gilbert Scott The Gym Group The Ned The River Cafe

* Restaurant, bar, cafe, hotel, private members’ club, catering contractor, street food vendor, commercial airlines and F&B leisure outlet.

The Quality Chop House Tramshed Tredwell’s Treves & Hyde TT Liquor Typing Room Ugly Drinks Union Street Bar Union Street Café Untitled Veneta Wright Brothers Borough Market Wright Brothers Soho Wright Brothers Spitalfields XU Zelman Drinks Zelman Meats Zoilo NORTH Albert’s Schloss All Star Lanes Another Heart To Feed Asha’s Black Dog Ballroom NQ Black Dog Ballroom NWS Bollibar @ Asha’s Brasserie Abode Bundobust Leeds Bundobust Manchester Burnt Truffle Busaba Liverpool Cane & Grain Crazy Pedro’s Part Time Pizza Parlour NQ Crazy Pedro’s Part-Time Pizza Parlour Dog Bowl Don Giovanni Electrik Electrik Bar Evelyn’s Gaucho Leeds hangingditch Hawksmoor Manchester Hispi Hula Manchester Hula West Didsbury Ibérica Leeds Ibérica Manchester James Martin Manchester La Bodega

codehospitality.co.uk

Maray MEATliquor Leeds Mughli Knutsford Mughli Rusholme Neighbourhood Liverpool Neighbourhood Manchester Railway Kitchen & Bar Red’s True BBQ Rosylee Sticky Walnut Tampopo Albert Square Tampopo Corn Exchange Tampopo Trafford Centre The Alchemist Brunswick St The Alchemist Greek Street The Alchemist New York Street The Comedy Store Manchester The Fitzgerald The Grill on New York Street The Grill on the Alley The Grill on the Square The Liars Club The Living Room The Oast House TNQ Restaurant Tusk Manchester Volta Volta Bar Walrus SCOTLAND Harajuku Kitchen Hyde & Son Ibérica Glasgow Smith & Gertrude The Printing Press The Refinery The Stockbridge Tuk Tuk Edinburgh Tuk Tuk Glasgow Wedgwood The Restaurant DUBLIN Featherblade TapHouse The Hill All venues correct at the time of going to print.