CODE Quarterly | Issue 21 | Winter 2019 by CODE Hospitality

Issue 21 Winter 2019

Quarterly

The eyes & ears of the hospitality industry

Industry ÂŁ4 / Non-industry ÂŁ7

Contents 5.

Staff briefing

In season: winter goodies worth purchasing

CODE breaking: hospitality news

10.

30 under 30: the annual list

18.

30 under 30: ones to watch

20.

Cutting edge: five chefs and their favourite knives

26.

Douglas McMaster on launching Silo in London

30.

Head to head: the Hart brothers

32.

What’s fuelling CODE this season

34.

In conversation with… Robin Gill

38.

Tools of the Trade: cocktail essentials at the Connaught

44.

A look behind the scenes at Food on the Edge

48.

The creative force of cover illustrator Rozalina Burkova

50.

Adam Hyman finds luxury in the Highlands

52.

Prosecco goes pop

56.

On the shelf: the latest food books reviewed

59.

The drinks report: kombucha

60.

Instagrab: food shots of the season

61.

A classic revisited: Maggie Jones

62.

Staff meal: Chris Leach of Manteca shares a recipe

Publisher Adam Hyman Editor Lisa Markwell Creative Director Alexander Taralezhkov

Contributors Harriet Clare Loyd Grossman Chloë Hamilton Katie Hammond Eduardo Hart Sam Hart Chris Leach Anna Sulan Masing Douglas McMaster Harriet Prior

Head office CODE Hospitality WeWork 199 Bishopsgate London EC2M 3TY Tel: +44 20 7104 2007 contact@codehospitality.co.uk @CODEhospitality @codehospitality CODE Quarterly (online) ISSN 2398-9726

Front cover illustrated by Rozalina Burkova (@thedrawingdoor) Printed on recycled paper by DataComuniqué

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Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

4 issues from just £16 Never miss an issue of the hospitality industry’s must-read magazine. From interviews with industry leaders to inspiring stories of collaboration, plus news, travel, shopping book reviews and much more. For more information and to order, visit codehospitality.co.uk

We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see pre-batched cocktails as a way to speed up service. We see them as the way to deliver consistent, perfectly balanced serves using the best ingredients we can get our hands on. That means partnering with brilliant independent distilleries, staying true to classic recipes and tweaking every element of every drink until itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perfect. All while pushing the boundaries of how and when to serve great cocktails.

blacklinesdrinks.com blacklinesdrinks.com

on tap | in bottle

Cocktails Cocktails On Tap done differently.

Staff briefing What’s hot 2019 has been a tumultuous year for the industry. As it draws to a close, you can almost hear a collective sigh of relief from restaurateurs that it’s nearly over. It’s tough out there at the moment and the seemingly never ending uncertainty of Brexit continues to knock consumer confidence for six. If we all decide to eat out that bit less, it massively hits the restaurant trade. Which is why it’s more important than ever to shine a light on the young, emerging talent in our industry across the UK. From street food vendors to farmers to financial directors – we have published our annual ‘30 under 30’ in association with CMS Law for 2019/20 in this issue (p.10). As always, it’s inspiring to see what this year’s group have achieved before they’ve even turned 30 and a reminder that hospitality is not only a proper career but one where you can achieve so much at a young age. Finally, over the past 18 months at CODE we have been looking at how we can continue to evolve and offer our community the best experience. It’s for this reason that we have launched our new membership and website. For more information take a look at p.42 of this Quarterly and do also visit our website: codehospitality.co.uk. As always, thank you for your continued support and wishing you a relaxing Christmas and a happy new year. I look forward to seeing you in 2020. Adam Hyman Founder, CODE @AdamMHyman

Caviar The ultimate riposte to economic uncertainty?

The talking cure Great to see so many hospitality folk opening up about their struggles

Thinking big Market Hall West End shows that size matters when you want to make a big impact on Oxford Street

Manchester A star, big names, groovy breweries and more... no wonder Londoners are heading north

What’s not Flat surfaces We don’t like food in steepsided bowls, but neither on flat slabs. What’s wrong with good old plates?

Lisa Markwell Editor, CODE @HoldsKnifeLikePen

Shame on show-offs Those promotional events and shoots where food and/or drinks are just not consumed is very, very uncool

Builders We wish they’d get their jobs done on time... we’re hungry for those new restaurants

Holidays on Instagram We’re all working flat-out till after Christmas, so save us the smug, sun-drenched selfies please

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Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

I’m always fascinated by knives – please don’t mark me down as a potential serial killer. There’s something about the way so many chefs protect their beloved blades and spend inordinate amounts of money on bespoke knives. So it was a pleasure to hear what five characters feel about this essential part of their work kit. Meanwhile this is my first opportunity to welcome a new member of the CODE family, editorial assistant Harriet Prior. She has made an immediate impact, writing up interviews for the above feature, having a cocktail masterclass at the Connaught, tirelessly researching new openings and making sure our 30 under 30 are, indeed, in the right age bracket! As CODE grows, I’d love to hear about what’s important to you and what you’d like to see in the magazine. Do let me know, I’m on lisa@codehospitality.co.uk Meanwhile good luck for the busy festive season, see you in spring!

In season We’re not saying you need anything new right now, but just in case, here’s all that’s new and desirable

Would like to meat

‘Tis the season to get your hands on a limited-edition Cannon & Cannon meat box. The box includes seaweed and cider Cornish charcuterie, mushroom and truffle salami, Welsh lamb merguez salami and much, much more. £35, cannonandcannon.com

Sauce material

Even Michelin-starred chefs can appreciate the need for a good condiment, and Tom Kerridge has brought us the ketchup range we never knew we needed. Step up your sauce game with flavours including chipotle, black garlic and a favourite in Kerridge’s restaurant: gherkin. £12.95 for 2, tomkerridge.com

Hey suckers

Made in collaboration with Stockley’s, who have been handcrafting confectionery for more than a century, Harvey Nichols negroni spritz balls, martini suckers and pisco sours taste like the real thing. They’re also alcohol-free, so having a ‘drink’ at your work desk is finally acceptable. £3.95, harveynichols.com

Pinch me

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Falcon has been perfecting the art of enamelware since 1920, and their pinch pots are their most versatile piece yet. The ideal size for condiments, sauces, butter portions, salt, pepper, spice and all things nice, they make the perfect finishing touch at any table. £5, falconenamelware.com

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Eastern promise

We hope you have better selfrestraint than the CODE team, who finished Arabica’s delectable Turkish delight in minutes. The middle eastern food at Arabica is a total hit and they have tasty treats to buy too. With flavours including rose, apple, pistachio and mint, there is something for everyone. £4.50, shop.arabicalondon.com

Hot stuff

Your favourite hot sauce just got hotter. A twist on the classic recipe, Tabasco’s sriracha sauce combines spicy, sweet and savoury flavours, turning up the classic heat associated with their sauces. Feel the burn, in a good way... £3.99, tabasco.com

It used to be a kitchen staple, but cling film is fast becoming a thing of the past. The Beeswax Wrap Co has the people-friendly and planetfriendly alternative which can be used time and time again. Unlike their plastic counterpart, the wraps are reusable, biodegradable, and stop nasties leaching into your food during storage. Win, win, and win! £10, beeswaxwraps.co.uk -7-

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Wrapper’s delight

CODE breaking

London

Noble Rot

Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew recently announced their plans to breathe life back into the historic Gay Hussar on Greek Street, which has been empty since its closure in June. Restaurant and wine bar Noble Rot Soho will take over the site, marking the second opening for the duo following the monumental success of their Lamb’s Conduit Street location.

Muse

The eyes and ears of the industry

Tom Aikens is returning to the kitchen in the new year to launch a new restaurant, Muse. Situated in a renovated mews house in Belgravia, the cosy 25-cover restaurant will serve a seasonal, minimalistic tasting menu drawing inspiration from memories of his early childhood and professional path throughout the years. Split between two floors with an open plan theatre kitchen, diners will be able to watch Aikens and his team in action.

Oklava Bakery + Wine

We were sad to hear about the closure of Kyseri in November, but Selin Kiazim and Laura Christie have announced they are re-opening the site as a neighbourhood bakery and wine bar. The project will see Kiazim fulfil her personal passion for Turkish baking, as well as Christie’s love of wines from the same region. Turkish breads will be available all day, alongside a selection of pastries.

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Inhabit Hotel Cleveland Square

They only opened their Southwick Street destination last September, but the urban wellness hotel Inhabit is now opening its second site. Set to launch in early 2021, the property will be on Cleveland Square in Bayswater. With a similar ethos to the first, the hotel will seek to promote positive habits with soothing rooms and vegan breakfasts, whilst remaining true to its philosophy of mindful travel.

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Rest of the UK

In addition to our weekly digital Bulletin, here we round up this quarter’s biggest news in the global restaurant and hotel scene. By Harriet Prior

Aktar Islam and the team behind Craft Dining Rooms are launching the Craft English Garden in Birmingham. The garden terrace and dining room will be located on the Canalside at the ICC, complete with a bar and dining pods for groups. The nostalgic menu will feature traditional British dishes, whilst the drinks menu will offer 32 British gins and wines from vineyards across the UK.

28 Market Place, Somerset

Launching in January 2020, 28 Market Place is the first solo venture from husband and wife Ben and Vanessa Crofton. The restaurant, bakery and wine shop are housed in a group of grade II listed buildings in the picturesque market town of Somerton, Somerset. Daniel Fletcher, finalist of Great British Menu in 2018, will head up the kitchen, serving a modern European menu with local produce where possible - the perfect escape to the countryside.

The Mayson Hotel, Dublin

Set in the bustling Dublin’s docklands, The Mayson hotel sews together two protected buildings, forming part of the wider restoration of the historic area. The hotel spans five floors, featuring 94 stunning suites and bedrooms, Ryleigh’s Rooftop Restaurant - complete with exceptional views across Dublin - and The Mayson Bar serving craft cocktails. To top it off, the hotel also has a premium gym and boutique barber shop.

Lerpwl, Liverpool

Mama Paris West

Rest of the world

Craft English Garden, Birmingham

Mama Shelter is heading back to where it all started a decade ago to open its second property in Paris and 12th in the group’s global portfolio. Located in the 15th arrondissement, the affordable boutique hotel have 207 rooms with simplicity and style. Guests can enjoy 360-degree views of the city on the rooftop, work out in the hotel gym or relax in the sauna. With worldrenowned architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte and designer Dion & Arles on board, the hotel will be at home in the fashion capital of the world.

Da Toscano, New York

Duo Michael and Caitlin Toscono are returning to New York to open Da Toscano at 24 Minetta Lane. The restaurant will be housed at the site of former Michelinstarred restaurant Perla, incidentally where Michael was the opening executive chef. He will serve regional Italian food, with a selection of pasta and seafood dishes, cooked in a wood-burning oven. Caitlin, with previous experience at Del Posto and Per Se, will run the restaurant.

Nobu Hotel Warsaw

The collection continues to expand, and the latest destination for the Nobu Hotels group is Warsaw, with their first Polish property expected to open in spring 2020 at the centre of the historic city. The 117 rooms, expansive meeting and event spaces, fitness centre and eponymous restaurant are being designed by the local Polish architectural firm Medusa Group, alongside Californian Studio PCH. Situated on Wilcza Street, the hotel will be on the site of the Hotel Rialto.

Arctic Bath Hotel, Swedish Lapland

The extraordinary floating Arctic Bath hotel, spa and restaurant, opening in January 2020, will give guests the opportunity to immerse themselves in nature and catch a glimpse of the Northern lights. The restaurant will serve local and sustainable Scandinavian dishes, whilst the highlight of the holistic spa is the open-air cold bath under the northern sky designed to help you refresh and revitalise.

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It’s been a couple of years in the making, and now brothers Ellis and Liam Barrie have announced the name of their new restaurant on Liverpool’s historic Albert Dock. Lerpwl, translated fittingly as the Welsh name for the city, will open its doors in February 2020, with the menu serving to highlight the trade that links Liverpool has with the rest of the world. Lerpwl will be the second opening for the brothers, following their restaurant Marram Grass in Anglesey.

In association with

Anaïs van Manen, 28

Tomáš Kubart, 26

Fed up of staring a laptop all day, van Manen began cooking at 21. Her international career has taken her to Bogota and the restaurants Bones in Paris and alongside Michael Hazlewood at Antidote in London. Since then, she has hosted several pop-ups celebrating modern Vietnamese food, works with Kitchenette Karts, and is part of the team at the crowd-funded Dalston café Snackbar. Van Manen currently works for BAO as their head of research and development.

It’s been an outstanding year for Kubart as he was named the 2019 Restaurant Nanager of the Year by the Instititute of Hospitality and the Academy of Food and Wine Service. At 26, Kubart already has 10 years of hospitality experience, having begun his career as a waiter at the Mandarin Oriental in Prague at 16. Following a stint at Bar Boulud, where he worked his way through the ranks to maitre d’, Kubart joined the team at Kerridge’s Bar & Grill before its opening in the Corinthia hotel in 2017.

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Head of research and development, BAO

CODE’s annual list of rising stars has, this year, focused on a real mixture of familiar names and less-familiar faces – all of whom are making waves in the hospitality industry. Our celebration includes, on page 18, some newcomers who are definitely ‘ones to watch’ -10-

Restaurant director, Kerridge’s Bar & Grill

CMS is a top ten global law firm with a leading hospitality and leisure team that provides domestic and international support to some of the world’s fastest growing restaurant businesses and concepts. Our full offering provides a seamless service to up-and-coming, as well as global and sophisticated, hospitality businesses. We have significant experience advising clients on a variety of matters in the restaurant sector. For buyers and sellers of restaurant chains, franchisors of their concepts, property developers, investors and founders on the establishment of new

Sam Orbaum, 28 Restaurant manager, The Drop

Daniel Smith James Timmins Ollie Gold, 29 Founder, Pophams and Natasha and Julia With such a cult following it’s hard to believe that the café and bakery Norton-Smith, Jeffries, both 26 Pophams only opened its doors in with founder Ollie Gold at Co-founders, Utter Waffle 2017, the helm. Gold spent seven years both 27 Both previously chefs at the All working in catering departments Co-founders, The Fordwich Arms

England Lawn Tennis Club, it was Colombia that inspired the pair to start Utter Waffle. Timmins & Jeffries noticed a savoury crepe culture: fresh, inexpensive social food you can eat with your hands, and were keen to bring something similar back home. They began experimenting with waffles and, as Timmins is a coeliac, they wanted to create street food that was inclusive and approachable. Despite being a young company, they have already been featured on Sunday Brunch, ITV News London and won three British Street Food Awards.

Having met 12 years ago at catering college, the pair have quickly become big stars of the hospitality industry. The opening of The Fordwich Arms in Canterbury two years ago is the culmination of their efforts (he is chef/partner and she is pastry chef/partner). The restaurant fast became a monumental success. The pub was awarded a Michelin star after 10 months and was recently rated best pub in the UK. -11-

in various Formula 1 teams, and when a derelict chemist in Islington became available, Gold was able to turn his vision of opening a bakery into a reality. Now with three sites, Gold continues to work on ensuring Popham’s creations are both eye-catching and great quality.

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Orbaum opted for a career change in 2017, joining Quo Vadis as a waiter following a career in PR. His aim was to learn about hospitality with a view to writing about restaurants. Instead, Orbaum found his vocation and fast became a customer favourite. As such, he was an obvious choice for restaurant manager when Harts Group opened The Drop wine bar and restaurant in King’s Cross, where he now leads the restaurant, curates the wine list and oversees the drop-in event series.

businesses, outsourcing contractual agreements, health and safety provisions, trademark brand protection and helping clients with their dispute issues. We not only offer a full menu of legal services but we can also provide access to an unrivalled network of contacts of owners, executives, investors and funders. As the company’s David Roberts says, “CMS has a long history of supporting hospitality talent in the UK. We act for several of the country’s leading chefs and restaurateurs and regularly help them transition from the kitchen and restaurant to the boardroom.”

Santiago Lastra, 29

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Founder and chef, Kol

Set to be one of the biggest openings of 2020, Kol will be the debut restaurant for Lastra. ‘Col’, adapted by Lastra to read Kol, means cabbage in Mexican Spanish, representing his belief that the simplest things can be made extraordinary if you believe in them. Following two years of travelling the globe and research trips around the UK to gather inspiration, alongside returning to his homeland to launch Noma Mexico in 2017 as project manager, Lastra is a chef with a passion for combining his native techniques with local ingredients.

Amir Mousavi, 28

Toby Grace Burrowes, 28 Regan, 29

Group development chef, CH & Co at Sky Studios

Head chef, Elystan Street

Whilst food has always been a passion of his, Mousavi only began a professional chef career after dropping out of art school and moving to London from Amsterdam. After co-founding street-food business VOL and working at Fera at Claridge’s, he soon found his passion in food development. In September 2018, Mousavi assumed the role of group development chef in Sky Studios, forming an integral part of the team that looks after the menu and concept development of 27 Sky sites serving almost 30,000 colleagues daily. -12-

Australian-born Burrowes started his culinary career at 14 at a family-run Italian restaurant, where he first discovered his love for cooking. He moved to London in 2013 and joined Phil Howard in the kitchen at the two-Michelin-starred The Square, where he worked through the ranks to sous chef. Since becoming head chef at Elystan Street, the restaurant has achieved numerous accolades, such as AA Restaurant of the Year for London 2017-2018, and held a Michelin star since 2017.

Founder, SpiceBox

A serial entrepreneur, Regan was named one of the UK’s best young entrepreneurs in 2015 for her first start-up Clippet news, leading her to Silicon Valley: while there, she became vegan. Disillusioned by the tech world and keen to make her dream of opening a curry house a reality, Grace founded SpiceBox from her kitchen home. She then entered the world of street food, with SpiceBox named a YBFs finalist; this year she opened her first vegan curry house in Walthamstow.

Niall Keating, 28 Executive chef, Whatley Manor

Founder, Kelly’s Cause

During her training at Le Cordon Bleu London, she met Kelly, the foundation’s namesake, who had struggled with mentalhealth difficulties throughout her life, worsened by the unforgiving atmosphere she faced in the workplace. Kelly took her own life at 23, the motivation behind Tobie-Anna founding Kelly’s Cause. Her aim is to honour Kelly’s legacy by making tangible steps towards protecting the wellbeing of all hospitality employees by providing mental health training in hospitality through custom-designed first aid courses.

Luca Piscazzi, 30

Head chef, La Dame de Pic

After graduating in Italy, Piscazzi first got his foot in the kitchen door at distinguished Aspleys at The Lanesborough. Subsequently, he has held key positions in highly acclaimed restaurants across the world, including the three-Michelinstarred La Pergola in Rome and Mandarin Oriental’s two-star Amber in Hong Kong. Returning to London, Piscazzi is now head chef at Anne-Sophie Pic’s first restaurant in the UK, Le Dame de Pic, which was awarded two Michelin stars this year.

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Allegra

Joel Holmes, 27, general manager Conor Daly, 27, restaurant manager Charlie Crote, 24, junior sous chef An impressive young team is behind The Stratford’s seventh floor restaurant Allegra. General manager Holmes moved to London to pursue a career in hospitality, working at Corbin & King and Petersham Nurseries before joining Patrick Powell’s team. Similarly, restaurant manager Daly began his career at 13, with previous experience at Sorella and The Laughing Heart. Junior sous chef Crote, with a wealth of experience including five years at the Ritz, completes this impressive under-30 team.

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A man of many achievements, Keating joined Whatley Manor as executive chef in 2017 and soon after, he was awarded a Michelin star. He was praised in the Michelin Guide 2018 for his daring and innovative cooking and awarded Michelin Young European Chef of the Year 2018, an award collected in front of some of the world’s most prestigious chefs.

Tobie-Anna Durk, 26

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Alice Cross, 27 James Dye, 29 Afees Bello, 28 Merlin People partner, Dishoom Financial director, Group back-of-house LabronIn what seems like a unique job operations manager, role, Cross has made an immense Camberwell Arms, Frank’s Johnson, 29 impact after joining Dishoom Café, Peckham Springs and Corbin & King as their first people partner in 2018. She quickly became a beacon of  Dishoom’s values and has helped define and craft their approach to wellbeing. Cross has launched a programme for the team that supports individuals with mental, physical and financial wellbeing, transforming how Dishoom induct new joiners, leading to lower staff turnover and increased internal promotion.

Bello joined Corbin & King in 2012 as the assistant back-ofDye’s entrepreneurial spirit has house manager for the opening always been evident, hosting club of Brasserie Zédel, before moving nights around south London on to The Beaumont, where at 18. As a successful founding he was awarded a Shining Star director of Peckham Springs, a award by Boutique Hotelier in cocktail bar under the railway 2018. Bello recently re-joined arch, he later became financial Corbin & King to lead the director at both Frank’s Café and back-of-house operations for Bar Story. In 2017 Dye joined the all seven restaurants within the team at Camberwell Arms. To group, overseeing more than add to his busy schedule, Dye has 100 personnel and ensuring recently completed a Master’s the smooth running of the degree in Urban Planning and department. Real Estate at UCL.

Bar Story

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Founder and chef, Osip

The time finally arrived for Labron-Johnson’s first solo project this year, as he opened Osip in November. After working in Michelin-starred restaurants across the globe and winning a Michelin star for Portland at just 24, Labron-Johnson’s new venture is in rural Somerset within the small Number One Bruton hotel. His small farmto-table restaurant serves menus made up of hyper-local produce.

Kate Alex Frobisher, 29 Nietosvuori, Founder, Urban Pantry 27 Frobisher trained at Leith’s School

Chef de partie, Kala

It’s hard to believe that Wallace Founder and head chef, Hjem is just 23, with a CV featuring Murano and Merchant’s Tavern Originally from Landskrona amongst others. Wallace’s in Sweden, Nietosvuori moved difficult start in life, as touched to London in 2016 after an upon in Gary Usher’s Channel initial pop-up with Carousel. In 4 Documentary ‘The Rebel early 2019, he opened Hjem in Chef: my restaurant revolution’, Northumbria with his partner Ally Thompson. The name is the highlights the determination Northumbrian and Scandinavian which has been key to his career going from strength to strength. word for ‘home’, and the Recently named as OFM’s restaurant shines a spotlight ‘Young Chef of the Year’, on Northumberland produce Wallace is now chef de partie at together with Scandinavian cooking techniques. The 24-seat Usher’s Kala in central Manchester. restaurant has already received high praise from guests and critics alike. -15-

Dhruv Mittal, 28 Founder, DUM Biryani and Lucknow 49

Born in India and raised in Manchester, Mittal always dreamed of opening his own restaurant. So, he took matters into his own hands and travelled across India to develop knowledge of the cuisine, opening DUM Biryani House in London in 2016. Last April Mittal opened his second restaurant Lucknow 49 in Mayfair, an Indian restaurant specialising in that city’s cuisine.

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of Food and Wine before jetting off to Sydney for the year, where she fell in love with their breakfast culture. Inspired by her travels, she opened Urban Pantry singlehandedly in 2015 at 24. It proved to be a hit, winning three Time Out London Awards and winning the 2019 National Breakfast Awards for Best Breakfast in the UK. Now, Frobisher is launching ‘Through Loving Cuisine’, a gifting business for customers to send quality comforting dishes to friends in need.

Danny Wallace, 23

Georgia Hutcheon, 25

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Managing director and head of events, Arnold and Henderson

Julius Roberts, 27

Ravneet Gill, 28

Farmer, Thomson Farm

Having worked at Noble Rot in London, Roberts escaped to the countryside to transform his family cottage in Suffolk into a Raised in New Zealand, productive smallholding. He lives Georgia Hutcheon recognises the predominantly off home-grown power of food to bring people produce or foraged treasures together. She joined the Four Corners Group as a manager found in the surrounding woods, at 17, opening its flagship inspiring others to cook more restaurant Ombra a year later. adventurously, seasonally and Hutcheon discovered her love of sustainably. His approach seems events when moving to Melbourne, to be catching on, with a growing joining the Caravan events team following on his Instagram  upon her return. She joined Arnold @telltalefood keen to learn about & Henderson in 2017, running everything from keeping bees their new site Rochelle Canteen at to sheep shearing, how to milk the ICA, and has worked her way goats and trim their toenails. up to become managing director of the whole business.  -16-

Founder, Countertalk

As an experienced pastry chef, previously working at Black Axe Mangal, St. JOHN Bread and Wine and most recently new opening Wild by Tart, Gill has experienced first-hand the difficulties associated with working in hospitality. Her platform Countertalk works to make the hospitality industry better for everyone, encouraging businesses to consider the wellbeing of their staff.

Maya Tarrant, 27

Head of bar culture and training, JKS restaurants

Starting her career in Bristol, Tarrant successfully lead the team at The Blind Pig in Jason Atherton’s Social Eating House to a Tales of the Cocktail ‘best restaurant bar in the world’ award. In 2016 Tarrant joined JKS restaurants as head of bar culture and training, where she creates individual plans for team member development and seeks to create a positive and consistent culture across 15 restaurants and bars.

Rémy Baben, 25

Assistant restaurant manager and wine buyer, Wild Honey St James

Giorgio Bargiani, 30 Head mixologist, The Connaught Bar

Tom Booton, 26, head chef Adam Nevin, 25, sous chef Eugenio Egorov, 29, head sommelier Jennifer Santner, 28, general manager With the head chef, sous chef, head sommelier and general manager all under the age of 30, The Grill at The Dorchester is certainly trusting young talent to launch the restaurant into a new era. One of London’s finest young talents, Booton is the youngest ever head chef of the Grill. He will work alongside sous chef Nevin, who joined from The Hand & Flowers. Egorov takes on the role of head sommelier, whilst Santner leads the team as general manager. -17-

Restaurant manager, Lorne Restaurant

An early starter, Mariano’s career has already taken him to Oxo Tower and The Square as head waiter before working as assistant manager at TW2. At 24, he has now joined the team at Lorne, taking on the role of restaurant manager. Mariano is praised for his manner with guests, whilst he has also helped to improve staff retention at the restaurant.

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The Connaught Bar recently voted the best bar in Europe at Originally from France, Baben the World’s 50 Best Bars 2019 kicked off his career in hospitality awards. Bargiani’s remarkable at Michelin-starred restaurant contributions to innovations Blue Bay in Monaco. Baben within the Connaught Bar left France in 2015 to work at have seen him named as head The Landmark, before joining mixologist early in his career. the Sofitel Group, working in He regularly guest speaks both Philadelphia and London. at Bartender.it events, with When The Balcon relaunched hundreds of Italian bartenders as Wild Honey St James earlier travelling to listen to his expert this year, Baben was promoted to insights. (See page 38.) assistant restaurant manager, as well as looking after the beverage offering and wine list.

Bruno The Grill at The Dorchester Mariano, 24

ONES TO WATCH IN 2 O 2 O

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James Dainton, 23

Pierce Aungier, 24

Assistant restaurant manager, Northall, Corinthia London

Junior account manager, Bacchus

Dainton began his career at The Arden Arms at just 13. He went on to become head waiter at Gravetye Manor in West Sussex, before moving to Cliveden in Berkshire. Relocating to London in 2017, Dainton was assistant restaurant manager at Michelin-starred Pétrus in Belgravia, before joining Corinthia London in 2018 as assistant restaurant manager of The Northall restaurant.

Starting his professional PR career in 2017, Aungier works with some of the UK’s most talented restaurants and chefs at Bacchus. With a passion for the restaurant business and a keen food fan, his clients include Allegra at The Stratford, Momo and internationally renowned bakery Poilâne. He is currently working on Mourad’s latest offering, Mo Diner, alongside the two new sites from the Joël Robuchon group.

Charles Roberts, 24

Amelia Harper, 28

Guest relations manager and maitre d’, Sette and Nolita Social

Area marketing manager, Rosewood London

Starting off as VIP guest relations assistant at the O2 Arena, Roberts joined the opening team of Sexy Fish. After three successful years, Roberts stayed with Richard Caring as he moved across to be part of the pre-opening team of the re-invented Annabel’s, where he was maître d’ for the Rose Room and Garden. He is now guest relations manager and maitre d’ for Sette and Nolita Social, located inside the Bvlgari Hotel London, looking after VIP and celebrity relations.

Harper joined Rosewood with five years’ experience in the luxury sector, beginning her career with a placement at Harrods, followed by two years as a marketing executive at Conrad St James, where she was awarded that hotel’s General Manager’s Employee of the Year in 2014. Harper now works to increase the Rosewood brand awareness across Europe, with her strategies so successful that other Rosewood properties have decided to implement them.

Gianmichele Papa, 22 Head waiter, Brigadiers

apa joined the team at P the JKS group restaurant Brigadiers when it opened, having previously worked at Tom’s Kitchen. Despite English being his second language he has improved swiftly and has made a big impact in a short amount of time. The JKS management team remarked that they have never seen such a sharper rise in performance in such a short amount of time, leading to Papa being promoted to head waiter within 18 months.

Ross Mangan, 28 Head chef, Rye by the Water

Going back to the early days of The Dairy Group in 2014, Mangan covered the role of demi chef de partie as they launched The Manor. Since then, he has been involved in multiple projects, opening Sorella in 2018 as sous chef, and most recently taking up the post of head chef at Rye by the Water, part of The Dairy group. Mangan masterminded a business plan, concept and direction for the west London restaurant, with the team praising him for treating it like his own. -18-

Dominik Jurasz, 26

Head tea sommelier, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

Jurasz discovered his love for tea when he moved from Poland to the UK. He is currently the head tea sommelier at Mandarin Oriental, where he works diligently on an ever-growing variety of teas to serve depending on season and trends. The fruits of his labour are evident with his recent accolade of ‘Best Tea Service’ by Tea UK.

Harry Brooks, 25

Restaurant manager, The Farmers Arms

With a passion for cooking, Brooks entered the industry fresh out of school as a commis chef before working in the French Alps as a chalet chef. Since his return, he’s worked at both Five Bells and The Seafood Restaurant Padstow. He’s now settled in North Devon, as restaurant manager of The Farmers Arms, a recently renovated historic village pub in Woolsery, helping to guide the pub and restaurant through its ambitious rejuvenation project.

Kitty Tait, 15 Founder, The Orange Bakery

By far the youngest on our list, Tait founded The Orange Bakery alongside her father at the age of 15 and, as she says of their products on their website, if you can’t find them, just look for the queue! They bake 100 loaves of bread a day, as well as cinnamon buns, cheese straws and more for the shop and sell out in under two hours. We’ll certainly be looking out for what Kitty gets up to in the future.

Bella Babbit, 25

Restaurant manager, The Laughing Heart

Being a wine pro seems to come naturally to Babbit. She previously worked as junior sommelier at The Clove Club and Luca, before moving on to join The Laughing Heart, where she currently covers the role of restaurant manager. Alongside the owner Charlie Mellor, Babbit continues to develop an individual and unique approach to the wine list.

HAPPINESS IN HOSPITALITY 2O19 A survey of the industry as a place to work

Soho House’s UK executive chef Kady Yon; Ceri Gott, HR Director of Hawksmoor and Corbin & King’s Ninoska Leppard, who is Group Personnel & Development Director. CODE would like to thank our Happiness in Hospitality headline sponsor Yapster. The event was supported by Quandoo, with breakfast food and drinks supplied by Wild by Tart and Union Coffee

Sponsored content

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The most important thing is to have a natural passion for what you do. Always stay humble and maintain a very positive attitudeâ&#x20AC;&#x153;

Head to head In each edition we ask two industry figures to share their own opinions on a subject exercising the food world. This season, the Hart brothers compare notes on running restaurants in two cities

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SAM HART REPORTING FROM LONDON

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EDDIE HART REPORTING FROM PALMA

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Each season, publisher Adam Hyman and editor Lisa Markwell make it their business to check out new restaurants and old favourites. These are the places that fuelled this edition of CODE Quarterly

In conversation with... One of the hospitality industry’s most popular figures is Robin Gill, chef patron of The Dairy, Sorella, Counter Culture, Darby’s and – as of this month – all food at the new Great Scotland Yard Hotel. How does such a prolific restaurateur find time to relax? And how does he recruit and keep staff in such a tumultuous economic climate? Lisa Markwell had breakfast with him at Darby’s to find out more. Photographs by Harriet Clare

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I was curious about how you got into food and came across an article in the Irish Times about the abuse you suffered in your first kitchen, back in Dublin. It made me wonder why on earth you stuck at it. I got into cooking because I felt I’d failed so many other things, while I was trying to follow in my parents’ footsteps in many ways. They’re really successful, really hard workers. My dad was a really well-known musician. My mother was a really successful choreographer and stage director. I didn’t want to fail but I felt like anything I tried, I gave up, you know. This was kind of my last chance. I had a real tough time in the first kitchen I worked in, bullying and all that but to be honest with you, I did really love the cooking side of it. I loved the atmosphere, but it was just the most horrific experience. And that’s why I was vocal about it many years on… Then I came to London and ended up at working for Marco Pierre White at the Oak Room. I was like ‘out of the frying pan into the fat fryer!’ That must be mad, looking back on that now, but one of the things that I see about the way you and Sarah [Gill runs the operation with his wife] run the business is that sense of like family, kindness and inclusivity is, it feels like that’s a real trademark of the way you run things. Do you think that’s because from your experience you how hard it can be to work in hospitality? Do you think “I must remember never to let it be like that?” I think sub-consciously it is, but it’s not like I made a decision to say, “right, this is how I’m going to run things,” but, you know what? I actually always just think of it as a practical approach. I’ve dedicated my life to this, and we all have to work incredible hours. Especially when you launch your own business… You think you work pretty hard when you’re working 70, 80 hours a week, for someone, but you can always go home after that and switch off. There’s no switching off now. I just felt practically, “OK, if I’m dedicating my life to this, I want to enjoy myself, I want to have fun while I’m at work”. And then I thought, “well then everybody needs to have fun.” I can’t think it could be just fun for me. So that’s why I want everybody

to enjoy the environment. I’ve worked for like people with big reputations, like Marco. He has got a bit of a reputation, or his kitchens do, but I have to say I felt like I was part of a family there. Also when I went to Le Manoir, because there had been some brutal stories that have come out of there too, but I felt like I was part of a family there and we all felt, “we’re dedicated but we should all enjoy it.” And that’s what I wanted for, for everything I do now. Brutal or kind, it’s still an really difficult job, working in a restaurant – you’re going to burn yourself, cut yourself, get shouted at… Do you think there’s a certain kind of person who just thrives on that, as you did? I do. I’m not a gambler, but there is this sort of risk factor, that when it comes off, there’s an incredible high from it. So when you go to any service, you’re gambling. “Oh my God, do I have enough of this, are we going to run out of that? How are people going to order? Are we going to survive with this amount of people in the kitchen?” You’re looking at the bookings and there’s a fear factor there. And then when you get through it, there’s an incredible high. That’s better than anything, and I think that’s what people get really addicted to - and the creativity obviously as well. By 2013, when you opened The Dairy, did you have a plan. Did you think “I’m going to open my own place and then in the future I’m going to open another,” or did you think, “let’s just do this one thing”? I thought I’d only ever have one restaurant, and there was no intention to have another. But what I found was that I thought my skill set was actually better with people, and it was weird because I was actually a bit more controlling when I was the head chef of restaurants. I was much more controlling over the menu and I didn’t just let people put dishes on and things. I had to have the final say over everything, and then because of opening The Dairy, I was actually pulled in so many other directions. Like I was having arguments with the builders, trying to get the business set up from all angles, and I actually couldn’t physically be in the kitchen. So like Richie, who now runs Lino, and -34-

Dean who’s running a couple of things here, I didn’t see them as sort of my CDPs or junior sous or head chef, we were all one. For example, I wrote the very first menu and came up with this style and said ‘this is what we’re going to do’. But then I turned around to the guys and said, well, how are we going to do it? We ended up all collaborating on that very first one. So... and then that became the sort of formula for it all. And, what I found from that was like, that was probably the greatest menu I’ve ever done, because it wasn’t just all me, it was a collaboration. So that’s kind of how it grew. And then, then I thought like, wow, we’ve become quite successful! Let’s jump ahead and talk about Darby’s. You grew to have Sorella and Counter Culture in Clapham but Darby’s, a huge restaurant in another part of town, is a completely different kettle of fish. How have you found it? It’s like building something from scratch, being involved in something with everything from the property developers (who have been very supportive) to lighting engineers, sound engineers so many sort of details like that, and being in like around a room with all these professionals, that was kind of mad, annoying but also like completely a learning curve. Working with really top of-their-game restaurant designers, which I’ve never worked with before. We’ve always done everything in-house. So that was like an amazing opportunity. Then when it actually comes to sort of running it, it was terrifying because we’d moved into a new area, and there’s been so many firsts for us here. Like it’s our first seven-day operation. We’re such great communicators within our little group. We’re always talking, daily briefings, every Wednesday the front and back of house sit down together, and have a whole list of things to talk about… And it’s really hard to do that here because the place is constantly running. And it’s the first time we’ve had a proper bar, and the first full-on bakery with wholesale delivery drivers. And then we have live music, so you have to book performers, all that kind of stuff. It’s the first time where I’ve had to look at a venue and go, ‘it’s so much more than just cooking and hospitality’. It’s constantly thinking about the business, and how it works.

Gill

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But I would add that in my mind, Embassy Gardens as a location is not ideal, because it’s a building site 90% of the way around. This area doesn’t really feel like a community. Do you just have to wait for that to come? What I think what we’re kind of tasked with is trying to almost create that community. And that’s why I think we’re here because we’re known as a great neighbourhood restaurant in Clapham and there you see familiar faces. We have a lot of regulars that are now friends and people that come all the time. That’s what we’re attempting to do here. So what we have, which is amazing, is a lot of people that are living and working around this area, and a lot of people who are working from home. People are using this like a private members’ club. What we experienced in our first couple of months was just people coming in, going, “Thank God you guys are here. We’ve been told this was gonna happen five years ago.” My favourite quote from someone is, “see you tomorrow”. Not see you soon, it’s see you tomorrow, and they’re back the next day. And they come in and have their breakfast meetings. They’re there on their laptops. Then they’ll have a few things we have in the evening. They’re bringing their kids in on Sunday or entertaining pals. So there’s people literally coming daily.

on to the Great Scotland Yard Hotel [Gill is running the entire F&B operation for the new hotel, which is part of the Hyatt group]. That’s a lot to take on, and in a very crowded marketplace… It’s not my own project, but it’s still got my name all over it! The hotel’s full tilt right now. I’m cycling between the two all the time – it only takes about ten minutes! We’ve been in the kitchens quite a while, recipe testing, doing soft launches, dry runs, all that kind of stuff. The main restaurant is called The Yard, which is like a small little place, 55-60 seats. Then there’s like a modern tea room called the Parlour, which is this beautiful looking, very fine colonial room. And a whisky bar called Sibin and, as well, an all-day bar called The 40 Elephants. That’s named after this band of lady criminals who ran

Thinking about the family trees of restaurants - from Le Manoir to St. JOHN to the River Café… Now you are in that position because you’ve had, in little time, some great people still with you, or who have gone on to do something else. I’m really proud of that. Ben [Rand] at Rye by the Water; Richie [Falk] at Lino; Patrick who’s in Kudu. And, there’s a lot of people, even like Laoise, who went off to be a development chef. There’s quite a few people gone back to Dublin and things they’re doing really well. So that’s amazing to see.

amuck around the 1900’s. They were based at Elephant and Castle – hence the name. But they used to pretend to be maids, go into the fine houses and then ransack the place. I think their descendants are still around!

It barely feels like Darby’s has got going and now you’re

You are, with Darby’s and Great Scotland Yard Hotel, completing

the transition from chef to restaurateur, then? I don’t claim to be the executive chef in of all our spaces. Everyone knows who Dean [Parker] is, because he’s a partner, and he’s running the kitchen, here at Darby’s. We’ve got a great relationship. And I’ve a great relationship with Will who heads the kitchen at The Dairy. Basically if we were to get a [Michelin] star at the Dairy it would be Will. I have made that transition but I am 100% a cook and I need to do services because it’s good for my headspace. And in fact I love cooking; I love to get involved and doing lots of different things. So right now I’m full-on in the kitchen at The Yard, but it’s very much Alex’s space. [Alex Harper, the exHarwood Arms and Neo Bistro chef.] He’s amazing and he’s going to be exec chef for the whole lot. And we’ve got an amazing pastry chef who was at Galvin’s. And then we’ve got some ex Ritz boys who are going to help us with the afternoon tea. The funny thing is like I do that, we did afternoon tea, the other day, got set it all up. And I realised I’ve never even had afternoon tea! I was like really excited about it because it was like, “Wow, look at this, it’s all so dainty.” But classic afternoon tea is like all these finger sandwiches and stuff. We’re not doing that. It’s like lovely pate en croute, little crab tartlets and gougeres and stuff, you know, and then it’s going to be beef on toast with bone marrow and caviar. I wanted it to be a bit more like St. JOHN on the savoury side - as opposed to little dainty cucumber things. What about the future, for you and Sarah and the business? I don’t know. I think it’s just hold on, and keep pushing what we’re doing. Do you know what I mean? These are the two biggest things we’ve ever done. And it happened by accident. The hotel was massively delayed. I was working on Darby’s three years ago. So it should have been really the hotel a year ago, Darby’s a year later… But it’s just happened like this. I’ll try to stay calm for a little bit!

“I don’t claim to be the executive chef in all our places. I’m lucky that I’ve got a great relationship with my team. I’m still a cook though – I need that for my head space” -36-

Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

Tools of the trade

Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

In this regular feature, we take a closer look at the workspace of people who inspire us. Here Ago Perrone, director of mixology at the Connaught, talks about the essential equipment for the perfect cocktail. Photographs by Harriet Clare

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The Connaught Bar opened on the 08/08/2008. We wanted to have a strong link between tradition, modernity and innovation, so The Connaught Bar needed to merge all these together like the perfect cocktail. At the time there was a clear distinction between an independent bar with creativity and crazy ingredients from all over the world, and then the hotel bar with classic style, attention to detail and elegance. The Connaught wanted to combine these two sides. The challenge was to come up with our own creative process to ensure the guests have the best experience ever. We recently won best bar in Europe and second in the world, at the World’s 50 Best Bars awards. The biggest achievement is that we have been on the list since the beginning and the bar is full every day! The tools of the trade are the basics of good execution. The quality of the bar tools we use are very important, because they ensure that the technique is executed at its best for the results we want to achieve. There is so many things that you don’t realise until we indicate them, but put them together and they create a symphony.

The trolley Not everybody comes for the cocktails, but after a little while, they start to fall in love with the other elements which are part of The Connaught Bar. The guests see the trolley going along, and even if you’re not a martini drinker you become curious and want to see it. This trolley is the second version, created

Bar equipment The mixing glasses are designed by John Jenkins, and the decoration recalls elements of the bar and chandelier. The bar spoon is designed by Erik Lorincz, who I opened the bar with! Stirring is very important because you allow the ingredients to be blended without adding too much oxygen. This bar spoon is the perfect spiral which allows the hand to be soft, so you can serve the cocktail smoothly and silently. You can be in church and no one would realise you’re making a martini! We’re very

famous for our pouring: our signature is pouring and squeezing the lemon at the same time. If you see someone squeezing the lemon close to the glass or on the rim with the lemon twist, ask them to make you a new martini, because they will ruin the palate. The shaker is also designed by Erik Lorincz and it’s made in Japan. The inside is polished in a circular motion so that ice doesn’t break when it swirls around. Ice We like to say that bartenders work with ice and chefs work with fire. Pure quality ice means pure quality water which means a pure quality cocktail, because water in dilution is considered as one of the ingredients. -39-

In our martini we use slow frozen ice, so it is very pure and melts very slowly, allowing for silkiness on the palette. A 30kg block arrives around 10am or 11am every day and we cut it all in slices and chunks here. Ice mould One ice mould makes ice spheres and the other makes ice diamonds. We were the first bar in Europe to use this machine; it’s very heavy! It works with gravity and the interchange of temperature. The glass of No. 11 Every morning the team come here at 6am to begin preparation, cutting the ice, cooking homemade ingredients and preparing the room ready for service. Additionally, the process of painting the glasses happens every morning, so depending on their mood there is different patterns. It’s very important that the glass feeds the identity of the cocktail: the martini is quite a sharp cocktail, so you want something more angled. The number 11 (martini for their 11th anniversary) is a bit rounder as a cocktail, so we want to put it in a softer glass. Bitters We created an infusion of homemade bitters, so if you’re a gin lover we can help you understand how with a certain flavour you can release certain botanicals of the gin. We have lavender for what we call the massage martini, because lavender relaxes the soul and gin relaxes the muscles! Then we have Tonka beans, part of the vanilla family, mixed with apricot kernel for a marzipan aroma. The third is coriander seeds, which is a botanical very common in gin. Then the last one is our signature Dr. Ago, which I designed five years ago implementing a truly Italian flavour, Bergamot (dear to the English because it gives the signature flavour of earl grey tea), mixed with ginseng. We start by painting the inside of the glass with the bitter followed by our signature pour. Connaught Bar gin You can feel that the bottle is part of The Connaught Bar elegance and heritage. We love the whole concept because we wanted to have a spirit that could capture ten years of the bar, of stories, of guest interaction, of cocktails... and gin was the master. The bottle recalls the shape of a cocktail shaker, and the green colour matches the elements of the bar. It is handmade in-house.

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Service and team One of our tools is the service we give. Since the start we have aimed to create a fine drinking experience, so it’s not solely about the product, but also the service, which has the biggest impact on the guest’s experience. The welcome at the door by the managers Riccardo Semeria and Maura Milia is smiley and warm. The experience begins with a welcome drink (a different recipe every day), so the guests feel at ease, and at the end we gift our guests a cocktail card to keep as a memory of their visit. Giorgio Bargiani, the head mixologist (see page 17), supports me to ensure the creative process is always innovative yet coherent to the Connaught Bar style which I started 11 years ago. The entire team enthusiastically supports the managers and contributes ideas. You can’t explain the personal touch, people tend to forget it nowadays.

in collaboration with Tanqueray gin, for our 10th anniversary. We wanted to find a way to interact with the guests, so this martini experience was the perfect tool for us.

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Vermouth Our martini is five parts gin and one part vermouth. The vermouth gives the hint of aromas. We do a blend: extra dry, aromatic and sweet, so blended they give a fuller boquet of aromas which nicely match with the gin. Aerator We wanted to take our classic to another level with the number 11 to celebrate 11 years of the bar. We wanted it to be as if we were pouring it from an 11-storey building. We were in a tapas restaurant in Barcelona and they served a bottle of cider to us in this aeration machine, so I looked at Giorgio, my right hand man, and he looked at me, and we went on Amazon and we ordered it straight away! The cocktail is premixed, and we simply press the button and allow the cocktail to be poured. You can see the bubbles forming, as if it was being poured from 11 storeys up!â&#x20AC;? As told to Harriet Prior

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We do the distillation, bottling and put the labels on by hand in the gin room downstairs. The 1st edition for the 10th anniversary is vintage, and we only made 1000 bottles. The basis is a London dry gin, juniper berry, coriander seeds, angelica, orris root, lemon grass, lemon verbena, liquorice, then we add three botanicals. One is mace, then we have a lifestyle botanical of Amalfi lemon because we like to tell a story and make the guests feel the warm of sunshine. Storytelling itself is one of the tools of the trade, because just a cocktail on its own is beautiful and tastes fantastic, but if you know how to tell a story in the right manner to the guests, you can connect with them. The other botanical is unique and attached to the heritage of this environment: the gin room is next to the wine cellar, so I decided to use Bordeaux wine as the botanical, which added to the rest of the botanical gives hints of minerality, viscosity on the palate and fruitiness.

A letter from CODE founder, Adam Hyman I am writing with some exciting news about our new membership. The CODE app has grown considerably since 2O14. We now have more than 4OO hand-picked offers with new restaurants, bars and hotels added to the app every week for our community of 3O,OOO hospitality professionals. Like any business, we have to evolve. Over the past 12 months we have listened to our members and been working on the next chapter at CODE, looking at how we can continue to offer our community the best rewards, experiences and insight. To do this we are launching a new membership. As well as giving you unlimited access to the CODE app, membership will also include exclusive online editorial, CODE Careers, industry insight and access to events & workshops.

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We hope you enjoy!

Adam Hyman Founder, CODE Hospitality

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g ting n i d r Educa Aspiring a w Re Fun

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Introducing you to our new membership Save over ÂŁ2OO a year with CODE

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OFFERS

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MEMBER EVENTS

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Connecting our community of hospitality professionals

visit codehospitality.co.uk for more information -43-

A space to think big in, a community to belong to

Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

Food on the Edge has become one of the most interesting events on the calendar for those who want to get nerdy about our industry. Anna Sulan Masing reports on what went down in Galway this year

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Spaces to gather, share knowledge and meet others in your field are important in all industries. But when it comes to topics around food there is an opportunity to look beyond a specific - beyond the restaurant and into lives, communities and a global future. Food On The Edge is an annual industry event and what makes it unique is not only its location of Galway, Ireland – and therefore having a UK and Ireland focus – but its deep-rooted ethos on sustainability and future thinking. This year was the fifth annual Food on the Edge (FOTE), with more than 50 speakers and an audience of 600; the overarching topic was migration, an idea explored in diverse ways. A key message across the two days was about togetherness and a concept of community, to make change. Australian chef Mark Best, who hosted the first day, spoke about the current geo-political world we’re in and the idea to fight against issues through creative thinking - “getting together in a room you notice the stimulation”. Tom Brown, chef/ owner of Cornerstone in London, explained to me that “it’s important to get creatives together, because through conversation we get to make positive change. And Food on the Edge is a global event, so we have a huge community here.” FOTE founder, JP McMahon, opened the event by contextualising the time we are in “[when there is talk of] putting up borders for people, we are also putting up borders for food.

But food always leaks through”. And so where does that leave us today? How does the world of food look like and where is it going? A global space and powerful conversations As a reflection of the global space FOTE occupies, and the migration of food, Ivan Brehm, chef/owner of Michelin-starred Singaporebased restaurant Nouri, spoke about understanding the historical and current movements of food that feeds into food cultures and power dynamics. This gets explored in his restaurant, coining the phrase ‘crossroad cooking’. Selassie Atadika, chef/owner of Midunu restaurant in Ghana, spoke about food imports into Ghana and how that has changed the food culture and the slow work of re-investing in traditional local foods. “I come to these events – take the time away from my kitchen – because there is not enough conversation around the food of the [African] continent. I want to be part of these conversations [on food systems, sustainability] and throw out some questions and to give my thoughts” she explained. Dalad Kambhu, chef/owner of Michelin-starred Thai restaurant Kin Dee in Berlin, spoke about cooking Thai food in western spaces, exploring ideas of authenticity. She was eloquent on the emptiness of the term without context, and how often she gets told what her food should be “just because you have eaten a Thai curry on a Thai beach doesn’t mean you know my food”. She ended her

talk with “and, you can’t cook Thai food just because you’ve been in a Thai woman”. Explaining to me after her talk, Dalad said, “I spoke from my heart and the hearts of the Thais and Asians who have faced the same experience. The unfair treatment and perception towards our culture.” New thinking about sustainability Josh Niland, who explores aging fish, pushed thinking around how we see produce. “I wanted to ask everyone why we put fish on ice, why are we thinking about fish in this capacity? We need to develop flavour through thinking about handling the fish” he explained to me. Niland contextualised the fact that what he was doing was new within a Western sensibility, “because Eastern cultures have done this work, but it hasn’t translated to Western food cultures, and the western palate”. Fellow Australian chef and zerowaste advocate Matt Stone spoke about building spaces and structures to enable sustainability. Talking the audience through his projects from restaurants Greenhouse and Silo, and a new concept of a self-sustainable house designed with collaborator Joost Bakker. Challenging the norms Romy Gill shared her story of coming to the UK and opening her restaurant. It was an incredibly moving story that included the struggles she met being a woman

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“I want to be part of these conversations, throw out some questions and to give my thoughts”

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business owner. “Men wouldn’t work under me, and some people wanted to see me fail,” she said, but also talked about the support she has felt in the industry. She wanted to change people’s understanding of what Indian food could be: “[guests] had an idea that Indian food should be hot. That is not what Indian food is. It has to have spice... I grew up with plant-based food. I wanted to cook the food I grew up with. Which is why I wrote a vegan cookbook, although I am not vegan.” Meanwhile Tom Brown spoke about the difficulties of finding a restaurant space when you have a small budget. For him, it meant going into an area not known for fine-dining restaurants, which is his background. Although the complications of gentrification wasn’t mentioned specifically, questions around a business’s responsibility to be a positive and engaged part of a community were. Key to Brown was personally knowing the businesses and people around him, and responding to the space, explaining that “the community has a strong identity, and locals don’t want to lose that” he spoke of a sense of responsibility towards an area, people, and his staff. Community and responsibility “I respect this event, it’s very honest. You can challenge people, which is important in this industry. You get to speak in front of the influential, global leaders of this industry. You can shake the industry – it’s a tree that needs shaking. Not many events

allow for conflict, which is true debate,” Ryan King, journalist for Fine Dining Lovers, explained of the uniqueness of FOTE. King’s talk addressed the idea of sustainability of people; he highlighted many changes within the industry but also an idea of sacrifice has historically been built into the industry, telling a story of a young chef who died of blood poisoning from a preventable illness. “If he had gone to the doctors, just once, he would’ve lived,” King said, but he chose to push on, through days of work. King explained to me that “the structures of chefs have not kept up with the chef ’s identity within society. Chefs didn’t have a voice until ten years ago; then they started stepping into the dining room, then stages, and now political platforms.” “The next generation will think about sustainability in different ways,” he went on. “They will care, and apply it to the human being.” King projects a future that further deepens idea of community. This year, Fine Dining Lovers conducted an anonymous survey into the professional kitchen culture, exploring the most important factors affecting chefs today. This concern into the industry’s well-being is fundamental to many in the UK at the moment, with projects such as Hospitality Speaks and CODE’s Happiness in Hospitality survey looking towards this. Chef Alex Atala of the Brazilian restaurant D.O.M ended day one with thoughts that echoed across the two days, asking ‘Who are we?’ -46-

and ‘What is innovation?’. He spoke of positivity and creativity to make lasting changes, and the communities he is part of – from the culinary world, to the Amazonian people he works with. At the core was the idea of responsibility: “cooking and eating is a political action. We can act. We can change. We have the possibility to act three times (at least!) a day. It is hard. But we have the possibility.” Food On The Edge is a space for collegiate discussions, for big picture thinking, for hard questions and for the possibilities of ideas. Galway is a small city with great food and wine, where audience, speakers and press gather together to eat, drink and share. And when chefs gather, they will always talk shop, and share knowledge - at dinners and in the pubs too. Dancing to live music in an Irish pub with new friends from all over the world, and listening to Alex Atala sing along to Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’, is just as special as the talks. Change is about making connections, building meaningful communities.

Advice for emerging talent in the hospitality industry Gillian White, head of the M&A team at Howard Kennedy, has some food for thought in aligning your business purpose with your investment options

Whatever your concept, business or role we have all become involved in hospitality for different reasons. CODE’s Happiness in Hospitality 2019 report highlighted some of the key drivers for people in our sector and also illustrated the growing recognition that workplace culture positively impacts productivity, service and quality of products. However, it would be impossible to say that those looking to build their own brand and business are not also wanting to benefit financially from their efforts. The restaurant sector is in a very different place from the ‘the race for space’ and the 7-10x valuation ratios of 2014/2015. If you are looking for eye-watering investment valuations and multi-million exits you will need to be thinking very differently from the traditional casual dining replicate, build and scale model. And investors know this too. For the big big money it might look like the restaurant industry has become all about tech. And what if you are not setting out to set the restaurant world alight with tech innovation? There is clearly still space for brands who focus on the restaurant ‘experience’, who align with changing consumer behaviours and interests whose purpose resonates with their target market. It’s very easy to get dazzled by big valuations on investment rounds and what your talent, brand and effort might be worth in the future. But our job as legal advisors is to be the voice of reason and when you are thinking about raising money, when someone speaks to you about expansion, there are lots of questions to be asking. It’s impossible to list them all here but, from our experience, here are a few to get the mental cogs moving:

• Then ask what type of investment or access to capital will help you achieve those ambitions? Who does that investor look like? Who is going to be with you for your business and brand journey?

• What are your investors’ motivations? And how does that align with what you want to achieve?

• That you are building in the impact of food delivery models and dark kitchens (whether you see them as a threat or a valuable income source) on your people, premises and bottom line. • That it is clear what your brand stands for.

• How will your investors’ financial ambitions align with your brand purpose? Do they expect financial return ahead of all else? What happens if that would require you to go against your stated business purpose?

• An understanding that product, process and service innovation will be key not just to survival but to spotting opportunities and competing in adjacent markets. How does your culture bring that front and centre?

A friends, family (and potentially fans) round is good, right? Well yes they are often an obvious source of funding, but consider what challenges they also bring. Less than sophisticated investors, a large shareholder base, people who are too close. If you do go down that route be clear with them what the journey looks like - and the terms you agree ultimately need to work for your business purpose. Regardless of the type of investor, it is good to know what they will expect. You have the idea, the passion, the talent, but investment relationships can be made and broken if you don’t appreciate your investor’s perspective and don’t anticipate what they will expect. The investor is risking their capital on you and your business, they are going to want to know:

If these questions have made you think and you are not sure where to start then Howard Kennedy can help. We ask the right questions, give straightforward advice and help ambitious clients get where they want to be. _

• That you have a good team who understand their roles. • That you and your business is fully on top of their budgets. • That your team ‘get’ the importance of the ‘detail’. A team that understands that lack of attention is what undermines reputations; business purpose and brands. What is your supply chain? How do you engage with your workforce? Who owns your IP? • That you have considered what the future looks like. That you know what is ‘out there’ when it comes to tech… and the opportunities and challenges that presents. You need to show that you have considered the options available and if they are not for you (and that is ok) you need to be able to articulate why.

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Gillian White is head of the M&A team at Howard Kennedy and acts for entrepreneurial clients, and investors looking to acquire or invest in entrepreneurial businesses Howard Kennedy is a London-based, full-service law firm, specialising in providing straightforward advice to entrepreneurial businesses and individuals on domestic and international matters _ Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

• To quote Simon Sinek – “Start with Why?” If you are looking at growing your business, rather than first thinking how much money do we need. Ask what do I want to achieve with my business? Why am I doing this personally and professionally?

• Do you just need money? What else do you need from your investor? Expertise; networks; gravitas?

Sponsored content

Getting creative

Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

In this feature, we take a look behind the scenes and meet the individuals who shoot, style and illustrate the pages of this magazine. For this issue, we meet the cover illustrator Rozalina Burkova. Both her still and moving image work carries a standout style and sentiment. Here she has a chat with CODEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creative director Alexander Taralezkhov. Photography by Wei Ting

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QUICK-FIRE QUESTIONS RED OR WHITE WINE RED POACHED OR FRIED EGGS POACHED SMALL PLATES OR COURSES SMALL PLATES TO SHARE SET OR A LA CARTE A LA CARTE BAR OR RESTAURANT RESTAURANT FISH OR MEAT FISH MYSTERY DISH OR MEAT AND TWO VEG DON'T EAT MEAT. MYSTERY! EAT OUT OR DINE IN OUT! 100% SUNDAY BRUNCH OR ROAST BRUNCH SWEET OR SAVOURY SAVOURY ANY DAY

excessively and unnecessarily wasteful they are. The classic examples of burning last season’s clothes and wasting almost 3/4 of all food in the UK. Would you say you express your views through your work? I read somewhere in a previous life you did political science. RB: That is true, for half a year before fashion but I dropped out. Fashion made me think a lot about the consequences of what I do and the waste I create. In 2011, when I started at CSM, sustainability was much less of a hot topic than it is now. But what I learned throughout my degree definitely set me on a path of being extremely aware of the bigger picture I am in and how my work affects it - the environment, gender stereotypes, social justice, etc. Part of the appeal of being an illustrator was that initially I did everything digitally, there were no materials needed and no waste produced. I don’t necessarily try to be political in my work, I’d say it leans more towards expressing more fleeting sentiments and emotions but I don’t try to purposefully separate my views from my work. I often seem to get approached by clients for various social projects which I think has more to do with my overall online presence, stuff I share and talk about rather than just the work itself. AT: You mentioned that your partner is a chef. What impact does that have on you? Do you ever end up recording elements of his work life? If I was in his shoes I wouldn’t give you rest until we’ve done an illustrated cookbook together. RB: You and me could definitely do that! But he prefers to keep the cooking out of his off-time. Cheffing is quite taxing as you know so he actually writes non-food-related novels in his spare time to chill – -49-

I have illustrated bits of those. AT: You’ve just completed the cover illustration for this issue of CODE Quarterly which contains our annual 30 under 30 list. Funnily enough we together were part of a similar listing some years ago. The 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality and Happiness in Hospitality issues are other covers you have done for CODE in the past. You mentioned environment, gender stereotypes, social justice; how do you feel about such rankings and their role in such issues? RB: I’d say I have mixed feelings. Sometimes I like to imagine how many anxieties would be alleviated if our culture didn’t acknowledge age. Also with the speed that Gen Z is developing, most 30 under 30 would soon have to be 15 under 15. AT: What’s next for you? RB: Same but better I hope. With creative work, the more you do it, the more exciting, experimental, idiosyncratic and personal it gets. My plan is to just keep making - drawings, animations, installations and not allow myself to get bored - or boring. Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

AT: If I remember correctly we first met while studying at Central Saint Martins. At the time I was working part time as champagne waiter. Have you worked in hospitality before? RB: We did! I had a short stint at a catering company in Bulgaria before I even moved to London – I remember just doing one gig, where I had to be dressed in a traditional Bulgarian folklore dress while serving appetisers and freezing outside the National History Museum. AT: Haha amazing, sounds rather surreal, it somehow seems like a reference to your earlier fashion projects I’ve seen at CSM. We have now worked together on numerous illustrations for CODE Quarterly, but I know you did fashion at university. How did you move into illustration and moving image? RB: Oh yeah that is true – my degree collection at CSM was very influenced by my Bulgarian heritage. The career transition was not planned, I just really disliked working in fashion after graduating; I had a problem with how polluting and exploitative parts of the industry were and I didn’t find it as creative as I had imagined it. I was already doing illustration on the side and when I left my first job in fashion I gave myself three months to get as many illustration jobs as possible. I managed to win an art residency organised by Creative Review that sent me to draw on an island in Croatia for two weeks and gave me some press and it all sort of snowballed from there. I started teaching myself animation via YouTube and a few months later I got my first animation job for a music video by a band called Entrance. AT: That is interesting as one can certainly draw the parallel between the fashion and the food industry in terms of how

Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

Highland and mighty

Almost one hundred years old, the Gleneagles hotel has a winning combination of rich Scottish heritage and modern, dynamic management. Adam Hyman explores an estate where the hospitality is as dazzling and wide-ranging as the views

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The sprawling hotel sits on 850 acres and has more than 230 bedrooms with views across the estate. Guests at the hotel range from golfers, those wanting to take part and try their hand at some country pursuits (we dabbled in some clay pigeon shooting and a walk down to the Loch), as well as couples or families looking to escape to the country for some downtime. Yet for me, it was the food and drink offering that I was most interested in for this visit, especially upon discovering that they have nine outlets in the hotel. Since Ennismore has run the

estate, it’s worked at shrugging off that perception that Glenealges is purely for golfers - and they’ve put a renewed focus on their restaurants. Executive chef Simon Attridge oversees all of the food offerings at Gleneagles, which ranges from the afternoon tea at The Glendevon (the room that most famously held the G8 summit of world leaders in 2005) to their fine dining restaurant, The Strathearn (the Andrew Fairlie restaurant is run independently of the hotel). While talking to Attridge in the kitchen of The Strathearn, it’s clear the day job keeps him busy. The chef, who previously worked at the Shangri-La in the Shard, told me, “we can have up to 1,000 staff working across the restaurants -51-

during the summer months when the hotel is at full capacity and we are also hosting weddings and events.” Not only is that a feat for any hotel, but what I immediately thought of most when Attridge made that comment was where they find all those staff from? However, it’s clear that Gleneagles has a special draw for hospitality professionals. Throughout my stay I noticed familiar faces from dining rooms and bars back in London – this must help when it comes to recruitment, which is such a challenge across the industry at the moment. You could spend a few days at Gleneagles and not have to eat in the same restaurant twice, apart from breakfast at the Strathearn, although I can’t see why anyone would complain about this - it’s one of the finest breakfast buffets I’ve had in a while. Even if, like us, you dined at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie the night before, you manage to find space for a full Scottish, with haggis, black pudding and the obligatory tatty scones. The orangery at the rear of the restaurant makes for a relaxing setting to enjoy the papers and a breakfast before a day of outdoor pursuits in the Highlands. Dinner at the Strathearn is a similarly extravagant affair with the dimly lit restaurant and the plump cushioned banquets reminiscent of a bygone era – transforming you to simpler times perhaps. Tableside service is a big part of dinner and is something we should see more of in restaurants – let’s embrace the steak Diane. The beauty of Gleaneagles is that it ticks all the boxes. Whether you want a more casual bite to eat in the Birnham, a room service of pizza fresh from the Dormy’s pizza oven, or a pre-dinner martini in the glamorous surrounds of the American Bar, before dinner at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie or The Strathearn, it’s all possible. And they’ve resisted the ultimate cliché at Gleneagles – there isn’t a bit of tweed in sight. CODE was a guest of Gleneagles

Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

There’s something about the light in Scotland. Even when it’s raining, there’s a light that seems as though your eyes have just been Windowlened. It’s like you’ve been walking around with smudged vision for ages or that moment when you clean your eyewear and suddenly realise what clean lenses are like. Apparently it’s to do with the lack of pollution in the atmosphere. I noticed this as we made our way from Edinburgh Waverley train station to Gleneagles. After a couple of text messages to let us know the exit to take and where he would be waiting, our chauffeur Calum picked us up in a Gleneagles branded Mercedes V-Class to drive us the hour-or-so journey to the 5-star hotel. The next two days were to explore the famous Scottish hotel that was originally built by the Caledonian Railway Company and opened in 1924. Dubbed ‘a Riveria in the Highlands’ and a ‘Palace in the Glen’, the venue soon established itself as one of the greatest leisure destinations in the world. Fast forward to 2015, and Ennismore – the young, dynamic brand behind the Hoxton hotels – bought the estate from the FTSE 100 drinks behemoth Diageo. On the very pleasant four-hour train journey from London to the Scottish capital, I had a clear perception of what Gleneagles would be. What I experienced over the 48 hours I spent there was very different. I was expecting a compact venue, the twoMichelin-starred Restaurant Andrew Fairlie and a golf course. I envisaged wealthy guests decamping from their stressful offices for a few days in the Scottish countryside. A little like the Roy family from HBO’s Succession - who in fact filmed an episode for the second season at Gleneagles. In reality, the sporting estate couldn’t be more different from what I imagined. There are elements of architecture that give a nod to the railway company that built it; this becomes even clearer when you step into the dimly lit lobby, which was redesigned by David Collins Studio after Ennismore purchased the estate. As you walk towards reception, off to the right of the lobby sits the Century Bar, which was also relaunched and refurbished by the aforementioned London-based designer, in collaboration with local Scottish artisans. The large space is constantly kept occupied by hotel guests, visitors and golfers either looking for a midmorning coffee, post-round cold beer or to sample one of Scotland’s finest collection of old and rare whiskies.

Bubble standards

Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

Prosecco is in danger of becoming a parody of itself. But is there more to the Italian sparkling wine than hen parties and supermarket discounts? Chloë Hamilton takes a tour of vineyards to meet producers and taste the products – and finds out more about why the drink’s image and availability is now being protected

In a farm shop in deepest South Devon, between the butcher and the baker counter, a greeting card in a carousel display reads: “Prosecco. How classy ladies get smashed!” And on the notebooks on sale next to it: “Hand me the Prosecco and watch me get fabulous!” Upon returning from a visit to the prosecco region of north-eastern Italy recently, I’ve been haunted by cringeworthy references to prosecco at every turn, plastered on all sorts of paraphernalia from wall-plaques to playing cards to coasters and knitwear. In the past eight years, as UK consumption has increased by a staggering 1,000%, the fun-loving fizz appears to have penetrated the deepest recesses of British culture. It’s utterly ubiquitous. That said, sensationalist headlines claiming sales are falling flat are cropping up with increasing

Beyond protecting the geographical delimitation and the oenological and viticultural methods, they’re busy regulating and monitoring how the sparkling wine reaches the consumer; for example, prosecco served in cans or on tap is strictly not permitted. At the time of our visit to the consortium in September, they were fighting more than 30 cases of misappropriation of the brand, including a lengthy legal dispute against a trademark application for ‘Pawsecco’ from Woof and Brew Ltd. Dramatically, in October, Italian fraud officials seized hundreds of tubes of proseccoflavoured Pringles, forcing Kellogg’s to discontinue the product. Whilst the UK reigns supreme in its consumption of prosecco, the surge in popularity is reaching all corners of the globe. At the Astoria winery, just off ‘Prosecco Road’, we’re

pronounce. Prosecco also hits the market at an incredibly attractive price point, honouring a sense of occasion for less than £10 a bottle, whilst remaining drinkable. But this is a big part of the issue. “The UK has the worst example of prosecco on the market,” laments Francesco Galardi from La Jara, an organic winery just outside of Conegliano. “And the problem is pricing.” Whilst the base product is relatively inexpensive, the cost of tanks and production machinery is high, so to compete for UK business, where margins of 1p decide contracts, economies of scale are crucial. Where on the consumer end, most people take their pick of prosecco based on price – quite often choosing ‘the one on offer’ – the real cost is a producer having to cut corners to make their margins work. The result

frequency. And whist this isn’t strictly true (exports to the UK were up 8.7% year-on-year in the period of January – May) it’s clear that prosecco is faltering under the weight of its mass market success. It’s a familiar story arc in the world of wine: The UK is still shaking off the last vestiges of chardonnay fatigue from the overoaked, mass produced plonk pedalled so successfully in the 90s. And the current fascination with a New Zealand sauvingon blanc is almost certainly heading towards a similar backlash. The Prosecco DOC Consortium, based in the picturesque Italian city of Treviso, is on a mission to preserve the integrity of the prosecco brand.

shown a weird and wonderful range of products and packaging tailored to Asian markets, and intricate cut-glass clear bottles that particularly appeal to the US market. Its appeal is truly universal. Made from the local Glera grape (which until 2009 was called Prosecco), the classic expression is of apples, pears and white flowers, balances moderate sweetness and acidity, and is best consumed when fresh and young. The short second fermentation (30 days) in stainless steel tanks means lees aging is uncommon and so there are few secondary and tertiary characteristics to uncover. It’s easy to understand, easy to enjoy and, quite importantly for a global product, it’s easy to

is a consumer base that knows no better than the most basic examples of prosecco. In Italy, there’s a different perception. Still seen as a versatile, straightforward fizz, tastes lean toward Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG, of which 60% is consumed domestically, compared with 25% of Prosecco DOC. Amongst the sweeping vistas of the foothills of the Dolomites, where DOCG prosecco is produced, steep slopes yield higher quality fruit, whilst hand harvesting ensures better selection. But naturally, this increases the cost per bottle. Furthermore, Italians prefer a ‘brut’ style of prosecco, containing up to 12 grams

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of sugar per litre, whilst in the UK ‘extra dry’ dominates, containing up to 17g/l. Drier styles don’t necessarily equate to a better wine, but a higher dosage of sugar is a convenient way to mask imperfections in the base wine. In the fight against stagnation, organic prosecco is of increasing interest to northern European markets. It’s often a marker of better quality given the integrity of winemaking required to obtain the classification. At VALDO winery, a large producer based in Valdobbiadene, their organic range has a second fermentation of three months in order to produce smaller, softer bubbles, whereas non-organic

methods allow for chemical additives to replicate the same effect in a shorter timeframe. At La Jara, the Asian stink bug has been a particular grievance, as the only way to protect the crops organically is a specialised machine that blows puffs of air directly onto the vines. This kind of investment and labour inevitably pushes up production costs, making La Jara’s prosecco higher than usual for a DOC classification. Right now, the prosecco fatigue is opening up interest in alternative sparkling wines. Whilst cava is still struggling with its own image problem, French crémant has seen strong growth, as have sparkling wines from South Africa and New

Zealand. And there’s never been a better time to delve into the world of English sparkling wine. But it would be unfair to turn away from prosecco completely. Suspend your prejudice and spend £5 more on a bottle of prosecco than you usually would, and what you’ll find in your glass is a completely different story.

ТHREE TO TRY Fantinel ‘One & Only’ Single Vineyard Prosecco Brut

La Jara Prosecco Brut Organic

Bisol Belstar Organic Prosecco DOC NV

Just 6g of residual sugar and made with 100% Glera. A second fermentation of 45-60 days produces a wine with smaller bubbles and an elegant form. 100% organic and family run.

Considered royalty in the prosecco region, the Bisol family have handed down their winemaking skills for 21 generations. Unusually all of the grapes come from their own vines.

matthewclark.co.uk

thewhiskyexchange.com

bibendum-wine.co.uk

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Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

A premium single-vinyard prosecco with fruit from vineyard =Tauriano di Spilimbergo in the Grave del Friuli region. Awarded Gold at the Sommelier Wine Awards 2019.

More than Champagne... Sponsored content

How to make your drinks list fizz this Christmas Sparkling wine has always played an integral part in an operatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s drinks offering, nearly doubling in value during December compared to any other month in the year. But while Champagne is synonymous with Christmas, alternative fizz is fast becoming a festive favourite, and consumers can now easily indulge in a variety of sparkling wines from around the world. With this in mind, Tori Vickerman explores some fantastic fizz that will make your drinks list sparkle this Christmas.

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in collaboration with CODE Hospitality

Home grown English

English sparkling wine now accounts for a fifth of sparkling listings in the On Trade. With a wide range of high-quality sparkling wines, especially top-end cuvees, there is still a great opportunity to upsell during the Christmas period as an alternative to Champagne, particularly with the patriotism associated with English sparkling. Ridgeview Blanc de Blanc World-class English sparkling wine producer Ridgeview has all the glitz and glam of a traditional Champagne brand. Their Blanc de Blancs is their single estate cuvee and is the perfect celebratory sparkling for a family gathering. Coates and Seely Britagne Brut Reserve Made using traditional Champagne methods, Coates and Seely’s Britagne Brut Reserve has all the ageing and brioche notes you’d expect from a vintage Champagne.

Gems of the New World

Whether it’s South Africa or even Brazil, the New World offers great quality sparkling wine at a more affordable price point. With 41% of consumers experimenting with drinks during the festive period, it’s the perfect time to offer customers something different or something they may have not heard of before. Graham Beck Brut Rosé NV From legendary South African fizz producer Graham Beck, their Brut non-vintage rose is a standout sparkling. With millennial pink still all over Instagram, offering a pink fizz alternative encourages customers to trade up and also snap a pic. Miolo Cuvee Tradition Brut A real gem, fizz from Brazil is relatively unfamiliar in the UK On Trade, but this approachable style is perfect to spice up a drinks list and offer customers something out of the ordinary.

Cava but not technically

Cava has undergone some significant changes in the last few years. Nine producers have broken away from the existing Cava Do, and formed their own brand, Corpinnat. Engaging customers in a conversation about this Cava alternative is a great way of introducing the brand, while giving a good opportunity to up-sell.

To find out more about Bibendum’s Sparkling Wine Range visit www.bibendum-wine.co.uk -55-

Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

Llopart Brut Reserva 2016 With their wines 100% organic, Llopart is the perfect Spanish sparkle to offer as an alternative to Cava, while also tapping into the trend towards organic and biodynamic wines.

On the shelf Regional cuisines, highly personal stories and books which reflect our times: our pick of the seasonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new titles are highly covetable. Photograph by Harriet Clare

Issue 21 | Winter 2019 | codehospitality.co.uk

1. BLACK AXE MANGAL

by Lee Tiernan You want one-pot dishes and easy bakes? You’ve come to the wrong place. Tiernan’s uncompromising first book is a paean to his restaurant – as loud as his music and as refined as his dishes. The insanely good prune and foie gras doughnut is in there, plus all manner of sexy flatbreads. Bonus: also plenty of cool-headed advice on how to cook this kind of food. This will be a hit. £24.95, Phaidon

2.WE ARE THE WEATHER: SAVING THE PLANET BEGINS AT BREAKFAST

3.TARTINE: A CLASSIC REVISITED

by Jonathan Safran Foer A book that wrings its hands about our diets killing the planet might seem an odd choice for food folk to read, but in fact the American author Safran Foer is in step with what’s going on with many restaurants and chefs. He takes his sweet time getting there, but the main point of this interesting, statpacked book is that a 2/3 vegan, 1/3 meat product diet is best for the planet. Consider us interested. £16.99, Hamish Hamilton

by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson A lot has changed since San Francisco’s favourite bakery, Tartine, first shared their secrets with the world. Thirteen years on recipes have been reinvented and reimagined, with all new photographs from LA photographers Gentl + Hyers. The new Tartine is an evolution reflecting changing consumer demands. It embraces modern ingredients from coconut sugar to einkorn flour and includes plenty of recipes to accommodate the rise and rise of dietary restrictions. £29, Chronicle Books

4. CASA CACAO: THE JOURNEY BACK TO THE SOURCE OF CHOCOLATE,

5. SIGNATURE DISHES THAT MATTER

by Jordi Roca and Ignacio Medina Casa Cacao is the chocolate bible. The celebrated dessert chef Jordi Roca takes readers with him on a journey around the Amazon and Colombian jungles to trace the origins of chocolate, with a focus on the often-neglected cacao growers. Casa Cacao is also packed with recipes, ranging from classics to the extraordinary, such as snails with spider crab and cacao. Perfect for chocolate lovers, chefs and historians alike. £35, Grub Street

by Susan Jung, Howie Kahn, Christine Muhlke, Pat Nourse, Andrea Petrini, Diego Salazar and Richard Vines

This blockbuster of a book is, essentially, an encyclopaedia of the world’s most loved and well-known dishes over the last 300 years. No stone is left unturned here, and there’s no snobbery either; the book includes everything from the McDonald’s Big Mac to Heston Blumenthal’s Snail Porridge and Dominique Ansel’s ever-instagrammed Cronut. If you’ve ever felt the burning need to make Massimo Bottura’s ‘Oops! I Dropped The Lemon Tart’ dessert, there’s a recipe for that, too. £35, Phaidon

1. 7. 10.

5. 6. 8. 10 .QUALITY CHOP HOUSE

by William Lander, Daniel Morgenthau and Shaun Searley

6. THE FOOD OF SICHUAN by Fuchsia Dunlop

Receiving high praise from chefs and critics alike, The Food of Sichuan is a revised and updated edition of Fuschia Dunlop’s landmark Sichuan cooking from 2001. This book really is a bible of the region’s food, highlighting the intricacies of a complex and diverse cuisine. Alongside staples ranging from traditional dandan noodles to gong bao chicken with peanuts, the book also features extensive vegetarian recipes, such as stir-fried potato slivers with chillies and sichuan pepper and dry-fried green beans, ensuring your daily greens are anything but boring. Among the stunning imagery, Dunlop also provides a useful glossary of the 56 cooking methods of Sichuan. £30, Bloomsbury

7. COPENHAGEN: CULT RECIPES

by Christine Rudolph and Susie Theodorou Much more than a collection of recipes, this is a celebration of Copenhagen’s food culture from the morning bakery run to lunchtime Smørrebrød to the importance of communal dining and eating outdoors. Amongst the picturesque cityscapes the pages are full of Danish pastries, pickled herring, hotdog toppings, schnapps and meatballs and a particularly enticing festive section for Christmas celebrations. £20, Murdoch Books

8. THE BOOK OF ST. JOHN

by Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver

Even if you’ve already got Nose to Tail, this is essential reading for all fans of St. John (so that’s all of us, then). As well as the fabled recipes, this landmark book tells all the stories too – well, the printable ones. It coincides with the St John Street fixture’s 25th birthday and is a love letter itself to arguably Britain’s most influential restaurant. £30, Bloomsbury -58-

9. KOREAN SOUL FOOD by Judy Joo

In Korean Soul Food Joo shares her straightforward and no-nonsense recipes from classics such as Bibimbap and dumplings to Korean street food, kimchi and pickles. But the magic of this book is in the way Joo infuses Korean flavours in western dishes (Tteok Carbonara anyone?). Make sure you leave room for the vast array of imaginative desserts such as makgeolli panna cotta and Snickers hotteok. £22, White Lion

The Quality Chop House has existed in its current iteration since 2012, but its history is far deeper and has a National Heritage listing. It’s suitable then that the team has a restaurant that is a classic in its own right. The Quality Chop House book is the ideal mix of recipes straight from your last visit and a cross-section of the working life of the kitchen and adjoining butchery. Widely recognised as one of the best side dishes in London, their confit potatoes are, of course, included as well as some more challenging dishes such as roasted cod with trotter tortellini. Our particular favourite feature is a brief paragraph towards the start of the book, highlighting the importance of a warm welcome. £30, Hardie Grant

The drinks report: kombucha What used to be a drink solely for the extremely health conscious, kombucha has now made its way into the mainstream. A mix of fermented tea, sugar and SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), kombucha may not sound initially appealing, but increased demand has led to a multitude of brands making their way into restaurants and supermarket shelves. Packed with antioxidants and vitamins, Harriet Prior investigates the best brews to choose when you feel a cold brewing.

FIX8 Never straying from tradition, each bottle of Fix8 kombucha is left to ferment for up to 14 days at their London microbrewery, helping to achieve the optimal flavour and balance of (good) bacteria. Fix8 stick to doing three flavours and do them well. Alongside their tangy triple ginger and citrus saffron flavours, a favourite is the strawberry tulsi, a mix of strawberry and basil, as its sweet and fresh finish is reminiscent of a fruity cider. Although sipping it at 9am, this flavour would constitute a tasty mixer alongside gin or vodka. £21 for 6x240ml, fix8.com ___

LO BROS To turn tea into a living tonic, Lo Bros ferment natural and organic ingredients for as long as a month, recognising that each batch is individual. Unlike many brands on the market, Lo Bros kombucha manages to achieve a fruity flavour profile without packing each bottle with sugar. Alongside their five kombucha flavours, including passionfruit and apple, Lo Bros also have a range of living sodas, such as lemonade and cola - so think your favourite fizzy drink, but take out the chemicals and add in millions of bio-cultures your gut will love. £2 for 1x330ml at ocado.com and selected Sainsbury’s stores ___

REAL KOMBUCHA Served at Michelin-starred restaurants including Sat Bains, The Fat Duck and The Hand & Flowers, Real Kombucha it didn’t disappoint. Their three flavours are designed to have the body and character of an alcoholic drink, just minus the alcohol. The team know the leaves they use inside out, just as a winemaker knows their grapes. For those with a sweet tooth, Royal Flush is a winner with its fresh floral undertones, whilst Smoke House is ideal if you prefer richer flavours. Real Kombucha is the real deal. £29.99 for 12x275ml, realkombucha.co.uk ___

REMEDY KOMBUCHA Still kombucha, but this time in a can. Sarah and Emmet Condon started brewing Remedy kombucha at home, and everyone (including their kids) loved it. So, after a lot of kombucha, they had the guts to take it mainstream. They pride themselves on brewing the healthiest ‘booch around, and their sugar-free kombucha has more of a sour flavour profile. With recognisable flavours such as apple, raspberry lemonade and cherry plum, Remedy would be a great introduction to kombucha for those who are yet to try it. £22 for 12x330ml, remedydrinks.com ___

MOMO KOMBUCHA Momo is UK’s only small-batch 100% glassbrewed organic kombucha and is made in London, ensuring there is no leaching of chemicals from the brewing vessel. Currently available in three flavours (turmeric, ginger & lemon and newly launched elderflower), MOMO emphasise the health benefits of their kombucha, such as aiding digestion and supporting joint health but it avoids tasting medicinal and has more of a subtle sour, tangy finish compared to other brands, making it great for those who prefer savoury to sweet. £25 for 6x330ml, momo-kombucha.com ___ -59-

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JARR Back in 2015, four friends opened a kombucha tap room in Hackney Wick and have been honing their technique ever since. In addition to their three classic flavours (ginger, original and passion fruit), their new raspberry flavour may be their best yet. Made using fresh raspberries, the result is a sweetness that tastes authentic rather than artificial. Their simplistic packaging, replicates a medicine bottle, a nod to kombucha’s roots as a health tonic and natural remedy as early as 220BC. £29 for 6x473ml, jarrkombucha.com ___

Instagrab What’s feeding the news feeds this season? From an ever-growing love for succulents and foliage to a trend for a very luxurious ingredient, it’s all here, and although caviar is popping up in multiple restaurants, the prize for social-media star is Decimo’s tortilla. There’s also Santiago Lastra’s handwritten warning to consumers of his chilli sauce - very Instagrammable

A classic revisited We work in an industry in thrall to the new, so sometimes old-school restaurants get neglected. Loyd Grossman visits a London landmark with a very regal association – Kensington’s Maggie Jones

season asparagus which was a status symbol before anyone had thought of food miles or Greta Thunberg. The prawn cocktail has been updated with spicy sauce and a bed of rocket. The onion soup is legendary with uber-strong stock and a slab of toast smothered in volcanic gruyere. In the winter there is a welcome emphasis on game. Venison medallions were tender and perfectly cooked, game casserole of duck, pheasant

Despite endless gentrification and modernisation all around it, thankfully relatively little has changed in this place since the seventies. The decor, located somewhere on the threshold between Fairport Convention and Queer Eye, is as comforting as a vintage Habitat duvet. There are masses of dried flowers, tea roomstyle crockery, hecatombs of basketry, antique agricultural impedimenta galore - is there a rusty rake, hoe or pitchfork left in the West Country? and old tin signs like the one near my table proclaiming ‘Brooke Bond Tea is good tea’: gosh I miss those prehyperbolic days. Tables are stripped pine, the lighting is from candles stuffed into champagne bottles, the chairs are farmhouse. The menu is extensive but not ridiculously, so with a few dishes that hark back to the Maggie and Tony era. You can, for example, eat out-of-

and more venison was succulent, well seasoned and the colour of Georgian mahogany. Such dishes are served up with silky mashed potatoes and proficient red cabbage. For the nonmeat eaters there is very good fish pie or bream or salmon. There are enticing puddings of the bread and butter pudding apple crumble genre, but helpings are so generous that to my regret I’ve never reached the pudding stage. Maggie Jones has a pretty good wine list, but to really worship the genius loci - the spirit of the place - you had best order the decently drinkable house red, presented in magnum bottles and for which you are only charged by how much you drink. Prices are more than fair and the three-course set lunch is £23 and the service from a young team is as breezy, cheerful and efficient as you can find anywhere in London. -61-

Maggie Jones 6 Old Court Place Kensington London W8 4PL

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As the latest series of The Crown continues to mesmerise global audiences on Netflix, it is a good time to revisit Maggie Jones, a cosy bistro in a W8 backwater around the corner from Kensington Palace. This west London landmark is named in tribute to the late Princess Margaret - who was allegedly a frequent diner here when she was married to Anthony Armstrong-Jones - aka Lord Snowdon.

Staff meal

Tonnarelli cacio e pepe What do you eat when you get home after service? Chris Leach of Manteca shares his recipe ___ Manteca is the brand-new opening from chefs Chris Leach (formerly of Petersham Nurseries) and David Carter of Smokestak. Their pop-up 10 Heddon Street was a big success and they will offer similar hearty dishes at their Soho restaurant. Chris explains, “David and I were really happy with the response to our 10 Heddon Street residency, and I’m looking forward to bringing that same spirit to Soho. Manteca is really an accumulation of what I’ve learnt in various kitchens over the years, from the live fire cooking of Pitt Cue Co to the seasonality of Petersham Nurseries. It’s all about a love of sharing really good food with friends.”

I usually serve a take on this dish with brown crab and Grana Padano rather than the traditional Pecorino Romano but it still doesn’t stop me making a classic version of this dish after work or sometimes as a post-service snack for the team. My version is not very Roman as I use butter and I like to add a little lemon juice to balance the richness, whatever you do don’t be shy with the black pepper!

Makes enough for 1

Freshly ground black pepper – or use a mix of peppercorns – black, pink, even sichuan butter grated Pecorino Romano 2. Start the sauce a few minutes plus more to finish before the pasta is ready. Toast the tonnarelli or spaghetti black pepper in a dry pan until lemon fragrant, but do not let it burn; about a minute. Add the butter and a big ladleful of pasta water and let boil together until emulsified.

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10g 20g 30g 100g 1

Method 1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Salt until the water tastes highly seasoned – but not like the sea! Cook according to the packet instructions or a couple of minutes for fresh pasta.

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3. Add the pasta to the boiling emulsification with the cheese. Toss rapidly until well combined and all the pasta is coated, then add a little squeeze of lemon juice. Plate the pasta and grate more fresh Pecorino over the top and a last grind of fresh pepper. Manteca 58 Great Marlborough Street London W1F 7JY mantecarestaurant.co.uk

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