Cook House Issue 2 by Cook House

join our y il m a f ie d o o f Soho House Group is recruiting. We are looking for the most passionate and dedicated chefs from around the world. If you want to work for a company that’s full of opportunities, that’s expanding in Europe and America and that might even give you the chance to work in different exciting locations, then please get in touch. The right candidates will want to learn as much as possible: from improving their cooking skills to finding out about local seasonal produce and what best to do with it. If you’re the right chef for us, we’ll help you develop your career and have a great time along the way. We’d love to hear from you. To find out more email – cookhouse@sohohouse.com

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cookhouse Soho House Food Magazine

are you game?

autumn 2010

EATING all about olive oil COOKING how to cook perfect game WORKING advice from great kitchens Playing chefs with tattoos

a taste... 4 DIGEST THIS

News from the foodie world, how Soho House is getting greener and tasty events around the houses

autumn 2010 Welcome to the autumn 2010 edition of the Soho House food magazine – a food magazine for chefs and people who love to eat. This magazine celebrates the food philosophy of all the Soho House Group restaurants worldwide: Soho House New York, Babington House in Somerset, Soho House West Hollywood, Soho House Berlin and Cecconi’s in LA, as well as all the London sites: Pizza East, Cecconi’s, Dean Street Town House, Shoreditch House, The Electric, Café Boheme, BKB, High Road House Chiswick, Hoxton Grill and Soho House. This issue we’re taking a look at all the brilliant things we can do with game this season, trying to figure out why so many chefs have tattoos and examining how olive oil gets from tree to table. Plus the chefs have compiled a list of all the great, good and just plain weird advice they’ve been given in their careers.

Tuck in! Editor Rebecca Seal Design and Production Dominic Salmon

elissa Goldstein, Julia Taylorthanks to Dan Flower, Kat Hartigan, M etti, Amanda Middlebrooks, John Brown, Matthew Armistead, Ronnie Bon Kirsten Stoner, Matt Greenlees, Pollard, Kelly Taylor, Simone Gobbo, ar, Shelley Armistead, Pierre e y d o o G Ashley Lent, Paul Gerard, Kate ngton, Daniele Pampagnin, Dourneau, Lisa Proly, Fluffy Witheri avaliere, Thomas Lennard Maurilio Molteni, Alan Bird, Andrea C

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WHAT I KNOW

on who is Executive head chef of Soho House Italian kitchens a long way hardest to cook for and why a little romance goes

DUCK OR GROUSE!

This season is all about delicious game. Find out how to cook it, what goes well with it and how the chefs are serving it

16 20 26

THE BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT WAS... Chefs from around the world share the guidance that has stuck with them through their careers

FOOD AND INK

Why do so many chefs have tattoos? We ask them and get up close to their body art

HOW I MADE IT Simone Gobbo, an Italian in Berlin, and Maxim Roberts, an Ozzie in LA, explain how they got where they are today

A PRESSING MATTER How to choose the best olive oil, where it comes from and how you can bake cakes with it

SAUCY PASTA

Member Sarah Saunders’ recipe for spaghetti alla puttanesca

who knew?

going green

This month marks the start of Soho House’s involvement with the Sustainable Restaurant Association, which aims to help restaurants make a few simple changes to the way they run in order to be more environmentally friendly, and ensure that staff are treated as well as possible. Its ideas on local and seasonal sourcing reflect our ‘farm to fork’ style and it’s helped UK restaurants reduce energy usage, develop kitchen and frontof-house apprenticeship schemes and source ethical produce, including higher welfare meat and poultry. “Where Soho House leads, others follow and we’re proud to welcome their venues as our newest members,” says Simon Heppner, managing director of the SRA.

If you want to find out more, visit www.thesra.org

NIBBLES

food news from around the world

Deep-fried beer...Really?! C O O K H O U S E 4

How brilliant is it that the Texas State Fair has an annual fried food competition? Highlights in 2010 included fried salads and fried caviar. What’s less brilliant though, is that this year, contestant Mark Zable entered a recipe for deep-fried beer. That’s ravioli-style pockets filled with beer (he’s using Guinness) which slosh out onto the plate as soon as you bite into them. If you were foolish enough to take a bite in the first place that is. Ew. want to cook? email cookhouse@sohohouse.com

Turns out that a glass of milk is the best thing to get rid of garlic breath, not parsley, fennel seeds or gum. However, who wants a glass of milk if you’ve eaten a delicious meal? Couldn’t they have researched whether a hearty red wine could do the same? Or maybe a good tequila?

EVENTS There are lots of foodie events planned for autumn, so check with your nearest house for details of everything from wine and food matching evenings and members’ cooking classes to trips to vineyards, farms and suppliers — even fishing afternoons and dinners with guest chefs.

WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO... In September, Babington House had a stand at Abergavenny Food Festival in Wales, serving barbecued seafood from the south-west and seasonal produce to festival-goers. Last month, Babington also held an Old World v. New World night, where head chef Ronnie Bonetti challenged his chefs’ British classics with his own Australasian menu. Each course was judged by the diners – funnily enough, the boss won...

Bonetti also took his chefs for dinner at the River Café in Hammersmith, London. Bill Granger, one of Australia’s best-loved chefs, put in an appearance at Babington where he guestcheffed for a night, and then at High Road House in Chiswick, London, where he did a cracking Sunday brunch. High Road House also got a taste of the countryside, when Bonetti, did a night of outof-towner cooking. HRH was also visited by the Cecconi’s team.

coming soon Catch your supper or die trying – the Babington brigade goes commando (no, not like that), as it heads into the local woods with the means to hunt but no other food for the night.

Executive Italian chef Daniele Pampagnin is taking a selection of chefs from different kitchens on a mushroom foraging trip deep in the Black Country.

Ronnie Bonetti and Matt Greenlees are organising another of their infamous catch-a-fish-and-eat-it sessions. John Pollard, head chef at Pizza East, is taking his chefs to visit his honey maker in Regents Park, plus he’s also planning a game shoot in Hertfordshire, organized by his butcher.

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starters

“PERFECTION WOULD to achieve compared to what they wanted.”

BE EASY

I played the alto sax for 11 years in concerts and orchestras. I love classical music. My brother is a musician and lots of the rest of my family too. I did play it when I first moved to London, but I got people knocking on the door, asking me to stop. I believe you should cook for everyone as though you’re cooking for your mother. You can see it in the food when chefs have their mum in the restaurant. They cook with an extra touch of love. Daniele Pampagnin in the kitchens at Shoreditch House

When you learn how to cook it’s like you learn another language, a universal language, like music. That means you can travel anywhere you want and meet all sorts of crazy people. And you can impress girls with cooking.

what i know Daniele Pampagnin Executive head chef, Italian Kitchens, Soho House Group The hardest people I ever cooked for were firemen in Venice. Perfection would be easy to achieve compared to what they wanted. Whatever you make them, you don’t know anything about cooking. I was a C O O K H O U S E 6

fireman for two years in the army and that meant a lot of cooking, it was really where I started. Because I was youngest, I was the one stuck cleaning 100kg of mussels or whatever. I was like the commis of the commis. But I loved it. My dad is 70 and still thinks I can’t cook. He thinks everyone outside his own town can’t cook though. My dad was a fireman too. The most glorious day of my life was when he came to collect me from school in his fire engine.

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Knowing how to cook also means you can work in some amazing places, famous places even. I did stages at Cipriani in Venice and worked at the Cannes Film Festival too. Now, I oversee the group’s Italian kitchens and that means travelling to Berlin, LA and Miami, as well as being involved in Cecconi’s in London and Shoreditch House. It’s pretty cool. Romance is a good thing. One day, my girlfriend and her best friend were waiting for me to finish work in the park. I wanted to introduce her friend to a chef friend of mine and I thought we should do something crazy. So I made two risottos with asparagus with pan-fried scallops on top and put them on nice plates. The park was packed and we walked in, dressed in whites, me carrying two big plates and him carrying a white tablecloth and cutlery, and a bottle of prosecco. There must have been 500 people there, watching two chefs walk through Green Park, lay down the cloth, serve them and then leave. It was certainly one of my girlfriend’s best dates, and for me, afterwards was quite nice too... The best thing about being a chef is that’s it not really like having a job. I love it, so it’s not like working. I know a lot of people don’t get it – they see the long hours and that everyone seems stressed out. They’re probably kind of right; you have to be a little abnormal to be a chef.

D SOUND? GOO

to find out more about how you could become part of the Soho House Group team contact cookhouse@sohohouse.com

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C O O K H O U S E 7

game for it...

game on

So what if it’s getting dark and grim outside? It’s the perfect excuse to get stuck into the best of this season’s goodies: rustic game and wild mushrooms

The last couple of years has seen a revival in interest in game among home cooks and restaurants – from the 1970s to the 1990s game was pretty unpopular in the UK (though Italy never gave up and properly British restaurants like the Ivy, Rules and the Savoy also kept the faith). Not only is it delicious and interesting to cook with, wild meats tend to be richer in nutrients that you often don’t find in domesticated animals, even free range or organic, as wild animals have a more varied diet.

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Game has an undeserved reputation for toughness, but this is usually down to over cooking by home cooks worried about cooking meat through – most game should be served pink. Wild game is very lean, with almost no fat naturally present, and can quickly dry out and become tough, which is why some cooks bard or lard (basically, wrap) game with fat. Some chefs feel that younger animals make for better eating, but even older birds can be stewed or slow-cooked. Most game suits either very fast cooking or very slow, and nothing in between. www.sohohouse.com/cookhouse

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game for it...

“It’s

a bad thing to say, but my favourite game is Bambi”

“I grew up near Venice in Italy, near the Dolomite hills, where there is a big culture of hunting and loads of wild mushrooms grow,” says Daniele Pampagnin, executive head chef of all the Italian kitchens in the Soho House Group. “For me, game, wild mushrooms and polenta are the perfect combination,” he adds, leaning back and rubbing his stomach. “We used to make something called ‘dirty polenta’, a very inexpensive dish, where you cook birds slowly on a spit over charcoal, with a pot of polenta cooking underneath them, catching all the juices and fats as they cooked. You could add some mushrooms and maybe some fontina or tallegio, if you had any.” “It’s a bad thing to say, but my favourite game is Bambi. In the holidays we would go to the mountains, 2500m up, and eat venison stew with mountain mushrooms in a little wooden favour chalet. It’s one of my favourite memories.” Consequently, this autumn Pampagnin is encouraging the restaurants he works with (Cecconi’s, Soho House Berlin, Shoreditch House London), to put lots of game on the menus.

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“Wild boar ragu with pappardelle is really popular,” he says. “We can sell 5kg of it a day.” Shoreditch House head chef Maurilio Molteni, who is from Lombardy in Italy, agrees. “I really look forward to the colder weather so that we can get into stews and hearty ragus,” he says.

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Over in California, Andrea Cavaliere, head chef at Cecconi’s in LA, is working with his butcher on a game programme for the next few months. “I’m from Piedmont in Italy where game is a very big deal. Autumn is my favourite season for cooking: the game, the truffles, the mushrooms...the fog! Piedmont is at its best at this time of year,” he says. “Wild boar and venison are hunted in the countryside around LA, so we’ve got a great supply. But I also use some imported game birds from the UK as they’re not so plentiful here.” Paul Gerard, head chef at Soho House New York, changes his menu every day, depending on what his carefully chosen suppliers can bring him. “If someone tells me they’ve got the best venison today I’ll take it. Or it might be quail another day, or boar. I work with Pat LaFrieda, who are the top meat guys here.”

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game for it...

“GamePERFECT chips are so HOW TO FIND BEEF

poncey! I’ve been serving grouse with fat chips, and people think they’re delicious”

In London, Stephen Tonkin, head chef at Dean Street Townhouse, focuses on the old British ways to cook game. “People come to us specially when specific game seasons start. We serve pheasant with Kentish cobnuts, (very young hazelnuts) which dates from the 17th century – there’s a lot of history in this food. I’m also playing around with using foraged berries and partridge, maybe some quince jam with breast, on toast. In September people loved our wild rabbit salad with Scotch quails egg, and some days we sold 30 pigeon salads. Later in the season I might do mallard or a game pie with hare and braised red cabbage. It has to be raining outside for that.” Tonkin is supplied by Yorkshire Game and is planning to take some chefs on a shoot with them. “They’re also going to come here for a day to do some demonstrations for chefs from across London.”

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Down in Somerset, Babington, head chef Ronnie Bonetti is practically surrounded by game. “We have three deer that hang out in our garden,” he says. “They’re a pest and have to be culled. Stuart, my chicken farmer, sorts me out as a couple of local guys that he knows shoot them. They’re hung for about a week – the haunches cook really deliciously. I serve them with things like creamed chard.” When it comes to pheasant, Bonetti reckons salt-baking is a good way to retain moisture. “Or a pot roast with red wine and spices, like cinnamon.” He’s also into making the most of the local mushrooms. “The locals have been bringing us false chanterelles, and then there are porcinis nearby in the New Forest – all excellent on toast.” The one thing he’s not keen on? “Game chips are so poncey! I’ve been serving grouse with fat chips, and people think they’re delicious.”

CHOOSE YOUR GAME In big cities wild boar is usually really well taken care of – suppliers know that most restaurants don’t have space to hang and age their meat themselves so they supply it ready to cook. In Italy or anywhere where there is much more space, you might need to keep it hanging (somewhere cool, dry and pest free) for two or even three weeks to tenderise. You should never find shotgun pellets in venison in the UK, as that’s illegal (it’s sometimes legal in the US, depending on the state – it is allowed in California) rather they should be shot with a rifle. Make sure it’s been properly bled and gralloched (stomach and entrails removed) by getting it from a reputable supplier or qualified stalker. With game birds you want to be able see the red dot where it was shot so you can check for shot and the flesh should be nice and red too. Check that it’s not peppered

you ? e m a g

with lead shot, or shot at close range and damaged, and also that the teeth of the retriever haven’t mangled the meat. Don’t mince game that’s been shot if you can avoid it – lead shot will trash your mincer or processor. Find out how long the meat’s been hung. There are rules about how long meat served in restaurants can be hung, but if you’re cooking at home it’s down to personal taste – and whether the people you live with can stand the smell! Alan Bird, Soho House Group executive head chef says, “Some will say it’s not good to eat until the maggots have done their bit! With something like grouse the guts and feathers are left intact for three to five days and the meat starts to decompose gradually. This permeates the flesh and gives it the gamey flavour. It really does need that time for the flavour to develop, but for me, any longer than five days and it’s too high.”

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cookhouse@sohohouse.com

C O O K H O U S E 1 3

Dean Street Townhouse’s new season grouse with bread sauce BY STEPHEN TONKIN, HEAD CHEF, DEAN STREET TOWNHOUSE

SERVES 4 FOR THE GROUSE AND GAME SAUCE

Dean Street Townhouse’s venison with spiced red cabbage BY STEPHEN TONKIN, HEAD CHEF, DEAN STREET TOWNHOUSE

SERVES 4 FOR THE VENISON

4 trimmed venison saddle fillets about 150g / 51/2 oz each 50ml / 1/4 cup red wine 6 juniper berries sprig of thyme vegetable oil for cooking 300ml / 11/4 cups reduced veal stock Marinate the venison in the thyme, juniper berries and wine in a bowl covered with cling film overnight in the fridge.

FOR THE SPICED RED CABBAGE C O O K H O U S E 1 4

500g / 1 lb red onions, peeled and thinly sliced 125ml / 1/2 cup olive oil or goose fat 150g / 51/2oz redcurrant jelly 75ml / 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 1 /2 tbsp caraway seeds 1 /2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 /2 tsp ground cloves 250g / 1/2 lb raisins, soaked overnight 2kg / 41/2 lb red cabbage, thinly sliced 150ml 1/2 cup vegetable stock salt and freshly ground black pepper

Gently cook the onions in the olive oil or fat until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook gently over a low heat for 10 minutes. Cover with greaseproof paper and cook in a low oven for 30-40 minutes, stirring every so often.

TO COOK THE VENISON Remove the venison from the marinade and gently pat dry with some kitchen roll. Season and retain the marinade.

In a pan heat a little vegetable oil and cook the venison fillets for 2-3 minutes on each side. Leave to rest on a warm plate.

FOR THE SAUCE Put the marinade in a pan and reduce until about a teaspoon is left, then add the stock and any juices from the resting venison. Simmer until the sauce thickens. Pass through a fine sieve into a small pan. Add some butter and stir until it is emulsified.

TO SERVE Put a spoonful of the red cabbage into the middle of the plate and slice the venison into 4 or 5 pieces and place over the cabbage. Spoon the sauce around.

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4 young grouse cleaned vegetable oil for deep frying 3 large clean parsnips 200ml / 3/4 cup meat stock 200ml / 3/4 cup chicken stock 100ml / 1/2 cup red wine redcurrant jelly salt and pepper

FOR THE BREAD SAUCE

2 onions, peeled 100g / 3 oz butter 6 cloves 1 bay leaf 1l / 4 cups milk 1 /2 tsp ground nutmeg 200g / 71/2 oz fresh white breadcrumbs salt and pepper

TO MAKE THE BREAD SAUCE Finely chop one onion and cook it gently in 150g / 5 oz of butter until soft. Stud the other onion with cloves, pushing one through a bay leaf to anchor it. Put the milk, nutmeg and studded onion into the pan with the cooked onion and

bring it to the boil. Season, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the sauce to infuse for 30 minutes or so. Take out and discard the studded onion. Add the breadcrumbs and return the sauce to a low heat. Simmer for 15 minutes, giving an occasional stir. Pour a third of the bread sauce from the pan into the blender and process, and then return it to the pan and whisk in the remaining butter.

PARSNIP CHIPS

Top and tail the parsnips leaving the skin on and slice with a mandolin. Fry the sliced parsnips in a deep fat fryer 1800C / 3500F a few at a time so they don’t stick together. They will take a while to colour and will appear soft in the fat, but when drained will dry out and crisp up. Leave somewhere warm to dry and season with sea salt.

TO COOK THE GROUSE

Pre-hear the oven to 2400C / 4600F. Lightly season the grouse and rub the breasts

with a little softened butter. Roast them in the oven for 81/2 minutes (pink is the perfect way to serve grouse otherwise the meat tends to be a little dry). Put the grouse on a warm plate to rest and catch any juices that come from the birds.

GAME SAUCE

Put the pan that the grouse was cooked in back on a low heat, add the red wine and gently stir the bottom of the pan to remove any residue from the cooking. Reduce the red wine completely and add the stock. Reduce until thick and strain into a small pan. If needed, add a small amount of redcurrant jelly as the sauce can be quite strong. Correct the seasoning. The grouse can be served whole or with the breasts and legs removed. I like to have some buttered greens with it. Garnish with the parsnip crisps and a sprig of watercress. Serve the bread sauce and game jus separately in a sauce boat on the side.

WINE RECOMMENDATIONS BY VINCENT GASNIER, SOHO HOUSE’S MASTER SOMMELIER With a game recipe I would suggest a wine with a good structure like Chateaun euf du Pape, Chateau La Nerthe, France 2006, or Dolcetta d’Alba, Burlotto, Piemonte, Italy 2004. Both would be great. I love a beautiful Pinot Noir with grouse. Something with a bit of bottle age, when it starts revealing its leathery and gamey characters with silky tannins: try Nuits St Georges 1er Cru, Domaine Rion, France 2001, or Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru, Domaine Trapet, France 1999 Alternatively, for those who love heavier reds, I could serve Amarone della Valpolicella, Vaio, Masi, Veneto, Italy 2004 (oxygenate in a decanter for 2 hours), or Rioja Gran Reserva, Conde de Valdemar, Spain 2001 (a stunning vintage).

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C O O K H O U S E 1 5

words from the wise

Tips from the top “My mom told me that you should always make a recipe once exactly the way it says you should. Then you can play around with it, but the first time, follow it properly. It drove her crazy that I wouldn’t do it.” KATE GOODYEAR, PASTRY CHEF, SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK AND MIAMI BEACH HOUSE

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“At the Lanesborough, on my first job as a pastry chef, Selwyn Stoby, who opened the restaurant, told me not be afraid to write stuff down. Now, I do it all the time, I even write down recipes as I make them and I make a quick note of everything I need to remember.” JO DUNCAN, PASTRY CHEF, HOXTON GRILL, LONDON

WHATEVER LEVEL A CHEF IS IN THE KITCHEN, THERE’S ALWAYS MORE TO LEARN, AND WHO BETTER TO LEARN FROM THAN OTHER CHEFS? HERE’S A SELECTION OF THE BEST ADVICE COLLECTED BY CHEFS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

“Jet Tipa, a chef at Wazuzu in Las Vegas, told me how to hold a knife just right: choke up on it like you’re playing golf or baseball, right up to the blade, then you have great control.” KATE GOODYEAR, PASTRY CHEF, SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK AND MIAMI BEACH HOUSE

“A lot of chefs don’t take the time to learn pastry. David Burke, the famous New York chef, told me to learn and I’m so glad I did.” PHIL CONLON, SOUS CHEF, SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK

“Don’t get a tattoo when you’re drunk!”

“PUSH. PUSH” LUKAS KUS, SENIOR SOUS CHEF IN THE BRASSERIE, HIGH ROAD HOUSE, CHISWICK

“Don’t pee into the wind!”

“Always be tasting. Every single chef I’ve ever worked for has said that. It’s the only way you can tell if your food is any good.” PAUL GERARD, HEAD CHEF, SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK

MAREK WIERCINSKI, JUNIOR SOUS CHEF IN THE BRASSERIE, HIGH ROAD HOUSE, CHISWICK

MARKUS PIETERSE, SOUS CHEF IN THE CLUB, HIGH ROAD HOUSE, CHISWICK

“Every piece of food you send out says something about you. It says, ‘this is who I am and what I do’. If you send crap food out then it says a lot about you. I was told that by a sous chef called Nick at the Ivy.” JAMES JESTY, SOUS CHEF BABINGTON HOUSE

“If you get into the weeds in service, and your checks are piling up, get a big, really cold glass of water and drink it slowly. Take a deep breath and refocus. It really works, you can look at the checks again and get through it. I was told that by a chef called Pete, who is from Newcastle, but I met him working in Sydney.” TANK LOY, SENIOR SOUS CHEF, THE ELECTRIC, LONDON

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“Really early in my career, Chris Galvin, the award-winning British chef, told me: ‘Eyes and ears open, mouth shut.’ It was definitely good advice.” DAVE GREEN, HEAD CHEF, HOXTON GRILL, LONDON

“Our head chef, Ronnie Bonetti, has a few standards: ‘Don’t drink cider before work’ (we are in the cider-loving English West Country), ‘A blunt knife will do more harm than a sharp one’, and ‘It’s not a ****ing stirfry!’“ NEIL SMITH, JUNIOR SOUS CHEF AT BABINGTON HOUSE, SOMERSET, ENGLAND

“There comes a time when you should just shut your mouth and do whatever Chef says, especially if you want to get to that position yourself some day. It’s humbling, and you’re there to learn.” PAUL GERARD, HEAD CHEF, SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK

“When I was working in Switzerland, my German head chef told me to always be first in the kitchen. That way, you can organise yourself, get your section ready and get ahead. If you’re in a big kitchen with 30 chefs, it makes your life easier.” MAURILIO MOLTENI, HEAD CHEF, SHOREDITCH HOUSE LONDON

“Nicola du Cescali, who taught me so much about plating, also said, ‘Never smoke a joint before service’. I’ll never forget the night he said it to me even though it was probably 10 years ago: I had forgotten to put on the pasta boiler and at 6.45pm an order came in for spaghetti clams. I said “Seven on the pass chef!” and then realised what I’d done. “Twenty-seven on the pass chef!” I got so much crap that night.” DANIELE PAMPAGNIN, HEAD OF ITALIAN KITCHENS, SOHO HOUSE GROUP

“The pastry chef in my first restaurant, Maria Swan at Grace in LA, told me how important it is to be quiet, especially when you’re new. It feels weird because you’ve just spent all this money at catering school learning to cook, but no-one cares, you just need to listen.” KATE GOODYEAR, PASTRY CHEF SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK AND MIAMI

“Joey Fortunato, from Extra Virgin restaurant, said to me, ‘Come in and work your ass off. Don’t be a p*ssy.’ I’ve never forgotten that!” PHIL CONLON, SOUS CHEF, SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK

“Always aim to be the best and then your head chef will know he can trust you. Never say no.” ELIA PARTRIARCA, GRILL CHEF, SHOREDITCH HOUSE, LONDON

“Always have a coffee ready for the head chef. Head chefs like to be looked after. Yes, that’s my own advice!” HEAD CHEF MAURILIO MOLTENI, SHOREDITCH HOUSE

“Taste, taste, taste. That’s what my first head chef, Andrew, in Sydney, told me.” TANK LOY, SENIOR SOUS CHEF, ELECTRIC, LONDON

“When I worked at the Ivy, a sous chef said to me: ‘Keep your mouth shut, your head down and crack on.’” JAMES JESTY, SOUS CHEF BABINGTON HOUSE

And a few old favourites... “Less is more” “A clean kitchen is a happy kitchen” “Time to lean, time to clean” “Don’t eat yellow snow” “You can add but you can’t take away”

if you’re intere sted in a career in cook ing, contact cookhouse@soh ohouse.com

C O O K H O U S E 1 9

TITFER TATS

Whether hidden away under whites, nestling inside clogs or concealed by trousers, you can bet that any restaurant kitchen in the world will contain more than its fair share of tattoos per person. Every tattoo tells a personal story, so it would be wrong to assume that chefs get them just because they’re chefs, of course, but as it used to be with sailors and still is with soldiers, a chef is definitely more likely to be inked up than your average banker, even now.

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KITCHEN INK want to cook? email cookhouse@sohohouse.com

That’s not to say they’re totally acceptable and accepted everywhere. Go on internet forums like chef2chef and you regularly see people being told they can’t work because of their tats. (Admittedly, one them had tattooed flames on his face. And was trying to get work in an American country club. But still.) In 2009, Food & Wine magazine in America even published an angry letter of complaint they got after showing inked up chefs on the cover of the magazine. Although many of the chefs on TV shows like Top Chef and Iron Chef do show off their body art, quite a few cover them up: Aaron Sanchez usually wears long sleeves on the Food Network, for example. Go back a few years, though, before four-times tattooed Anthony Bourdain shone a light on the darker side of kitchen life and made it cool, and kitchen tattoos were properly disapproved of. “When I came in to work with the outline of a Foo dog (a Korean lion) running from my hand to my elbow, the chef at the New York restaurant I worked at was pretty p*ssed off,” says Paul Gerard, executive chef at Soho House New York. “He shook his head and made me roll my sleeves down. But I was in my 20s and liked being disapproved of – it was a symbol of being a rebel.” This was in the 1990s, when cheffing was gradually becoming more of a serious, respected job, and some chefs thought tattoos undermined that.

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TITFER TATS “In the 1980s, most chefs here in New York were a ragtag bag of miscreants who weren’t necessarily passionate about food,” explains Gerard. “This was the only business that would have them. I was 13 when I first started trying to work in kitchens and they scared the hell out of me, even though I loved it. Lots of them had criminal records and bad attitudes, and with all that came tattoos.” Now of course, that’s all changed and tattoos are cooler than they’ve ever been, although they still have a whiff of rebellion. In the US food tattoos are popular, probably more so than in Britain. “I see people with the Henckel twins [a knife brand logo], steaks or baby beets, which I find quite funny. But obviously it’s all about personal choice,” says Gerard. Russell Jackson, executive chef at Lafitte in San Francisco, has herbs Reon his arms, while Jesse Schenker of Re cette in New York has caul fat on his left arm, plus a knife and steak. Perhaps the most committed is executive chef Carolynn Spence at Chateau Marmont, LA, who has teaspoon and tablespoon measures tattooed on her palm, plus portion marks down the side of her hand.

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“Carolynn Spence has spoon measures tattooed on her palm”

Working in a kitchen also has particular anyrisks for a tattooed chef. “I won’t get any thing done below my elbows,” says Tank Loy, sous chef at the Electric. “Partly because we work in an open kitchen, but also because I don’t know how they’d heal if I got burnt.” Sometimes it’s suggested that part of the reason chefs get tats is to show some individuality when you have to wear whites all day. Our chefs disagreed. “We express our individuality through our food,” says Paul Gerard. “I don’t even think of whites as a uniform,” adds Dave Green, head chef at Hoxton Grill, London. “It’s just that you get more characters in a kitchen so more tattoos.” www.sohohouse.com/cookhouse

Who’s got what?

You’d be mad to underestimate a chef, and the same goes for their tattoos, which are inspired by anything from 18th century poetry to 19th century surrealist artists, via love, luck, nationality, family and religion.

JANICE RAMOS, LINE COOK, SOHO HO

USE WEST HOLLYWOOD I got my Smiths tattoo whe n I was 18 and going throug h a bit of a rebellion. It time of change for me, and was a I started culinary school that same year and starte like I was in the right pla d feeling ce in my life. And the Smi ths are my favourite band. ELIA PATRICIA, GRILL CHEF, SHOREDITCH HOUSE LONDON I’ve got my mum’s initials, my name and surname, and one representing family, nature, harmony and love. I’d like to get a sleeve in the Chinese style, but it’s so expensive. It’s not about fashion – a tattoo is forever. They become part of you.

GEORGE AVILES, SOUS CHEF, SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK

I’m Spanish and I have the Spanish for ‘paradise’, a swallow representing my family, my last name on my stomach, a pin-up girl on my arm, dice for luck and some cards for bad luck, plus the mad hatter; he’s nuts and I’m a little bit nuts. I got tattoos that I could cover up with clothes. It’s not really about other people seeing them.

PAUL GERARD, HEAD CHEF, SOHO HOUSE NEW YORK I like traditional tattoos like pin-up girls and sailor tattoos. I have a dagger on my forearm, a Foo dog, a crab (for cancer, not for food) and my daughter’s name. I’m glad I waited until I knew what I wanted.

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TITFER TATS

KATE GOODYEAR, PASTRY CHEF, SHNY AND MIAMI BEACH HOUSE TANK LOY, SOUS CHEF, THE ELECTRIC, NOTTING HILL, LONDON I’m Chinese-Australian and have a tribal tattoo on my arms down to my elbow. I started it in 2001 in Australia but because I lived five hours away from my tattoo artist, it took a couple of years to complete. In the future I’d like to get the same pattern right across my shoulders. It will be a good 15 hours work, but hell, I work in a kitchen so I’ve already got a high pain threshold.

DAVE GREEN, HEAD CHEF, HOXTON GRILL I have an MC Escher lizard running around my arm. He’s my favourite artist. I got it eight or nine years ago and it had taken me years to decide what to get. It took four hours in two sittings. I’m going to get another Escher, but I’m still deciding what. We had a potwash a while ago who was training to do it himself, so he did most of us.

BRIAN ROZOF, LINE COOK, SOHO HOUSE WEST HOLLYWOOD LR are my dad’s initials. My dad is a chef and was the person who inspired me to get into cooking. I was going to get one initial on each arm, but then I realized people would think I got it for right and left…

BEN AMERLING, SOUS CHEF, SOHO HOUSE WEST HOLLYWOOD The tattoo on my back is an angel and a devil – for the battle between good and evil, the battle you fight in life. I have an aquarium on my leg, as I love spear fishing and the ocean. I figure I won’t be in California forever, so I have this to remind me of spear fishing wherever I go.

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I have two tattoos, a little shamrock on my back and a Wheel of Being, which is five circles, each representing a different state of nature, and the circle in the middle is balance. I was 23 when I got them, so it was 10 years ago. I think it’s not quite as popular with girls in the kitchen as guys, some of whom really want to look mad, bad and dangerous to know. My friend Minnie, a chef, is getting a sleeve though, and has them on her chest and neck. I am thinking about getting another one: the poet William Cullen Bryant is an ancestor of mine and I’m thinking of having a bit of one of his famous poems.

LARRY EPONDULAN, SENIOR CHEF DE PARTIE, SHOREDITCH HOUSE My tattoos are a very personal thing, not trendy. I have a rosary on one side that wraps round my arms and neck, and a chain in the same pattern on the other side. It represents my good side and my bad side. I have clouds and fire on my stomach, a cross and clouds on my arms and two angels, one for my grandma and one for my cousin who committed suicide. I also have the Philippines’ flag 11 times, for the 11 years I spent living there before I came here as a child. My last venture in tattooing will be when I get a half-good, half-bad angel on my back.

DAVID MARTINEZ JR, LINE COOK, SOHO HOUSE WEST HOLLYWOOD I have an anchor on my face with a heart on the bottom that I got on the 4th of July this year (Independence Day) when I was with a bunch of other chefs. All of my tattoos are from my travels as a chef all around the world. The headless person on my right arm is from Shel Silverstein’s Where The Sidewalk Ends [an illustrated book of poetry for children written in 1974].

“Some guys really want to look mad, bad and dangerous to know”

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careers advice

how i made it Simone Gobbo, 29, head chef, Soho House Berlin

My dad was a butcher near Venice and my mother worked with him, so I was around food from a very early age. By the time I was 11, I was helping them out, cutting up meat. I love being around food and being in contact with it. I went to catering school for five years, and from the age of 16 worked as a waiter, chef and pastry chef. Then I went to work in a small local restaurant, which was good because I was the only chef, so I had to do it all.

Simone Gobbo in the kitchens at Soho House Berlin

But after a couple of years, I decided to go and work in the best pastry shop in Venice, Pasticceria Zanin, run by a master of pastry, Andrea Zanin. I was really into pastry while I was studying, and did a few special courses while I was at school. Next, I moved to London and got work at Cecconi’s. It was there I met Daniele Pampagnin (now one of the Soho House executive chefs) who is from near where I’m from in Venice. When Soho House Group opened Shoreditch House in east London three and a half years ago, I moved there and worked as a pastry chef in the prep kitchens, then worked up to being senior sous chef. I got to travel to LA for the Academy Awards and Cannes for the film festival as well.

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Now, I’m the head chef at the brand new Soho House Berlin. I moved here in February. For sure, it’s hard work, but there are times in your life when you have to work hard, right? I still love it and I don’t plan on going anywhere else – I’m single and, for now, I’m married to my job. It has been tricky since everything is obviously in German, which I would learn if I had a moment to – I think I know the key words now, but I’m not sure about my pronunciation! I could tell you a thousand mad things about working for Soho House, but probably the maddest was making a cake — for the artist Damien Hirst — in the shape of the palette of someone’s mouth, for 80 people. That was the strangest thing I’ve

Maxim Roberts, 28, senior sous chef, Soho House West Hollywood My first contact with Soho House was in Sydney. After answering an ad in the paper, I went to meet their recruiter who told me all about the company and her time working in England for them. I was very interested in the opportunity to travel and work for the company and within the month I was on a plane to the UK and Babington House in Somerset. While working at Babington I was part of several Club Suppers, during which well-known celebrity chefs like Rowley Leigh and Thomasina Miers visited and cooked with us. Working with other chefs and staff from the company, I also had the chance to attend a House satellite party when we put on an event at the beautiful Chateau la Napoule, near Cannes in France. I have been lucky enough to do stages at both the River Café and Petersham Nurseries in London, where chef Skye Gyngell made a fantastic salad of raw new season porcini mushrooms with creme fraiche along with many other fab dishes. However, the highlight of my four years with Soho House has been moving to LA for the opening of the West Hollywood site. Constant excitement about all types of food and cooking comes with the territory, but it’s accentuated by working with amazing people whose passion for all things edible is second to none. Just two months ago, we were lucky enough to take a group of chefs to a cooking demonstration by Fergus Henderson (one of my favourite chefs) here in L.A. That was a real treat, not to mention the meal that followed, which comprised of crispy pigs’ ears, pot-roasted pig’s head and trotter gear (“a warm and damp salad” as Fergus so succinctly put it!) with broad beans and rocket; then ox heart marinated and grilled with red slaw and horseradish cream. And last but not least, we finished with his famous (and I must say, delicious) chocolate ice cream. A great night!

a n n wa k? coo

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ever done.

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Maxim Roberts in the kitchens at Soho House West Hollywood

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oiling up

Anatomy of an ingredient

Shoreditch Olive Oil

Shoreditch House uses 120 LITRES OF OLIVE OIL every week in the kitchens, plus about another 20 litres poured straight out for diners.

Maremma, which is Tuscan and really fresh and creamy; Incanto from Sicily — very good on tomatoes or mozzarella but a little punchy for meat or fish; and Cinque Foglie from Puglia, which is very intense and flavoursome — and far too good for cooking with.

Dipping bread in olive oil is a British custom, not an Italian one. It started here in the 1950s because people were used to having butter when they were served bread. Nobody does it in Italy, although bread is helpful if you’re tasting different olive oils together.

“If you’re using a charcoal grill or barbecue, don’t cover the meat or fish in olive oil, rather dry-marinate it and add any oil afterwards. Otherwise you’ll end up with smoke and flames and a real mess,” advises Molteni.

However tasty it is, adding balsamic vinegar to olive oil is pretty sacrilegious. “Since it’s not usual to eat bread this way in Italy, imagine how I feel about people adding balsamic to the wonderful oil! It is the death of the flavour,” says Maurilio Molteni, head chef at Shoreditch House. It takes about 5kg of olives to make one litre of olive oil, which is part of the reason it’s expensive – that, and the amount of effort that goes into growing, picking and transporting the olives to be pressed, without letting them warm up and spoil. There aren’t enough olives in Italy to meet the demand for their oil. “I was in Tunisia where there are lots of olive groves; they told me most of their olives go straight to Italy and are made into oil there,” says Molteni. Different types of olive make different tasting oil, and, just like wine, the taste also depends on the soil. Ligurian oil tends to be very light, whereas Tuscan is stronger and more rustic.

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“I was about five years old when I first really discovered how delicious olive oil is. An old lady in the block of flats where I grew up, near Lake Como in Italy, used to look after me when my mum was at work. She would make me panzanella for breakfast, which is white bread, chopped tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, basil and sea salt. Those memories are so strong,” says Molteni. “It was unbelievably good.” You can use olive oil instead of butter in cake and ice cream. “I was in a little family-run hotel in Sicily and they had a huge buffet of cakes and pastries. I took a bite and I thought, this tastes of olive oil! And the lady who made them told me that’s what she used. You have to make sure it’s a pretty delicate oil though, because it does change the flavour.” There are three extra-virgin olive oils on offer in Shoreditch House:

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“Since it’s not usual to eat bread dipped in olive oil in Italy, imagine how I feel about people adding balsamic vinegar to it!”

PRESS ON!

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member’s recipe

of spaghetti Obviously this is just a really good version name correctly. If alla puttanesca, but I like to translate its prepare it wearing you were doing it properly, you’d probably sh!) – the (disputonly your knickers or something (don’t spla worked in Italy’s ed) story is that it was what the ladies who to make, as they state-legislated brothels in the 1950s used plicated meals... were too ‘busy’ for shopping and making com serves 4 4 tbs olive oil 2 garlic cloves, whole but crushed 4 anchovies 14-20 black olives, stones removed

1-2 tbs capers to taste, rinsed a tin of chopped tomatoes 1 tsp dried oregano handful of parsley, finely chopped 350g spaghetti salt and pepper

a medium heat until it’s just Fry the garlic in olive oil in a big pan on slices of red chilli here if you slightly browning. You could also add a few and cook until they dissolve. Add fancy. Remove the garlic. Add the anchovies if they’re quite big) and cook the olives and capers (cut the olives in half and parsley. Cover and simmer for a minute. Next, add the tomatoes, oregano e stick to the bottom of the pan. for 15 minutes or so – but don’t let the sauc Drain but retain a bit of the Cook the pasta while the sauce is simmering. ssary and stir the sauce into the pasta water. Taste the sauce, season if nece le of the hot water. pasta. If it’s a bit dry and sticky, add a litt c about it, don’t you dare add Eat straight away. If you’re being authenti any parmesan. C O O K H O U S E 3 0

o t t i il a m e e s a e l p , e r e h e p i c e r r u o y e e s o t e k i l ’d If you om

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cookhouse Soho House Food Magazine

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autumn 2010

EATING all about olive oil COOKING how to cook perfect game WORKING advice from great kitchens Playing chefs with tattoos