Over the years as I developed as a cook, I always looked back at the initial sparks, travel through Europe, West Africa and Southeast Asia, pivotal books like old Larousse, Pepin, Wolfert, Palladin and in more recent history Bras, Bertolli, Keller. The most influential book was White Heat by Marco Pierre White, It was not about the actual recipes but the sharing of a passion and a vision. A restaurant is never easy even when you have 60 stages who want to work for you for free, details still need to be attended to and in many ways the more people who touch the food the more the possibilities of details getting overlooked.
Every cook eventually want's "his or her own place", there are a multiplicity of established models from cafes, fine restaurants, bars, gastro pubs, tapas and the list goes on. What is essential for everyone of us it to find the venue that best showcases our talents, continues to stimulate our passionate interest in what we do and provides the financial rewards that makes it all worthwhile. Money isn't everything but without money there is no art in the modern age. This business is as much about money as it is about food, it is important that the pursuit of one does not negate the other.
My basic point is every one finds their own road either directly or by circumstance, I have chosen to follow my own road by putting together a small team of people who want to work in a 30 seat restaurant that serves only dinner 5 days a week.
Why ?
It works, it's different and ultimately people want value both in the experience and the cooking, if all the energy went into the cooking and the food rather than the hype and the book matches, then food costs a lot less than you might think.
It does not require multiple investors whose vision or interest may diverge from yours.
It is the "un-restaurant"
Chang has done it at KO.
Talula has done it in Kennet Square.
I tested the idea several years ago.
In the end the landscape is better when everyone has a contribution and does it well.
My road forward is "Studiokitchen" currently under design in the space above.
As in everything I have always done, I started small and grew. I will start small and grow again.
As this process develops I will share as much as I can, I haven't figured it all out yet but that is the same creative approach I use to cook, let it evolve towards the best final product.
The plan is to be in business this fall and I will continue to hone my food concept by resurrecting the apparently missed Studiokitchen of e-gullet fame in the new test kitchen in less than 2 weeks.
More details will follow.
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