Craft's Man

Beginning at the prestigious River Café, he started a pop-up restaurant before London knew what pop-ups were and used that time to experiment with technique and approach. We sat down with him to chat about his ambitious restaurant Craft London, working with renowned British designer Tom Dixon, and the beauty of British produce.

How many restaurants do you have in london at the moment? Could you run through them briefly?

My first restaurant, Dock Kitchen, closed at the end of last year and was a collaboration with British designer Tom Dixon. For me, design and environment is a really important part of a restaurant. After that, I opened Rotorino in Dalston, which was a southern Italian grill. Then came Craft London in Greenwich, which is a really big, ambitious, quite complex operation. It’s a café, restaurant and bar, but it’s really focused on the produce and was designed by Tom Dixon. What I love is that it’s an unusual location, so you can deliver this incredible experience. Then with my first head chef we opened Sardine, which is rustic southern French, and we also have Palatino, a Roman restaurant, and Pastaio, which is fresh pasta.

Early on in your career, you worked at a few notable restaurants. Could you tell us about these experiences, and how they shaped your career?

I started cooking at 17 at The River Café. I basically just cleaned the fridge and picked crab all day. I wasn’t even allowed to cook it, I’d just pick it out of the shell: boxes and boxes of it. That was it for six months, and then slowly I got to do more. These days, it’s unusual to work so slowly through a kitchen because everyone’s so short-staffed that it's only two years to become sous-chef. Back then, it was two years on one section. And it’s nice to spend a year on pasta! It was definitely beneficial that way, seeing the seasons come through and understanding the produce.

Before you set up dock kitchen, you ran a few pop-up events for your moveable kitchen. What is it and why did you create it?

After travelling, I went back to the River Café and worked part-time, but I also wanted to do something for myself. I didn't want to open a restaurant yet, I was only about 23, but Moveable Kitchen enabled me to experiment without it being over-considered. Back then, landlords didn’t understand what pop-ups were – now they get it. They thought I wanted to squat there or something, so it was very difficult, but I did them in an abandoned swimming pool, in greasy spoons, and it was all about being loose and free.

Can you recall any favourite or challenging moments at these dinners?

They were all challenging because none of them had any proper infrastructure! One of my favourite meals we did was by the river in a rowing club, and we cooked a south Indian meal. That was a lot of fun and the pop-ups actually got quite a fashion following, so a lot of Vogue and west London people like Nigella were coming. It was an amazing crowd that just happened by word of mouth, so when we went to do something more permanent, we already had a crowd who would come, which was great.

You’ve previously worked closely with fellow greenwich peninsula contributor tom dixon. How did this partnership come about?

I found this space in Portobello Docks when I was doing Moveable Kitchen. I knew that Tom was going in there and I wanted to get in before him and do a summer thing on the terrace, but the landlord wouldn’t allow it. Luckily, Tom had more space than he needed, and there was an old kitchen already there, so I planned to stay for a week, but that went on until Christmas. When Tom moved in to the shop downstairs, I ended up taking the whole upper floor as a restaurant. I think the idea of design and food should never be too separate, and Tom’s approach to materiality is similar to my approach to cooking.

When you came to greenwich peninsula, there was almost nothing there. Did you find that inspirational?

Initially, I found it worrying. But then I thought, there’s nothing there, and I began to see that as an opportunity as well as a challenge. It meant I could create something really special and pull the focus onto food and quality. It was really important to me that we manufactured our own produce; it took a little while to get it going, but now we make bread, cure meat, grow veg, have bees, and the coffee we roast is used in all of my restaurants. These things are what create the identity of the restaurant and in turn help create the neighbourhood.

Why british-only produce at craft?

I wanted Craft to be all about the produce, but also when you set boundaries and limit certain elements, you can do some interesting things. So, we’ve made our own miso out of broad beans, which we would never have done if we’d just bought miso, and actually it’s uniquely delicious. We’ve also salted and fermented sloes so that they taste like olives. It’s not about being unique for the sake of it, but this approach drives creativity.

What kitchen gadgets are you returning to again and again?

I hardly have any, actually. Pestle and mortar – is that a gadget? A 5,000-year-old gadget! My five-year-old is really into baking, so we’ll bake together and use a mixer for that.

Top travel tip?

When I’m researching restaurants, I Google Image search them. If you read the menu, you’ve got no idea if it’s a really fancy place, so don’t read TripAdvisor, use Google Image search.

I hear you’re into growing your own produce at home. Any top tips for london gardens?

Courgette and chard. If you have two big plants of each, you’ve got vegetables for the whole summer for your family. They don’t take up too much space, and the more you pick, the more it grows. And manure! It’s all about the soil.

For more on Craft London, go to craft-london.co.uk; to find out more about Stevie Parle’s other restaurants, visit stevieparle.co.uk