Foodie pop-ups: London 2022's gastronomic ventures
Celebrate the city's hidden supper clubs, niche bars and unlikely partnerships. Here are the London pop-ups worth catching before they vanish
The Water House Project X Kødbyens Fiskebar
For worldly foodies, few things are quite as thrilling as seeing two stonkingly good restaurants, separated by oceans but united in vision, channel their similarities through a one-off pop-up. This month, the team behind Copenhagen’s fine-dining fish restaurant Kødbyens Fiskebar are coming to Culture Whisper favourite The Waterhouse Project in Bethnal Green for a two-night collaboration.
Fiskebar head chef Jamie Lee joins Gabriel Waterhouse in his achingly stylish, open-plan kitchen to cook up a seafood-centric, late summer menu comprising 10 courses with a six-course wine pairing for £135.
Bone Daddies x Red Hot Asians
A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affair, Ana Da Costa and Emily Yeoh, aka the duo behind hot sauce brand Two Hot Asians, are showing off their ramen flair at Bone Daddies’ Bond Street branch. Sharing the stoves with Bone Daddies’ head chef Tom Moxon, they’ll be dishing up their Mala Hotpot collaboration dish, plus further favourites combining Chinese, Thai, Malaysian and even Portuguese flavours.
Desperate to try the dish but can’t make the pop-up? Red Hot Asians’ Mala Hotpot is available to order via Deliveroo from all Bone Daddies sites until Friday 30 September.
Skye Gyngell x Ballymaloe supper club
Michelin-starred chef Skye Gyngell invites Irish pastry chef JR Ryall, of Ballymaloe House in Cork, to her Somerset House restaurant, Spring, for one night only. The collaboration celebrates the publication of Ryall’s debut cookbook, Ballymaloe Desserts, and those with a sweet tooth will be happy to hear the chef is bringing his award-winning dessert trolley accross the Irish Sea with him. Before the sugar, though, comes a drinks reception followed by a couple of seasonal, savoury courses cooked up by the pair.
The three-course set menu costs £75pp, or £95 with an additional wine pairing.
Frog by Adam Handling x JAAN by Kirk Westaway
When two Michelin-starred chefs join forces, how many Michelin stars are you eating at their dinner table? Should there be a collective noun for when such chefs come together? It’s food for thought. In the meantime, Michelin-starred chef Adam Handling of Frog in Covent Garden invites two Michelin-starred chef Kirk Westaway of JAAN in Singapore to his London restaurant to cook up an extravagant 13-course menu highlighting guest favourites from both institutions. Among the offerings are Handling’s ‘egg, bacon, maitake’, and Westaway’s ‘goose mousse, roast red onion marmalade’.
The menu is priced at £250pp, with lunch and dinner sittings available both days.
Autumn guest chef series at Carousel
Behold the latest roster of noteworthy chefs coming to cook their magic at Ollie and Ed Templeton’s blank slate of a kitchen, Carousel: Kate Austen (until Saturday 10 September), who has worked in several of Europe’s most prestigious fine dining kitchens; Jitin Joshi (Tuesday 13 - Saturday 17 September) of Gymkana acclaim; the team behind Copenhagen ramen joint Kōnā (20 - 24 September), Instagram's farm-to-fork cooking sensation Max La Manna (Tuesday 27 September - Saturday 1 October); and queen of Guatemalan cuisine Debora Fadul (Tuesday 4 - Saturday 8 October).
Wild Feasts at Oxmoor Farm
Surely the flavour of the season, Oxmoor Farm is luring London foodies to Buckinghamshire with its promise of farmyard fine dining, hosted by a stellar line-up of chefs. The pop-up supper club will seat diners at two long dining tables under a shared tented roof (think Wilderness Festival's feasting tent) where a welcome cocktail will loosen conversation before giving way to a multi-course feast prepared by The Towpath Café's Joe Woodhouse (9 July), The Conduit's Brendan Eades (23 July), organic farmer Xanthe Gladstone and food stylist Clare Cole (6 August), Silo's Max Mclean and Ed Tejada (27 August), and ex-River Café chef George Williams (Saturday 10 September).
Oxmoor Farm is a 40-minute train ride from London. Tickets are £50 - £70pp.
Read more ...East Meets West at Three Sheets
Tip-top Dalston cocktail bar Three Sheets is looking to Korea for inspiration this summer, with its three-month pop-up, East Meets West. Look forward to fresh spins on classic cocktails as well as more unusual tipples, like the Shiso + Plum (Jinro Plum, Shiso, Anise, Gin, Soda).
Sating appetites is a six-course menu from Chef Joo Won of Cálong, highlights from which include Iberico Pork Belly Bulgogi and Vermicelli Japchae.
Read more ...Cocktails in the City
With so many of the World's Best Bars on our doorstep, it can be tricky for cocktail connoisseurs to choose where to drink. That is, until Cocktails in the City – the festival of all things shaken or stirred – comes to town, running for three weekends between July and September. Featuring 20 of London’s most popular drinking establishments all under one roof, Cocktails in the City is a chance to bar-hop between your favourite watering holes in north, south, west and east London – without so much as setting foot on the tube.
Tickets are £20pp.
Read more ...Nomadic Kitchen Table
Flee inner-city life for a night of magical woodland dining. Nestled deep within 90 acres of woodland within the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, Nomadic Kitchen Table serves up a foraged feast cooked on an open flame, using wild seasonal ingredients. Nomadic can host private events of up to 30 guests between its cosy tepee and rustic outdoor dining table.
The ongoing Feast Over Fire series is priced at £99pp and includes a welcome cocktail made with local botanicals and a guided foraging tour of the estate.
Funicular Productions: The Murdér Express Part Deux
Back by deadly demand: The Murdér Express is one of Funicular Productions’ signature experiences, and it returns this season, taking new cohorts of pleasure-seekers on ‘a journey of a lifetime’. Head back in time to the newly opened Pedley Street Station, where you’ll be among the first to ride the new luxury train: The Murdér Express. Sip on cocktails, tuck in to a fancy feast but don’t get too comfy, as the train’s name unsubtly suggests, something more sinister could be on board. Look forward to entertainment and storylines from a professional cast, and a multi-course meal from MasterChef: the Professionals finalist and long-term Funicular collaborator Louisa Ellis.
Tickets cost £70 - £75pp.
Read more ...Eleven98: Chef's Table at a secret location
Take a seat around the table of Michelin-trained chef Aidan Brooks and tuck into a nine-course tasting menu made with ingredients grown in Aidan's home borough of Hackney. Guests are welcomed with a botanical cocktail muddled with Haggerston-produced spirits from the 58 & Co Distillery, after which it's BYOB. An authentic supper club hosted in the chef's own home, Eleven98 is held most Fridays, but with a long-standing reputation behind it, you'll want to book well in advance to secure a seat.
Tickets £72pp.
Michelle Trusselle's Myristica supper club
Fine dining meets Caribbean soul food at Michelle Trusselle’s delectable supper clubs. Dishes are exciting, overtly colourful and impossibly pretty – arranged with intense attention to detail on the plate. The food is sourced sustainably, too, all found locally in a bid to mirror the freshness of meals served in the Caribbean. The supper clubs are held once a month and are regularly booked up well in advance, so hurry if you want to reserve a seat at the table.
Read more ...Mamma Mia! The Party
First came the music, followed by the hit stage show, then not one but two blockbuster movies, and now you can be part of the party with a Mamma Mia immersive experience. London's O2 will host a theatrical and dining experience, which has already impressed in Stockholm. Mamma Mia! The Party invites audiences into a Greek island paradise, where olive trees, trickling fountains and trailing bougainvillea transport you to Nikos' Taverna for an evening of Mediterranean food and live performance. Tickets £99 - £180.