The chef-owner of one of the most awarded restaurants in London takes a moment to share some inspiring thoughts about thriving in a volatile market
Isaac McHale is arguably one of the hottest British chefs of the moment. The chef-owner of one-Michelin-starred The Clove Club in London not only helped the restaurant secure the No. 33 spot on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018 list—topping three other British restaurants to be the highest entry from the UK this year—but is also helping put modern British food on the map with his innovative creations that celebrate British produce.
T.Dining caught up with him at the second edition of the Speciality & Fine Food Asia 2018 and discovered just how passionate, invested and affable a chef he is; he was down-to-earth and could easily shift the conversation from his mouthwatering dishes to discussing the British history in great detail.
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“With the birth of the steam trains during the industrial revolution, there was rapid industrialisation in the UK; people moved to the cities and were torn away from their regional offerings,” he explained when asked why British cuisine and its regional delicacies are not as celebrated as Italian or French today.
Suffice it to say, there's a lot more to British foods than fish and chips, and shepherd’s pie. “We have bakedwell tarts, which are sponge tarts with jam, and faggots from the northeast of England, which are essentially meatballs made from chopped liver and heart and wrapped in pig stomach,” he adds.
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McHale is clearly fiercely proud of his culinary heritage, so we asked if his goal at The Clove Club is to put shed new light on these delicacies, to which he replied with a laugh, “I just wanted to do something tasty and give the diners as many wow moments as possible.” But hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, he confessed that he tries to incorporate “Scottish things” to his tasting menus when he can.