When it comes to Pop-Ups, chef/restaurateur Stevie Parle has more form than most. His first one was in an abandoned rowing club in Hammersmith, then a dormant factory in Shoreditch before putting down roots in a designer’s showroom on the Grand Union Canal in Ladbroke Grove. So, what better than a decade later, that he ends up cooking in the middle of Sotheby’s galleries crammed with Modern British Art, in collaboration with Tom Dixon, the designer who provided him with his first permanent home? Add Stevie’s eclectic collection of tropical plants and ancient cacti with Tom Dixon’s furniture and LED columns and you have a truly unique space for a culinary event.
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The five-day event ends on Monday November 22 with breakfast, a la carte lunch and set menu dinners with Stevie paying homage to local suppliers along with sublime new season white truffles from Umbria and Olive Oil sourced in Chianti. Pop-Ups though, are never really primarily about the food as much as the whole experience, which in this case is unbeatable. The walls and floors display works by Henry Moore, Bridget Riley, Frank Auerbach, L.S.Lowry and great Irish artists such as William Orpen and Paul Henry.
Tom Dixon has provided the tables and seats, which are created out of surplus aluminium for electric car production and are also for sale. For further distraction, there are LED light sculptures, spheres and cubes highlighting the rare cacti and tropical plants which Stevie now sells in a shop on Marylebone High Street.
The overall effect is like being in the middle of a Modernist version of a Rousseau painting.
Before he constructed his menu, Stevie toured the galleries, looking for a common theme between the works of art and his food and was honest enough to say he failed to find one. Then he realised they were both focussing on objects and ingredients you wouldn’t find elsewhere with the added knowledge that this collection of art will never be together again after the ongoing auctions.
The first three sharing dishes were all provided by farmers and fishermen in Scotland, Cornwall and Kent – finely chopped beef tartare with fermented beetroot and cured egg yolk; creel-caught Rosemarkie langoustines and fresh mayonnaise and a selection of raw farm radishes, cosmic carrots, crème fraiche and anchovies.
Then the best dish of the night – a white truffle risotto, seasoned with three-year-old Parmesan and fresh white truffles directly sourced by the nose of Fellipe, a Lagotto Romangolo truffle dog. Such was the intensity of these prized objects that their aromas made their presence felt from an adjoining table.
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The main course was then satisfying chunks of a large wild sea bass caught in small boats at Margate in Kent, along with cavolo nero and cannellini beans
The dinner concluded with a trio of desserts – muscat grape and pomegranate sorbet; twice cooked chocolate cake and a nutmeg custard tart with agen prunes and Somerset cider brandy.
The ample supplies of Nyetimber sparkling Cuvee Chérie Demi-Sec helped things along plus an Australian Sauvignon Blanc “Gamlitz” 2019 and an Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir 2018 from Salem Wine Company in Oregon.
Stevie has no firm plans for the future – he still has an outlet in Westfield and another in Marylebone High St that apart from food, focuses on plants and cacti but he is also tempted to do something in Kent, where he now lives with his wife and three children. “It can be a massive distraction doing a Pop-Up as it is almost as much work as opening a new restaurant, but I enjoy the challenge. I have always been a gardener and want to do more of it and keep offering exotic plants because it also brings so much joy to people. Besides, I like extraordinary and rare things.”
JOY runs between November 18 - 22 at the East Galleries, Sotheby's, 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1A 2AA
Breakfast and Lunch
Monday - Friday: 9:00 AM~4:30 PM, with lunch served from 12:00 PM~2:30 PM
Saturday: 12:00 PM~4:30 PM
Sunday: 1:45 PM~3:30 PM
Supper Club
Daily: 7:30 PM
Book through OpenTable
For Stevie Parle https://www.joyatportobello.co.uk
For Tom Dixon sales, contact: privatesales@designresearchstudio.net
For Sotheby’s Modern British and Irish Art https://www.sothebys.com/en/departments/modern-british-irish-art
