3. 34| July 2015 | restaurant| bighospitality.co.uk
A
ccording to Raymond Blanc,
Robin and Sarah Gill found love
in the gardens of Le Manoir,
their eyes meeting over a tray of
micro-leaved sorrel (or
something like that). This isn’t quite how it
happened but Monsieur Blanc – a famously
hopeless romantic – must be granted a soupçon
of poetic licence, especially as his comments
were made to promote the Gill’s fledging
business rather than market the aphrodisiacal
qualities of his own Oxfordshire hotel.
The couple actually met at a staff party in
their native Dublin a few months before they
started working at Blanc’s famed establishment.
The Frenchman is one of a number of high
profile industry figures to have championed this
back and front of house team, who are now
living the good life in south London.
Overlooking Clapham Common, The Dairy is
the restaurant du jour for the capital’s off-duty
chefs including Michel Roux Jr and Jason
Atherton. After eating here it’s not difficult to see
why. Brilliant creative food served with few airs
and graces at a price that offers near unbeatable
value – just £45 for the tasting menu.
The restaurant also emits an aura of unforced
edginess that few other top-end places in the
capital are capable of generating.
On the last Saturday of the month, staff from
other restaurants descend on The Dairy after
clocking off for a boozy meal cooked by a guest
chef. Timed to coincide with payday, The
Bloodshot Supper Club starts at 1am and runs
until 7am.
Needless to say, it’s a rowdy occasion. In fact
Sarah has been known to leave the country to
avoid it, leaving Robin to run it in conjunction
with Nuno Mendes of Chiltern Firehouse fame.
Neither make any money from the event but
sponsorship from local breweries keeps the
drink flowing. Who said the era of the rock ’n’
roll chef was over?
The Dairy has been a smash hit with the
critics too, attracting rave reviews across the
board. It’s also just been ranked within the top 10
of Restaurant’s list of the top 100 places to eat in
the UK (see National Restaurant Awards
coverage page 41).
Opened in mid-2013, the couple’s laid back
restaurant retains the indie feel of a cult hit, but
has been so successful a second restaurant, The
Manor, has followed with a third set to open later
this month.
Unusually, the Gills don’t employ a PR agency,
but they are well-connected, media savvy and
understand how to create a buzz – quite literally
at The Dairy, which houses 80,000 bees within
the hives on its roof.
Each restaurant has a USP. The Manor – which
is located close to the pair’s inaugural restaurant
in a less prominent location off Clapham High
Street –has a dessert bar run by high-profile
pastry chef Kira Ghidoni while The Dairy has
a rickety yet beautiful urban garden.
“We overlook the Common so the idea
was to create a farmhouse atmosphere in an
urban area. I want people to feel like they’re
in the countryside,” says Robin who, to the
delight of The Dairy’s immediate neighbours,
has replaced the shopping trolleys, rusty beer
kegs and other assorted detritus that were on
the roof with crates packed with nasturtiums
and esoteric herbs.
Gardening duties
One roof’s worth of growing space is never going
to yield enough produce to supply a whole
restaurant, but it’s no gimmick. The team has
chosen to focus on ingredients for garnishes and
a handful of quick-growing vegetables. Some
dishes are composed exclusively of homegrown
and homemade produce, including The Dairy’s
assemblage of courgette, basil, honey and fresh
cheese, while the majority rely on produce from
further afield.
Unlike Le Manoir, the brigade doesn’t have
the luxury of a team of gardeners. Tending the
garden is part of all the chefs’ work and on
Tuesday lunchtimes the whole team is on
weeding and repotting duty.
The Gills are still trying to work out if their
“We don’t dump and run but we also don’t go
through each ingredient on the plate and tell the
diner where they came from as that can be quite
tiresome,” says Sarah. “If people want that
information we can go through it in detail, as it’s
usually the chefs delivering the dishes.”
Robin arrived in London in the late 1990s
armed with a Michelin guide and went round
the restaurants listed until somebody gave him
a job. That someone was Robert Reid, Marco
Pierre White’s head chef at The Oak Room,
which at the time held three Michelin stars.
“I was fresh off the boat and very short on
skills, but I learnt quickly. Marco’s kitchens were
renowned for being tough, aggressive places,
but I loved it. If you got something wrong in
service you’d get an absolute dicking, but by the
end of it everyone would have their arms round
each other. It was a family.”
After a few years he got homesick and
returned to Dublin. Not a great move from the
perspective of his development as a cook – he
took a senior role and stagnated – but one he
doesn’t regret as it led to him meeting Sarah at a
staff party thrown by La Stampa.
Shortly after the two met, he headed to
Southern Italy to learn the craft of handmade
pasta at the side of an Italian mama. Sadly his
fantasy of working in a rustic trattoria never
became reality. Employment in such an
establishment was not forthcoming and he
had to fall back on his three-star experience to
land a job at the renowned Don Alphonso in the
bay of Naples.
“The chef used to rock up in a small van filled
with artichokes or maybe aubergines. We’d just
have to work with whatever was available that
day,” says Robin, who clearly has especially fond
memories of this period, not least because Sarah
came to live with him there after finishing her
studies. “The menus were shorter and the dishes
were simpler than I was used to, but the food
was incredible. The seafood was coming in still
alive from the Med. We prepped the octopus
while it was still moving.”
Upon leaving Italy Robin did a stage at Le
Manoir but ended up getting a job there almost
immediately as a demi chef de partie, leaving
four years later as a sous chef to help Blanc
launch a fine-dining restaurant at Arsenal’s
Diamond Club. It was a job he hated despite his
fondness for Blanc, or RB as he calls him.
He then spent four years as head chef of the
D&D-owned Sauterelle, located on the
mezzanine level of The Royal Exchange in the
City overlooking the Grand Cafe. Given the
independent feel of The Dairy, it’s difficult to
picture him glad-handing bankers and toeing
the line at a big corporate restaurant group.
While he says he doesn’t regret his time with
the fine dining giant, he found the restaurant
too stuffy and formal for his taste and was
constantly trying – unsuccessfully, in the end –
to persuade his employer to pull up the carpet
and bin the table cloths.
A chance conversation with a friend then led
to a short but lucrative private cooking gig in
Mayfair that funded a six-month grand tour of
garden should be classified as a smart business
venture or a labour of love. “We have stuff
growing up there that’s expensive to buy
through a forager or specialist fruit and
vegetable supplier. For example the sheep’s
head sorrel we grow would cost us £80 a kilo.
But, equally, there’s a lot of work involved. For
me the main thing is that it’s an efficient use of
the space,” says Robin, who also hangs
homemade salamis in The Dairy’s cellar. An
assortment of his team’s creations are sold in
The Dairy’s adjoining deli, including surplus
rooftop honey and an array of homemade jams,
pickles and preserves.
Clapham, via Italy, Dublin and
Oxfordshire
With a CV that includes Noma in Copenhagen
and Southern Italy restaurant Don Alphonso,
it’s no surprise that Robin is an expert at
locating great ingredients. The Dairy and The
Manor are focused on seasonal British produce
but its sourcing policy isn’t rammed down
diners’ throats.
4. theworlds50best.com | restaurant| July 2015 | 35
The Dairy
restaurants and suppliers as the couple started
to work towards opening their first restaurant.
“I’d worked with Matt Orlando [the US-born
chef who now runs Amass in Copenhagen]
at Le Manoir and he’d done something
similar,” he says.
“I thought it was the most amazing idea. I
studied cookbooks, ate in amazing restaurants
and went to see suppliers.”
But the bulk of this sabbatical of sorts was
spent working unpaid at restaurants in
Scandinavia, most notably Franzén/Lindeberg
(now just Restaurant Frantzén) in Stockholm
and Noma, where the aforementioned Orlando
was employed as executive chef.
“Everyone knew Scandinavian food was going
to be the next big thing in cooking but I think
few would have predicted quite how big and
influential that part of the world would become.
The local and natural approach of René
[Redzepi, the chef behind Noma] was
groundbreaking and the simplicity of what they
were doing just blew me away,” says Robin, who
had a very different experience at Noma to most
stagiaires because he already knew senior
people in the kitchen including Orlando and the
Irish-born Trevor Moran.
“I was one of the boys straightaway. I had my
own section and my closeness with the team
over those two months meant I got a good view
of how it all worked. It was rock and roll, but
serious at the same time. When a restaurant is
that creative there needs to be a chaotic,
disorganised element.”
Robin’s experience in Redzepi’s kitchen is
detectable on the plate, but The Dairy is by no
means a Noma clone. Other influences are
evident, particularly those of Don Alphonso, and
the menu is unapologetically eclectic. Some
dishes reference Italian and French cooking,
others are more resolutely British in style and a
few contain Asian ingredients.
In common with a number of their peers,
Robin and Sarah have taken from Noma the idea
of bringing front and back of house teams closer
together. “I’d always thought that an ‘us and
them’ mentality was a bad thing, but seeing how
it worked at Noma made me determined to do
something about it,” says Robin. “Chefs bringing
dishes out to the customer breaks down the
barrier between the front and the back. At The
Dairy, we also get our front of house staff
involved with prep tasks. I totally nicked that
idea from Noma.”
In the early days of The Dairy, having chefs
serve the dishes also helped the Gills save on the
wage bill. Budgets were tight and the business
couldn’t afford many front of house staff. In fact
in the beginning it was just Sarah and Damiano
Fiammo (now a wine supplier and wine
consultant for the group).
The Dairy’s charm
The Dairy was, and to some extent still is, a low
budget enterprise largely funded by family and
friends. Money was incredibly tight at the
beginning. Waiting until everything was perfect
Memorable mollusc: octopus
with heritage tomatoes,
shallots and rooftop herbs
Eel good factor: applewood
smoked eel, corn and griotte
onions with cultured cream
Fowl fare: chicken oysters
and skin with wild mushrooms
and asparagus
5.
6. theworlds50best.com | restaurant| July 2015 | 37
The Dairy
with the building before opening wasn’t an
option. There was still work going on as the
restaurant opened and the team had to do
without essential bits of kit – including a
combi-oven – until they had made enough
money to afford a small kitchen extension.
“We needed to get cash going through the
tills as quickly as possible. The kitchen crew
that opened it built the roof garden while
the builders were working on the dining
room and we sanded down and varnished
all the reclaimed furniture,” says Robin, as a
bloke with a toolbox strides purposefully
through the restaurant. “In fact we still
haven’t quite finished.”
This is part of The Dairy’s charm. The
restaurant is clean and professionally run
but it’s got a refreshingly rough-and-ready feel
for a place of such considerable gastronomic
ambition. Crucially, not having to pay-off
gold-plated handbag plinths or the fees of
expensive restaurant design companies has
allowed The Dairy to undercut its competitors
both within its locality and further afield.
The Gills – who live down the road from The
Dairy in Brixton – knew the owner of the site
that would become their first restaurant, then
accurately yet unimaginatively titled In
Clapham. “It was always closed. It didn’t even
open at the weekend, which was ridiculous in
such a high footfall location. We suggested
putting in some cash to refit the kitchen and
sharing the profits with him,” says Sarah.
There was some interest but when the owner
saw the business plan – specifically how much it
costs to employ four skilled chefs – he got cold
feet and offered to sell them his lease for a
reasonable premium of £30,000.
The Dairy opened in mid-2013. Initially Robin
and team offered larger more crowd-pleasing
dishes – including mac ’n’ cheese and cassoulet
– in tandem with more ambitious plates. “We
thought the hearty stuff would be the big sellers
but the market wanted something more
involved, which was handy as that’s the sort of
food we wanted to cook,” says Robin.
“There’s Trinity and Chez Bruce but there’s
very little else at that sort of level,” adds Sarah.
“There are a lot of people in this area with
money that are quite happy not to go into town
if there’s something good on their doorstep.”
A bargain tasting menu
The tasting menu started at £40 and has since
risen to £45 following the addition of more
courses – a total bargain given the quality of the
team’s cooking and ingredients.
While the Gills agree that they could
probably get away with charging more, they
want to retain the low price point that has
played such a crucial role in putting their
restaurant on the map.
Raising the price of the tasting menu would
also increase sales of the à la carte menu. About
three quarters of the restaurant’s diners opt for
the tasting menu, an impressive take up rate that
the Gills want to maintain.
“I don’t want to start selling loads of a la carte
as I don’t believe it shows our full range,” says
Robin. “If I’m lucky enough to get some
inexpensive turbot from my seafood guy I’ll put
it on the tasting menu rather than à la carte
because I want to drive people to a more
complete experience of the restaurant.” Robin
might not quite hit a 70% GP on his tasting
menus, but his diners are spending more money
and getting a more memorable experience,
which drives repeat custom.
So why not scrap à la carte altogether?
High churn rate: The Dairy
manages to turn a third of
its tables on busy nights
Cream team: The kitchen
often does in excess of 80
covers in an evening service
7.
8. theworlds50best.com | restaurant| July 2015 | 39
The Dairy
“We want people to still be able to come in and
have a plate of salami and some bread and a
glass of wine. We’d lose a lot of our regulars if
we suddenly became a tasting menu only
place,” says Sarah.
Such a low price point requires Robin and
team to shop smartly – they can only use
luxurious ingredients when they can be
purchased for a good price. Careful menu
engineering also ensures the numbers add up
with expensive dishes balanced by cheaper –
but no less tasty – courses.
The restaurant’s unusually high volume –
even with most people ordering the tasting
menu, it still manages to turn a third of its
tables on busy nights – also helps keep prices
down. The six-strong kitchen team often does
in excess of 80 covers in an evening service,
which equates to 900 plates of food leaving the
pass per service.
To The Manor born and beyond
The Manor was launched in November last year
just eight weeks after the couple received the
keys. Like The Dairy, it was opened on a small
budget and the decor is simple and stripped
back. Dean Parker – formerly Robin and Sarah’s
head chef at The Dairy – instantly won over the
critics attracting rave reviews from the likes of
Marina O’Loughlin, AA Gill and Fay Maschler.
Much like The Dairy, the food and overall
complexity of the menu was not what was first
planned. The Manor was originally conceived as
a more casual version of The Dairy with no
tasting menu and bistro-style food. “Within a
week we were serving a tasting menu,” says
Robin, somewhat sheepishly. “Dean is ambitious
and didn’t want to be stuck with just à la carte.
I gave in very quickly and now we’re pushing
people towards the tasting menu just like we
do at The Dairy.”
Later this month Robin and Sarah will open a
third restaurant underneath the railway arches
close to Bethnal Green tube station. Simon
Woodrow, currently sous chef at The Manor, will
offer ‘picnic style’ sharing dishes.
Like The Dairy and The Manor the restaurant
occupies the 60-cover “sweet-spot” favoured by
the team. “It’s certainly the best space the group
has secured yet. It’s going to look amazing and
we can have a big open bar with counter seating
that runs into an open kitchen, front of house
and back of house will work side by side a bit
like they do at Barrafina,” says Sarah.
The proximity of the bar to the kitchen is the
inspiration for the East London restaurant’s USP
– a big focus on food and drink matching that
won’t be limited to just wine, with beer and
spirit pairing planned too.
The name has been a matter of some
contention. ‘Culture’ was a front runner in
honour of the team’s affection for fermented
items, but Sarah hated it and successfully
campaigned for a less conceptual name –
Paradise Garage – that references the
restaurant’s location on Paradise Row.
This minor disagreement aside, the husband-
and-wife team clearly enjoy working together
and the adrenaline rush of running a young, fast
expanding business.
“We had a different work schedule for years
as I worked in events after Le Manoir so it’s nice
to be working together,” says Sarah. “We’ve got
different personalties, we’re both laid-back…”
“But I’m more highly strung,” Robin cuts in
with a grin. “I will occasionally fly off the handle
during service. If Sarah is there it’s a good thing,
as she is very calm in any situation. She is a
pacifying influence.”
Aided by the group’s general manager Dan
Joines, Sarah oversees the front of house side
of the business, but is working a little less
following the birth of their first child, who
arrived – conveniently – in September as the
deli was opening and two months ahead of
The Manor.
“I don’t do quite as many services as I’d like
now, but I’m working in the restaurants every
day,” she says. “I think we’ll look back on this
year and last year and think ‘what an earth
were we doing?’”
man the stove with colleague Kira Ghidoni –
who has gone down a storm at The Manor with
her fun but precisely executed desserts –
overseeing the sweet offering.
The cooking will be similar to The Dairy and
The Manor but Robin says Woodrow – whose CV
includes Arbutus – has a more overtly British
and slightly more traditional style. Alongside a
tasting menu and à la carte Paradise Garage will
Bovine ballet: the restaurant
even features a frieze of
dancing cows
Reflected glory: The Dairy
is building on a stunningly
successful start
Berry refined: English
gooseberries, cultured
cream and sorrel
Whipped to perfection:
salted caramel, cacoa and
malted barley ice cream
