Michelin-starred chef takes Club Gascon menu to the street at Hawker House
A Michelin-starred chef has left the “protection” of his restaurant to serve diners over the counter of an east London street food stall.
Pascal Aussignac, executive chef at Club Gascon, is running a pop-up in Kingsland Road serving a “rock ’n’ roll” take on the menu at his one-star venue in the City.
He said: “I don’t speak to the diners at the restaurant. To be in contact with customers directly and deliver the food with no protection is a challenge. The customer is in front of you. You see the reaction to the food — I like how personal it is.”
Duck ’n’ Roll is at Street Feast’s Hawker House every Friday and Saturday until April 4. “It is a format of Club Gascon, but attracting a clientele who wouldn’t come to Club Gascon, maybe because they believe it to be too posh,” said the cook. “It is in the east of London, which is more edgy.”
Aussignac, 45, uses influences from his south-west French background: “The idea was celebrating all parts of the duck, from its neck, the legs, cured and confit. There is duck pastrami for a take on the New York Reuben sandwich.” Other dishes include foie gras burger and confit fries.
He added: “It’s more relaxed and laid back, but that doesn’t mean the quality drops. The process of making a dish is similar, it’s just how you deliver it. In a Michelin-starred restaurant it can be more precise. In street food you just need a piece of paper, a carton, not all the bits and bobs. The difference is you have to create dishes that need to be eaten standing up. It’s democracy in gastronomy.”
Hawker House is at 260-264 Kingsland Road until April 4.
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