Soup of the day? Tom Brown's Cornerstone may offer soup of the hour
A young chef is launching a menu at his new restaurant that can change several times a day to make the most of seasonal British produce.
Tom Brown, 30, a protégé of Nathan Outlaw, is set to open Cornerstone — named after his favourite Arctic Monkeys song — in Hackney Wick.
Dishes will change up to three times a day depending on what is available. They are likely to include pickled Porthilly oysters with celery and horseradish; chicken liver croquettes with devilled mayonnaise; and octopus cooked in cider with an apple and lentil dressing.
Brown, who was head chef at Michelin-starred Outlaw’s At The Capital in Knightsbridge for two years, admitted the frequent changes would be a “lot of hard work” but he wanted to have a “stripped back” menu that was not full of “filler” dishes.
He also worked at Restaurant Nathan Outlaw in Port Isaac, Cornwall, for four years. “When I moved up [to London] it was one of the things I was most concerned about — getting good produce,” he said. “When you’re in Cornwall you are literally picking a fish off a boat, picking produce direct from the farmer. At the Capital we achieved getting great produce. It was something I wanted as a focus when I started my own place.
“Most of the time you have filler dishes to bulk up the menu — I wanted not to have to do that. Just good dishes that were stripped back and made the most of the ingredients.”
He added: “It is obviously a lot of work. It won’t be like Ready, Steady, Cook! and we won’t be making things up from scratch. But the garnishes and sauces on each dish will all work with a main element. So if you can only get one nice bit of cod, then when that goes we have something to work with to make a great dish with pollock or brill.”
Cornerstone, which launches in March, will have a central open kitchen. “A lot of people have asked about the perils of an open kitchen but I figure if you’re doing something that you should be hiding, then you’re doing something wrong,” said Brown.
