Creative Asian cuisine at London’s pub pop-ups proves a hit with British boozers
- Pub pop-ups, where pubs invite chefs to cook for short stints in their kitchens, are taking off in Britain’s capital, with Asian food especially popular
- The opportunities are a boost to people like Netflix star Asma Khan, whose time cooking Indian food at a Soho pub led to opening her own restaurant
Asma Khan, star of Netflix’s Chef’s Table, is grateful to a central London pub for helping launch her culinary career.
Khan, the first British chef to feature on Netflix’s Emmy-nominated documentary series, spent nine months from 2015 to 2016 cooking Indian food at The Sun & 13 Cantons, a 19th-century pub in London’s Soho area. She went on to open her own acclaimed Indian restaurant, Darjeeling Express, just around the corner in Kingly Court. “The experience was invaluable,” she says.
Such pub residencies, or pop-ups – where pubs invite chefs to cook for short stints on their premises – are a relatively new concept in London. The chefs pay a fee to the pub, and in return have full use of the kitchen. Those featuring Asian cuisine have proven popular.
“The Sun & 13 Cantons was very well kitted out,” Khan says. “I think I had to pay about £400 [US$510] a week. For that fee you had equipment, gas, electricity, water. They would repair things; they provided all the crockery and cutlery. Now I am a restaurant owner I know how expensive it is to run your own kitchen. The pop-up was a bargain.”
A few miles away in Marylebone, business partners Charlene Liu and Linda Liu cook fiery Chongqing noodle dishes at The Jackalope – a picturesque mews pub established in 1777.
Both Lius grew up in the city of Chongqing in southwestern China. After moving to London, they decided to start a noodle business. They returned to China for formal training before working on a stall at the Brick Lane Food Hall in East London.