The British chefs making waves overseas

Telegraph

21-10-2024

You can eat Simon Rogan's unmistakably delicate tartlets in Malta, and Calum Franklin's glossy pies in Paris. Fancy a taste of
Some have hit the ground running. Atherton collected two Michelin stars for Row on 45 in July less than a year after opening on glossy Dubai Marina. Rogan has been similarly swift, earning Malta's first-ever two stars at ION Harbour by Simon Rogan, the rooftop restaurant at Iniala Harbour House hotel, Valletta, where he is chef patron.
Easy wins? No. International hotel brands may provide the space in some cases, but with unfamiliar
Getting to know you
'We learn so much when we go to these countries,' says Rogan, who first dipped his toes in the overseas market in 2019 when he opened Roganic and chef's table Aulis
Enter, in Malta, Keith Abela. 'This restaurant wouldn't be possible without him,' says Rogan's executive chef, Oli Marlow, who oversees five international restaurants (there's also The Baker & The Bottleman, Hong Kong, and an Aulis at Iniala Beach House hotel, Phuket, Thailand). Maltese-born Abela, a forager, fisherman, scientist and former chef, connects the Rogan team with producers such as Joe and Immanuel Grima, the father and son duo behind rare Bidni olive oil, and Josef Farrugia, who grows tomatoes with minimal intervention on his family farm, so that some 90 per cent of ingredients are from Malta, Gozo or Sicily.
As ION Harbour's head of sustainability, Abela forages, makes kombuchas and preserves, diverts surplus into syrups and oils, and makes a goat's milk cheese, Xemxun – it means 'sunshine' – similar to Tunworth, a staple on Rogan's UK menus.
In New York, Jess Shadbolt would probably have appreciated a version of Abela back in 2016. The Suffolk-born chef left The River Café in London's Hammersmith to open King in Manhattan with fellow River Café alumna Clare de Boer and drinks expert Annie Shi. Building a network of suppliers was one of the biggest challenges, she says, though she's nailed it now. 'At The River Café we really knew our suppliers. In New York, everything feels removed. I struggled at first to feel a connection between farms and our kitchen. There were so many middlemen; there was a lot of fluff to cut through.'
Ingredient challenges
'I miss
In Malta, Rogan's team adapts too: instead of the mackerel they would use in Cumbria, it's local cured lampuki fish that fills a carrot-topped tartlet, and instead of red meat, which Marlow says is hard to find at consistent quality, rabbit's on the menu. In an elevated version of rabbit stew – the Maltese national dish – the roasted meat is served on sweetcorn purée with a sauce with lovage and pickled tapioca, and a buckwheat doughnut filled with rabbit ragu.
And in Dubai, Atherton has discovered Japanese samegarei, a rough-skinned turbot-like fish from the waters around Hokkaido. Three weeks of trial and error resulted in a dish of poached samagerei with its roast skin puffed like pork crackling and its liver enriching a sauce with grapes and razor clams. 'It's exciting, really unusual, the fish is soft as butter.'
Atherton is hands-on in his Dubai kitchen – he loves the city – and has observed the transformation of its food scene since the early 2000s when he opened Verre for his then boss, Gordon Ramsay. 'It was a car crash in 2002. We were vac-packing tomatoes with tomato juice to make them taste of something. Meat was so badly butchered I had to vac-pack it in olive oil with garlic, lemon and herbs for flavour.' Now, irrigated farms are sprouting, developments continuing at lightning speed. The challenge, says Atherton, is to keep up.
For pie maestro Calum Franklin, there are discoveries to be made just over the Channel, too. The chef opened Public House, his 300-cover brasserie in Paris in March aiming to bring traditional
And don't get him started on cheese. Prohibitive costs mean the Public House cheeseboard is Anglo-French rather than all-British, but at least he can serve the cheeses with pickled walnuts. 'We really struggled to find any, and when we eventually did – a guy in the south – he couldn't believe somebody was interested! It's not a French thing at all. We buy his entire crop.'
Adapting to palates and cultures
Seasoning can be a danger-zone. 'Every time I go to Hong Kong, I have to adjust my palate,' says Marlow. 'The UK prefers sweet/salty flavours, Hong Kong less so. We almost season dishes for guests [from different nationalities] individually. Desserts in Hong Kong are far less sweet.' Shadbolt found similar differences introducing her pared-back River Café-style food to New York. 'The chicken pot au feu we did on the first night confused people. The American palate is big and bold, they like sweet, crunchy, savoury, salty all in one bite, and our dish was so delicate.' People get it now, though, she says.
Meanwhile, providing for non-drinkers is vital in Dubai. True to Atherton form, the process has been one of meticulous research into the flavour compounds in every paired wine, working out how to replicate the taste in a juice or non-alcoholic wine. The result? Kombucha made with local Hatta honey instead of a honey wine, and the flavours of Quinta do Noval Colheita port captured in a juice of hibiscus, blackberry, and barrel-aged maple syrup.
Sometimes, dishes just don't work. Franklin's fish pie didn't land well. 'I think it was too soft for the French, even though we had a really crunchy top.' And he's baffled as to why his bread and butter pudding wasn't a hit. 'The one I made for the opening menu was probably the best I've ever done. It's not that different from pain perdu.' It's about trust, he decides, and he'll revisit the dessert as trust builds (especially after the tough review from
Guardian
critic Jay Rayner in May). 'Most guests now are French, and we have regulars. It's lovely having Brits, but it's the French I want to convince.' Coming soon is
Is it worth the effort?
'Definitely,' says Franklin. 'I knew opening a British restaurant in Paris wasn't going to be easy but I've learnt so much about not compromising [on standards], and about communicating clearly. My French is getting better!' He'd love to open a smaller pie restaurant in Paris – several, even – eventually splitting his time evenly between Paris and London where he's barely a fortnight from launching a pie restaurant at The Georgian in Harrods.
Shadbolt is clearly settled in New York: she, de Boer and Shi opened an Italian restaurant, Jupiter, at the end of 2022, and King has found its niche. 'I remember one evening shortly after we'd had a lovely review from Pete Wells [former restaurant critic] in
The New York Times
. I was cooking pork chops, my back to the dining room, and I could hear the restaurant, the laughter, clinking plates, the ticket machine, the dishwasher going, the door opening. That was a moment. I felt very grateful. I still am.' She may in time be joined in the city by Rogan. 'Opening in the USA, perhaps New York, has been a long-standing dream,' says the chef. 'I also love the idea of a restaurant in the south-west of France and maybe Australia. Let's see!'