Roganic owner to refocus restaurant following departure of Ben Spalding

Spalding, who has been on paternity leave for the last few weeks following the birth of his second child, used Twitter on Saturday to announce his departure from the role and plans to go it alone. 

Amicable agreement​ 

Speaking to BigHospitality, Rogan said he and Spalding had reached an amicable agreement about the head chef’s departure and he hoped to be of support to him in the future. 

“I wish him all the best and I hope he finds what he is looking for,” he said. “He’s young and ambitious and he needs to be doing his own thing. Some of the things he wanted to do didn’t sit well within our focus, so we’ll be using this now to make the restaurant more connected to l’Enclume and to Aulis.”

“We’ll be using some of the dishes created at Aulis and we’ll be making Roganic more connected than it was to our restaurants in Cumbria.” 

Spalding added via Twitter that Rogan had been a ‘massive inspiration’ to him and would ‘look forward to relying on his advice’ in the future. It is not yet known what he will be doing next. 

Rogan said there were no plans to replace Spalding at the restaurant, which has been open for nine months. Sous chef Andrew Tomlinson will take control of the day-to-day running of the kitchen while Rogan and Aulis director Dan Cox will both spend more time in the capital. 

Location​ 

The chef and business owner also told BigHospitality he was confident of finding a new site when Roganic’s lease expired. He took on the lease for the 25-cover restaurant in Blandford Street in June last year with the knowledge that it would only be available for two years​.

He said there were a ‘couple of things simmering away’ and was confident there would be somewhere suitable to go when the time came as he was keen to keep a hold in the capital. 

Roganic is Rogan's third restaurant and his first in London.

His second restaurant Rogan & Company which opened in Cartmel as a sister restaurant to l'Enclume in 2008 recently changed its focus to offer more refined dishes and less bistro-style dishes​. Rogan said it was performing well so far, but that he was still awaiting planning approval to replace some of the restaurant space with bedrooms. 

"It's like l'Enclume was 10 years ago," he said. "We have no idea which path it's going to take, but the early signs are promising."