The duo will later this month launch a four-month residency at 10 Heddon Street with a restaurant concept that focuses on hand-made pastas and in-house butchery and charcuterie
It will have a daily changing menu that will begin with snacks such as focaccia and a selection of house-made salumi, including mortadella; coppa di testa; and fennel salami. To follow, there will be a changing line up of smaller dishes including gazpacho, Cornish crab; fried ciccioli with apple ketchup; pea and summer vegetable ragu, scamorza and toasted spelt; and grilled peach salad, smoked almond and ricotta salata. There will also be a section dedicated to hand rolled egg pasta, with dishes set to include rigatoni, pumpkin seed pesto and anchovy; garganelli with spicy pig tail ragu; tonnarelli, brown crab cacio e pepe; and sheep’s milk ricotta ravioli, Calabrian chilli oil, London honey and poppy seeds.
Desserts will include cannolo filled with whipped sheep’s milk ricotta, candied orange peel and salted caramelised hazelnuts.
The restaurant will source from British producers, including pigs from Fred Price at Gothelney Farmm, and will take a nose-to-tail approach, with whole animals butchered on site and the fat and skin incorporaed into ragus and salami and bones for broths and stock.
“David and I have spent many evenings cooking, eating and drinking together, and always shared the same philosophy and approach to restaurants,” says Leach. “When the Heddon Street site popped up, it was the perfect opportunity for us to collaborate together for a couple of months and have some fun.
“It will be an informal vibe that is all about sharing good food with great friends.”
The residency is part of a new initiative created by The Crown Estate in partnership with Montana Fogg, which allows talent in the restaurant industry to test new concepts and creative ideas for a short period of time in a West End space.
“In taking a more agile approach to the 10 Heddon Street unit, we now have the ability to invite more creative partners on a short-term basis to add fresh exciting ideas to London’s dining scene,” says Katerina Mercury, senior asset manager of Central London at The Crown Estate.
The restaurant will open on Thursday 18 July.