Manteca will open on Great Marlborough Street in Soho this Friday (22 November), and will revolve around nose-to-tail cooking, hand-rolled pastas, and fire-cooked cuts to share.
Inspired by the regional cooking styles he encountered on his travels through Rome and Napoli, Leach is ‘aiming to capture the simplicity and conviviality of Italian dining culture’, whilst also taking cues from the ‘up-tempo metropolitan’ food scenes he experienced in Los Angeles and New York.
The menu is set to feature small plate options including duck sausage with prunes and Armagnac; brown crab cacio e pepe with tonnarelli pasta; and pig head fritti with a fried chili pepper sauce.
Larger plates, meanwhile, will include grilled lamb neck flatbread with charred cauliflower nd Sicilian pomegranate; and pork chop with apple and rosemary mostarda, and mustard greens.
“David and I were really happy with the response to our 10 Heddon Street residency, and I’m looking forward to bringing that same spirit to Soho,” says Leach.
“Manteca is really an accumulation of what I’ve learnt in various kitchens over the years, from the live fire cooking of Pitt Cue Co to the seasonality of Petersham Nurseries.
“It’s all about a love of sharing really good food with friends.”
Leach and Carter were the first tenants of 10 Heddon Street; a short-term incubator project created by The Crown Estate in partnership with restaurant consultants 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.
The space is currently occupied by Australian chef Shaun Presland‘s Japanese-focused solo venture Pacific, which will also run as a residency for four months.
