The chef, who reached the final of the 2014 series of MasterChef: The Professionals and who appeared in and won the recently aired MasterChef the Professionals: The Rematch, is looking to raise £30,000 via crowdfunding to open residency Oxeye London and Bar Rex. The funds will be used for a deposit and to fit out for ‘our dream location in central London’, according to the chef.
He intends to launch the residency in the coming weeks and says he is just awaiting confirmation of location. In the meantime, Oxeye will run a week-long residency at Carousel in Marylebone from 20 January.
Oxeye London is described as a ‘one of a kind farm to table restaurant celebrating some of the most delicious produce grown on the Melbourne Estate’ in Derbyshire. Its influences come from the kaiseki cuisine and craft of Japan combined with historical British ingredients, tradition and cooking technique.
Bar Rex will have ‘the largest collection of English wine ever assembled’ and will serve British spirits and drinks alongside a collection of sake and sochu.
Brett has long intended to open a rural restaurant in south Derbyshire, but says that his latest attempt to open in Melbourne is unlikely to happen this year. “Despite plans moving positively (if slowly) for the Derbyshire opening of Oxeye, it looks like 2020 is not going to be our year to open,” says the Kickstarter page.
Back in 2017 he revealed plans to open a ‘farm-to-table’ restaurant at Hardley Hill Farm, near Sutton on the Hill, in Derbyshire.
Although it is unknown how long Oxeye London will run for, it is described as a ‘long-term residency’ with plans to keep bot the London and Derbyshire operations running in tandem in 2021.
