Named in honour of Charles Harrison Townsend, the architect of the grade II listed gallery, the restaurant and café will be overseen by director Nick Gilkinson, previously of Anglo in Holborn and the Garden Café in Lambeth. Head chef will be Joe Fox, a former head chef at Petersham Nurseries.
The restaurant’s food offer will take inspiration from Charles Harrison Townsend, whose style was to refract classical British themes through his own lens. Menu items will include Mayan gold potato, with egg yolk, Berkswell cheese and winter truffle; a curried veal sweetbread, with cauliflower, sprout tops and burnt onion, described as being a nod to the food culture of its east London neighbourhood.
Main courses will include grilled salsify, with red cabbage, Jerusalem artichoke and collard greens; and roast haunch of venison for two to share, with ruby beetroots, wild cabbage, ale-braised onions, sour cream and horseradish. Ginger and treacle pudding with clotted cream ice cream; and Yorkshire Rhubarb, pear sorbet and marjoram will feature on the dessert menu alongside seasonally selected cheeses from Neal’s Yard Dairy.
“We are excited and honoured to be opening Townsend at Whitechapel Gallery, and have created a restaurant which we think matches its cultural context; a dining destination for visitors to the gallery and a neighbourhood staple for those who live and work locally,” says Gilkinson.
The restaurant space at Whitechapel Gallery has previously been home to chefs and restaurateurs including Angela Hartnett, who teamed up with Smart Hospitality to create dishes for the restaurant when the gallery reopened in 2011. Previous to that, chef Maria Ella worked with contract caterer Vacherin at the restaurant.
“Whitechapel Gallery has been a catalyst for so much of London’s modern art and design, and we hope Townsend will fly the flag for the city’s food scene within this space,” says Fox.
Townsend opens on 5 February.