The fine dining chef that’s turning his hand to tacos in Hove
You have spent your career cooking at one and two Michelin star places. Why are you making your solo debut with a taqueria?
GC: El Bolillo was supposed to be our second restaurant project. We’re also going to launch a fine dining restaurant but that has ended up taking a while because the site is Grade II-listed. This concept has been in the locker for a while. Most chefs that have done fine dining for a long time usually have something more casual up their sleeve. For me it’s Mexican food.
What does El Bolillo mean?
GC: It’s a kind of white bread roll but it’s also Mexico City street slang for a Western person. It means the same thing as gringo. Matty and I have spent a fair bit of time in Mexico and so has my head chef Dan (Kinton, most recently a senior sous chef at Michelin-starred Manchester restaurant Mana). El Bolillo won’t be traditional taqueria but we’re going to be respectful to Mexican cuisine. The menu is based on our own experiences of being over there but I’m also going to throw in some techniques from my background in fine dining restaurants.
MS: We’re going to make it our own. There will be an element of refinement and a lot of thought has gone into everything we’re doing. We’re trying to bridge the gap between not being a slapdash casual restaurant and not being too fussy.
GC: El Bolillo will trade 6pm to late Tuesday to Saturday and open for lunch only on Saturday. We want to give the team a decent amount of time off and we’re also not sure if the business is going to be there during the week.
What will be on the menu?
MS: Everything will be to share except for the tacos, which will be served individually. Our smaller items will include Porthilly oysters with pickled piparras, Peruvian marigold and sour cream; lamb belly skewers with black garlic al pastor paste and watermelon radish; and arctic char crudo with peas, peach pico de gallo and Mexican tarragon. Larger dishes on our launch menu include. octopus with roasted peanut butter mole, orange and eucalyptus vinaigrette; and pork cheek with ox sauce, blood mole and plum pico served in a blood taco. Spend per head on food is expected to be between £55 and £60 per person.
GC: Our prices are a fair reflection of the produce we are using. We are using the same suppliers as we will for the fine dining restaurant. We also have great staff and are paying them London wages.
What will El Bolillo look like?
GC: It won't be in your face or full-on sombreros. We're using a lot of materials and textures inspired by Mexico but we're keeping it clean and minimalistic.
MS: We interviewed a load of designers and got some initial designs back but in the end we felt we had a stronger vision. Everything has been curated to the most minute detail. We spent about two weeks hunting for the perfect chair.
GS: I already knew a lot of the designers we wanted to use. Our key collaborators include Designs Woodcraft (which is run by ex-chef Ben Goldsmith) and Warrington + Rose, which did our cement table bases.
MS: We have about 30 covers in the main restaurant space and a PDR hidden away to the rear that seats 12. The people that operated the site before had 60 covers but we wanted to give people more space.
GS: I dislike sharing concepts that have tiny tables. By the time you order a few cocktails and a few dishes there’s nowhere to put anything else and the server just looks at you blankly as if it’s your problem.
MS: Our tables for two people are so big that the carpenter had to double check the measurements with us. The space allocated to each person at the bar is much bigger than usual too.
What about the drinks programme?
MS: The main wine list will be accessible ranging in price from £26 to £110 with 16 wines by the glass. We don’t like going to restaurants and being presented with a list that’s just endless names and dates so what we offer will have descriptions of all the wines and they will be arranged by style. We want it to be fun, relaxed and easy.
GC: We will also have a collector’s list with some big boys on it. We will only have one or two in the building and once they are gone they will be crossed off.
MS: We will also offer cocktails and craft beers, including a selection from Loud Shirt Brewing (a highly-rated brewery in nearby Kemptown)
Tell us about your background
MS: I'm originally from Italy. I have a background in five-star hotels, mostly in F&B and operations. I can’t cook but I love to eat. My parents enjoy their food too so I grew up eating in great restaurants.
GC: I was born in Wiltshire but I was largely brought up in the North West. I went to catering college in Crewe but I got kicked out for not showing up. At 16 I got an ultimatum from my parents that if I was going to be a chef I should take it seriously. A year later I was working at Gleneagles. But the place that molded me as a chef was Restaurant Martin Wishart (a Michelin-starred restaurant in Edinburgh). I don’t think I could cook that hard these days. We did lunch and dinner for 50 people offering a mix of a la carte, a lunch menu and various tasting menus with just four or five people in the kitchen. There was nowhere to hide. After that I worked for other high profile chefs including Brett Graham, Tom Aikens, Lee Westcott and Daniel Clifford.
You were a development chef for the latter…
GC: Yes. I started there as one of his sous chefs but returned as a development chef to help him to push for three stars. Midsummer House (Clifford’s two-star Cambridge flagship) was my biggest learning curve and taught me a lot about myself. Many chefs that are head chefs at two and even three Michelin star restaurants don’t have any input into the menu. That’s fine, but working for Daniel made me realise that I had a big creative drive.
MS: Greg and I met while he was doing a residency at The Pass restaurant at South Lodge hotel near Horsham (Salvetti was GM there at the time).
What can you say about your fine dining restaurant?
GC: I don't want to say too much, largely because I don’t want to jinx it. It won’t be too far from Brighton train station and it will have a 16-seater chef’s table and a more casual small plates and cocktails restaurant.
Where is your cash coming from?
GC: I have the same set of backers for both projects. I’m lucky enough to have found four people that are in it for the best possible reason: they are big foodies and wine buffs. But we’re not playing around with other people’s money we have had to put a lot of the cash in ourselves. I’ve drained all my bank accounts and I still might need to sell one of my motorbikes.
Why have you chosen Brighton & Hove for these two projects?
MS: There’s a great food scene here already and it’s increasingly known as a foodie place. There’s also a great network of operators here, we have already had a lot of support.
GC: Prior to the pandemic I had investment to launch in London but that obviously fell away. I’m glad to be on the South Coast because things move a little slower. It will be nice to not be looking over my shoulder at what some new person is doing and not to be old hat after just a few months.
