Food for Thought: Jacob Kenedy
Jacob Kenedy is one of London’s leading restaurateurs. He is the chef-patron of the award-winning restaurant Bocca Di Lupo, the owner of the traditional gelateria Gelupo and the owner of the Plaquemine Lock, a pub serving Cajun and Creole food from Louisiana. Kenedy is also the author of two successful cookbooks: The Geometry of Pasta and Bocca: Cookbook and is releasing his third, Gelupo, in mid-May. Kenedy’s first foray into the cooking world was as an adolescent, where he did a stint at Moro, training under the watchful eye of Sam & Sam Clark. He then spent his early twenties, hovering between Moro and Boulevard, a restaurant in San Francisco run by Nancy Oakes “The Clarks taught me how to cook; Nancy taught me how to be a chef,” he says.
In harnessing these transatlantic influences, Kenedy realised he wanted to have his own restaurant. After toying with the idea of having “a dark, gritty Mexican taqueria”, Kenedy’s dream changed course after travelling around Italy. From the electric streets of Rome, to the sun-drenched shores of Sicily and up to the rolling countryside of Emiliga-Romagna in the North, the budding epicurean realised the extent of Italian culinary diversity. “There is the Italian food most recognise – pizza, pasta, pesto, but there is so much more variety in Italian cuisine. Take the Sicilian dish of caponata, for example,” Kenedy says. “Town-to-town and door-to-door people will have blood feuds over whether it should have celery or how best to dice the vegetables.” A light-bulb moment ensued. Kenedy realised there was no restaurant in London that captured Italian food region-to-region: “I realised that I wanted to eat in an Italian trattoria that served food so simple and delicious it would make someone cry.”
His tear-jerker of a restaurant was born in 2008, and over a decade later, Bocca di Lupo continues to be a Soho hotspot. The regionally based menu changes slightly every day, but it never fails to consistently capture Italy’s wide-ranging terrain, climate and coastline. A typical Bocca di Lupo menu could include everything from: Tonnarelli with butter & egg yolk (Langhe), Roast partridge and polenta (Asti), lamb shoulder baked with honey & rosemary (Puglia) to Pappardelle with beef stracotto (Tuscany). Bocca di Lupo won Time Out’s best restaurant in 2009 and continues to be a watering hole for celebrities and non-celebrities alike. With all this in mind, what has been Kenedy’s recipe for success?
“Well, we buy incredibly good ingredients, and we cook without a filter,” he explains. “I don’t care about making food safe or palatable. In the past, I have made everything from desserts with pigs’ blood in them to using obscure pieces of offal.” Kenedy confesses that whilst he can’t cook like an Italian native, he tries his utmost to understand how they would cook at home – the weirder, the better.
The success of Bocca di Lupo would stop most in their tracks, but since 2008, Kenedy has also set up his own pub the Plaquemine Lock in Islington. The pub is not only “where he goes to have fun” but it also encapsulates his diversity as a chef. “My mum’s mum is from Louisiana, it’s a very enchanted place, and the food is incredible”, Kenedy tells me. There are two cuisines; ‘Cajun’, which is often referred to as ‘country fare’ and is used to describe the French settlers of the Canadian region of Acadia – “lots of simply spiced pork and butchery,” and then there is ‘Creole’. Referred to as ‘city food’ and typically including “those of French, Spanish of African ancestry – food which is led by the sea and the swap.” In bringing Louisiana to London, the Plaquemine Lock offers a laid-back chance to try everything from house jambalaya, to buttermilk fried chicken, pancakes with pineapple salsa, blackened trout fishcakes and shrimp boil beignets.
The buck does not stop there. Kenedy’s latest project is the release of his upcoming book Gelupo Gelato. The illustrated book will be a collection of 80 recipes of the “best gelato in London”, including everything from sorbets to granitas to semifreddo: “I really wanted to capture the innocence and the fun of ice cream”, he tells me excitedly as he evokes his inner child. “It’ll be small and inexpensive – just like ice cream!”
After speaking at length about all-things savoury and sweet, it was time to enquire about Kenedy’s last ever supper. It comes as no surprise that his choice is a fusion of Italian-Louisianan: “I think for my last ever meal, I’ll have what I am having tonight for dinner. After all, every meal should be eaten as if it’s your last!” he proclaims. “So, in that case, I’m going to start with some oysters with some green tabasco for a bit of Louisiana. Then, for my main, I will have spaghetti vongole along with a salad with radicchio and hazelnuts. For pudding, I’ll have some blood oranges and to drink, a glass of white.” – La dolce vita.
The critic Giles Coren once said that Bocca di Lupo’s food has your “tongue singing”, “your lips quivering” and your “brain dancing”. Well, whether you’re trying one of Bocca’s ragus, one of Gelupo’s gelatos or one of Plaquemine Lock’s Rockefeller oysters, it’s clear that Kenedy is a tour de force of a restauranteur who will continue to satiate all our five senses.
Gelupo Gelato is released on the 13th of May and is available for pre-order here. Bocca di Lupo will be reopening on the 17th May. Until then, nationwide delivery of Bocca di Lupo at home is available here. And Plaquemine Lock will be reopening for outside drinking and dining from April the 12th. Book here.
Spaghetti alle vongole
Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main
Ingredients
200g spaghetti (or linguine or spaghettini – up to you, as even Italians can’t agree)
8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
600g clams (or cockles or mussels) cleaned
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
A good pinch of crushed dried chilli flakes
A handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
A tiny pinch of plain flour (.5 teaspoon, optional)
4 tablespoons white wine (optional)
Method
While your pasta is cooking, heat a wide frying pan over a high heat. When smoking hot, add half of the oil and then, quickly and all at once, the clams, garlic and chilli.
Fry for a few moments (I like my garlic to just start to colour at the edges, but this is a matter of taste), then add the parsley and the flour (optional, to emulsify the sauce).
Stir together and then add the wine or a splash of water. Let the pan bubble away uncovered – the clams will let out some liquid as they start to cook.
Once they have begun to open, they shouldn’t fry – if your pan gets too dry, add a little water, but remember that in the finished dish the sauce should be more oil than water.
When most of the clams have opened, add the drained pasta and remaining oil and cook together until the last one’s pop.
Serve immediately.