Food for thought: Wild By Tart
Lucy Carr-Ellison and Jemima Jones are the voguish co-founders of Tart. The culinary duo met on a fashion shoot as a model and photographer while working in New York. They struck up a friendship over a desire for better catering on fashion shoots. “It was where the idea for Tart London was born,” they tell me. “We began catering for some fabulous clients, providing people with the food they’d enjoy whilst on set.”
It wasn’t long before Tart London was placed at the heart of the “boutique catering” scene. The company has become a go-to for much of the fashion industry. They have provided appetizing ammunition for brands such as Stella McCartney and Louis Vuitton as well as the likes of Kate Moss, Sienna Miller and Cara Delevingne. When they’re not feeding models, they have also been regular food columnists for the ES Magazine since 2016. The duo published a successful first cookbook titled A Love of Eating: Recipes from Tart London.
The pair opened their first restaurant Wild by Tart back in 2019. Wild by Tart is nestled away in Eccleston Yards, Belgravia, in a 9,000 sq. ft former power station and coal store. The restaurant radiates a warm glow through its oversized pendant lighting and open, light-filled space. It is dripping in green foliage, which works in harmonious contrast to the open industrial ceiling. On the ground, there are rattan chairs and long communal tables. Their mixture of effortlessly cool furniture and ample lush greenery in an industrial-styled space is bound to get any millennial’s pulse racing.
Tart’s food manifesto is to be farm-to-fork. Where possible, they use produce from their respective family farms in Northumberland and Somerset and from their favourite suppliers across the U.K. “The first question people ask about Tart is “what kind of food do you make?”. The simple truth is, we make what we love,” the pair say. They hope that by using sustainably sourced ingredients deployed in creative combinations, they can create dishes that excite and entice: “We make food that excites us, using ingredients we know work well together,” they tell me. “We also like to work with suppliers who demonstrate sustainability and craftsmanship.”
Their ideas for recipes ebb and flow as the sun shifts through the seasons: “Ingredients that are in season are important and are particularly delicious, rich in nutrition, and carry the vibrant colours of their unique time of year.” Although the restaurant’s aesthetic is the Instagrammer’s dream, the pair were quick to assert that they are all about substance over show: “We’re not attracted to food that tries to make a point or dishes that are concerned more with appearance than taste. Our food is laid back, fun, and – we hope – delicious.”
The Wild by Tart menu is a fusion of Mediterranean, British and Middle Eastern cuisine. It comprises of small plates, grill, wood oven, sides, and desserts, all designed to share for a tapas-like experience. Dishes include everything from: trout crudo, green tiger’s milk, wild mushrooms with tarragon and walnut, spiced crab beignets with curry leaf & lime mayo, marinated poussin & cavolo nero, flatbread with pork & fennel and a mandarin sorbet, miso caramel skillet cookie, spiced fig Bellini – need I go on?
Like all restaurants, the pair have found the last year challenging, especially as Wild by Tart had only been open for five months when the first lockdown hit: “We’ve been through such highs and such lows, and so we’ve spent a lot of the time adapting the business and pivoting our plans to remain trading in some form. As an industry, we feel as though it’s been a hard hit, however, we are grateful for the government support that we have been offered but hope things can return to normal as soon as they can so we can see all our lovely customers!”
I inquire how the pair have spent their lockdown while the Wild by Tart’s doors remains closed. “We’ve been making warming, comforting homely dishes”, they tell me. “Slow-cooked bean stew, homemade pasta and ragus. Recently we’ve been incorporating lots of new seasonal produce; winter tomatoes, blood oranges and rhubarb.”
The pair would choose a “fresh and zingy” ceviche starter with lots of flavour for their last ever supper. For their main, both would have a “homemade crab tagliatelle – with dried chilli and fennel”. Entirely in sync up until this point, it was pudding that split the pair. For Jemima, it would be a “light and refreshing panna cotta with seasonal fruit, ideally rhubarb or apricot, and for Lucy, “a chocolatey caramel type dessert with lots of salt.”
Tart’s important ‘farm-to-fork’ philosophy and focus on seasonal ingredients is accompanied by an elite creativity when it comes to developing dishes that boast colour, taste and texture. Friends who have been to Wild by Tart leave thinking and raving of nothing else. With the recent news that indoor restaurants can reopen from 17 May, it may just be time to take a walk on the wild side.
Tart’s ultimate crab chilli pasta
Serves 4
Ingredients
3 garlics, thinly sliced
2 spring onions top and bottom chopped, sliced lengthways and thinly sliced
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1 small tsp crushed chillies
1 fennel, halved and thinly sliced
big handful cherry tomatoes, diced small
200ml white wine
400g crab meat
1 lemon, juice and zest
medium bunch of flat leafed parsley, roughly chopped
small bunch of basil, roughly chopped
small bunch of tarragon, roughly chopped
350g spaghetti (we have used pappardelle)
3 anchovy fillets, chopped
100g sourdough, blitzed until coarse crumbs
½ tsp fennel seeds
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 lemon- lemon zest
3 tbsp crème fraiche
sea salt
Method
Put a big pot of water on to boil with a little salt for the pasta
In a big pan add a generous amount of olive oil and add the sliced garlic, crushed chilli and fennel seeds and sauté over a low heat for a few minutes, add the spring onions and sliced fennel- sauté for a further 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the wine and turn up the heat for a few more minutes until most of the wine and cooked off.
In a bowl mix the fresh crab with the chopped herbs (reserve some parsley), the lemon zest and juice and plenty of salt and pepper.
Put your pasta in and cook to the instructions, leaving a little al dente.
In a different pan add a small tablespoon of butter, add the anchovy, fennel seeds and garlic cook over a medium heat until the anchovy breaks down and then add the crumbs. Keep stirring until they crisp up, add then add the lemon zest and a big pinch of finely chopped parsley. Set aside .
Mix in a bowl crème fraiche with half a lemon juice and salt.
Heat the fennel mixture and add the pasta, douse in a little more olive oil and add the crab and take off the heat.
Serve with a dollop of crème fraiche and a generous sprinkling of the crumbs, we like to add more chopped herbs to the top.