Legacy building
Legado, The Seahorse, HIMI, Twickenham listings, Choosing Keeping, SKOF, best pasta, MORE
WORK • Wednesday Routine
Reign in Spain
NIEVES BARRAGÁN MOHACHO • chef-director • Sabor and Legado
Neighbourhood you work in: Central London
Neighbourhood you live in: South London
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
It’s 8am and we’re already buzzing. We start with a coffee and our team briefing, checking fridge stocks, deliveries, and locking in the specials for the next day. From there, it’s straight into prep: talking with each section, checking in on what needs to be done, tasting dishes and refining everything. It’s very hands-on, very full-on, just how I like it.
Around 10am, we pause for a quick breakfast (I usually have yoghurt with fresh fruit) before briefing the front-of-house team. We walk them through the specials, share stories behind the dishes and make sure everything’s aligned. Then we clean down and get ready. Doors open at 12pm and the energy shifts into service mode. It’s structured chaos in the best way.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Right now, it’s all about Legado, my new restaurant in Shoreditch, which is a celebration of Spain’s diverse regional food cultures. It’s opening 28 August and we’re still fine-tuning the menu, tasting, testing and adjusting. Each dish tells part of the story, so the process has to be thoughtful. It’s an exciting phase, intense but incredibly rewarding.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
As we’re only open for lunch during soft opening, we’re planning a little Shoreditch tour tonight. We’ll definitely pop by Singburi next door, then Smoking Goat (I usually order a lot, but my highlights are the cuttlefish and chicken wings). Another favourite is Planque – their lobster rice is incredible.
How about a little leisure or culture?
When I’m not in the kitchen, I’m usually cycling, climbing or hiking – anything that helps me disconnect and clear my head. Nature gives me space to breathe and often inspires new ideas. I find that physical movement really balances the creative energy of cooking.
Any weekend getaways?
If I can get away, I head to Dartmouth in Cornwall. It’s one of my favourite places in the UK, peaceful, stunning valleys, beautiful houses, and the seafood is just exceptional. I love going out on a boat to fish and then cooking what we catch. It’s the perfect reset. I often visit my friend Mitch Tonks when I plan a weekend there. I stay at the Dart Marina Hotel. Mitch and I spend the day fishing, before ending up at one of his restaurants, either The Seahorse or Rockfish – perfect ends to the perfect getaway.
What was your last great holiday?
My most recent trip was to Tropea in southern Italy, and it was absolutely magical. I expected it to be beautiful but it completely exceeded expectations. The views are breathtaking, especially with Stromboli volcano in the distance, and the food was phenomenal.
Where are you donating your time or money?
I regularly support Action Against Hunger. It’s a cause close to my heart and I’m always happy to give my time or lend a hand for events and fundraising.
Photo: Sam Cornish
RESTAURANTS • First Word
Counter intuitively
The Skinny: Tamas Naszai and Tomoko Hasegawa, the husband and wife chef duo behind the much-loved but now closed Roji, opened HIMI, a jewel box ‘neo-izakaya’ off Carnaby Street, early this year.
The Vibe: A comfortable and informal space, with an experience that’s anything but casual. Sit at the chef’s counter for an arm’s-length view of the charcoal flame robata and sushi counters at work (Tamas works the robata, while Tomoko prepares the sushi).
The Food: The menu centres on the sushi and robata stations, both constantly refreshed with seasonal ingredients and unexpected flavours. Start with the torikara, two kinds of perfectly fried chicken. Boneless thighs and drumstick lollipops come piping hot, topped with a lingering bite of sansho pepper. Crab chawanmushi, served cold and topped with fresh-picked crab and sweetcorn, was also a hit. Next, move to the robata for the kinoko houba-yaki. A Japanese magnolia leaf is topped with scrape-the-bottom-good, sticky-sweet walnut miso sauce and seven types of London- and European-grown mushrooms. The umami bomb of a dish is fired on top of the open charcoal robata.
Chef Tomoko’s nigiri selection includes Isle of Skye sea trout and tender squid topped with sudachi zest and salt. We also had a spicy Spanish tuna temaki special with no spicy mayonnaise in sight – here it's done with freshly chopped tuna and a dry, seven-spice blend. To finish, dioka: walnut cookies served with a sake kasu custard, based on the cookies chef Tamas’ grandmother used to make.
The Drink: Like any good izakaya, HIMI serves draught beer, but I recommend the sake and standout cocktails like the seaweed martini.
The Verdict: I first tried HIMI as a pre-theatre dinner alternative, but now the only front-row seat I’m after is at the chef’s counter. –Kylie van Hoek
→ HIMI (Soho) • 4 Newburgh St • Tue 530-1030p, Wed-Fri 12-230p & 530-1030p, Sat 12-1030p • Book.
LONDON RESTAURANT LINKS: New restaurant coming to Kensington Roof Gardens • Extravagant Paris restaurant Il Bambini Club coming to Hoxton Hotel in Shoreditch • Napoli on the Road adding Soho outpost this autumn • Tasca wrapping Hackney residency six months earlier than planned.
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
Three for-sale houses in Twickenham that recently came to market around £2.5mn:
→ Ailsa Road (Twickenham) • 5BR/3BA/3R, 200 m2 detached house • Guide price: £2.5mn • backs onto Lake Garden of St. Margaret’s Trust Grounds • Ownership type: freehold • Agent: Hamptons.
→ The Embankment (Twickenham, above) • 4BR/3BA/2R 224 m2 end terrace house • Asking price: £2.5mn • grade II-listed with Thames views • Ownership type: freehold • Agent: Chase Buchanan.
→ Ailsa Rd (Twickenham) • 4BR/3BA, 215 m2 detached house • Asking price: £2.595mn • furnished, with summer house at the end of the garden • Ownership type: freehold • Agents: James Williams & Peter Norgrove, Sotheby’s.
WORK & PLAY LINKS: Inside Graeme Montgomery’s famous Clerkenwell loft, on the market for £4.75mn • Soho House going private in £2B deal • Four great London tailors for women • Boat shoes are back – get on board.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop
Stationery position
I experience stationery shops the same way I imagine other people experience casinos: with awe, sensory overload and a distorted sense of time. I leave far poorer than I walked in, the sun having long disappeared o’er the horizon.
The place I most frequently have this dazzling, financially crippling out-of-body experience is Choosing Keeping in Seven Dials. Among the throng of stag dos, endless (but worthy) queues for Humble Crumble and tuk tuk tourism lies this oasis of inky joy.
This is a million miles from your local high street WH Smith. Choosing Keeping houses analogue and epistolary romance, with a range of handmade marbled notebooks and inks, artisanal chocolates, wax seals and Italian fountain pens so beautifully made they could probably script a sonnet unaided.
Not just a top destination gift stop – anyone would squeal opening one of their bowed and gift-wrapped composition ledgers, hint hint – Choosing Keeping is also a proper artists’ resource, stocking Seymour Wallace oil paints, Japanese watercolour sets in charming palettes and Sennelier pastels that glide like silk. Everything the store sells is considered, 'favouring goods from small, mostly family-owned businesses looking to achieve the golden triangle of historicity, quality and aesthetics.' It may feel like the shop has been there forever, but it only moved from Columbia Road in 2012.
Covent Garden has changed so much in recent years – now more Covent Circus than anything – but Choosing Keeping is reason enough to brave the crowds and support the independents that still remain. –Amy Rose Holland
→ Shop: Choosing Keeping (Covent Garden) • 21 Tower St • Sun-Fri 1030a-530p, Sat 1030a-6p.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Free Swim
Mäkelä Conducts Mozart, Prokofiev & Bartók • Royal Albert Hall (South Kensington) • Sun @ 2p • grand tier boxes, £90 per
Barry Can't Swim • All Points East • Victoria Park (Tower Hamlets) • Fri @ 2p (gates) • VIP garden, £113 per
Coldplay • Wembley Stadium (Wembley) • Sat @ 5p • lower 101, £1393 per (£288 lowest avail)
GETAWAYS • Manchester
Not to be scoffed at
At Skof, a year-old restaurant in Manchester, chef Tom Barnes has created a buzzy experience showcasing an impressive high-end tasting menu, accompanied by local beer and an indie rock soundtrack. Located in the Northern city’s NOMA neighbourhood, it’s an easy tram ride from Piccadilly Station but requires some advanced planning to book a table. Inside, the restaurant embraces a comfortable, relaxed vibe that emphasises quality and service.
I opted for the longer tasting, which spans 16 dishes. It began with snack after snack appearing in rapid fire. The langoustine draped over grilled bread was the highlight, but the meal really picked up with the arrival of miso custard topped with mushrooms, dashi and truffle. Throughout, dishes highlighted seasonal ingredients, as in Jersey Royal potatoes with cuttlefish and XO sauce, and morel mushrooms paired with confit chicken wings. One of the desserts elegantly showcased British strawberries alongside jasmine cream and almond crunch, while Manchester honey made an appearance in another. The meal concluded with a show-stopping tiramisu, scooped generously from the dish at the table.
Skof is an exciting addition to Manchester, a city with multiple new restaurants and hotels opening in recent months, as well as a long-awaited Soho House coming this autumn. It’s near the new Treehouse Hotel Manchester and a quick walk from beloved cocktail spot Schofield’s Bar, which is ideal for a pre- or post-dinner drink. Go for the night or make a weekend out of it, especially if you can score tickets to a football match. –Emily Zemler
→ SKOF (Manchester) • 3 Federation St • Wed 630-8p, Thu-Sat 12-130p & 630-8p • Book.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Grand Central adding direct train service to Seaham starting in December • Telegraph critic William Sitwell plans to launch Somerset hotel and restaurant • Former Cygnet chef Paul Welburn to debut new restaurant Fern in Cornwall • Norwich Castle Keep reopens to public after 5-year makeover • A wild corner of Ireland, through the eyes of Dylan Thomas • Checking into the Lana Dorchester Collection, for those seeking a quieter Dubai.
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RESTAURANTS • The Nines
Pasta
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of London’s best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@foundldn.com.
Padella (Borough & Shoreditch), cult favourite for hand-rolled pasta, esp. pici cacio e pepe