BEN MELLOR
Young at Heart
This week’s wine tasting and dégustation event at 28-50º Maddox Street was an eye-opening experience not just for the guests, but also for group executive chef Ben Mellor.
‘Each restaurant has its own individual style: Mayfair is quite casual; it’s classical French in the City; and Marylebone is more tapas-style’
28-50º GROUP executive chef Ben Mellor was a little reticent when he first found out that his kitchen at Maddox Street was to be opened up to a couple of unknown chefs, coming in to prepare a joint menu of Portuguese finger food to accompany this week’s TASTE PORTUGAL wine tasting event. ‘I was worried in the lead-up,’ he confesses, ‘because you never quite know who you’re going to get in your kitchen. You can’t get on with every one, but luckily it went well with Henrique [Sá Pessoa] – he was really nice and quite laid back. It was a shame not to spend a bit more time with him, actually.’
Mellor admits he didn’t know much about Portuguese food and wine before the event. ‘You’re quite boxed in here in London,’ he says. He works long days from Monday to Friday, usually 8am until 11 or 12 at night, and has children to spend time with on the weekends. ‘I’m not 18 any more – you have other priorities in life.’ In advance of the event, he put forward suggestions for six dishes from which the chef and sommelier team then chose the final three [with a further three being brought to the table by Sá Pessoa], according to which would pair well with the wines. Being involved with this event and speaking to Sá Pessoa, Mellor admits to having been inspired to find out more about Portuguese cuisine. ‘Henrique was saying it’s really up and coming. I’m interested especially because we have Aggi [Sverrisson] who owns Texture [and 28-50º] and Icelandic food was really unheard of here, but he’s put a magical twist on it.’
Mellor has been with 28-50º for just over three and a half years now. He began as a sous chef and then took over at the City venue, before being promoted to general executive chef, which means that he is now based across all three sites. Amongst other duties, he oversees the menu designs, while still allowing individual head chefs a good amount of freedom. ‘Each restaurant has its own individual style,’ he explains, ‘which is really nice and probably what makes it so appealing to work here. Mayfair is quite casual; it’s classical French in the City; and Marylebone is more tapas-style.’
Apart from being inspired to find out more about Portuguese cuisine, what else has Mellor gained from his TASTE PORTUGAL experience? Asked if, having done this, he would let another chef into his kitchen at some point, happily he said: ‘Yeah, I think I would!’ Enjoyment was not only had by the guests then.
