The Endurance to hand over kitchens to emerging chefs

The project, called Food Spectrum, will see ‘young, creative, passionate and under-the-radar’ chefs, more likely to have started out with a pop-up venture, rather than training under another chef, have free-reign of The Endurance’s kitchens for one month at a time.

The idea, dreamt up by The Endurance owner Billy Drew, is to give emerging talent a chance to operate in a more traditional restaurant environment, while also breathing new life into the pub.

Drew said: “It's such an exciting time in Soho for food and pop-ups and the concept of Food Spectrum merges our desire for helping people with non-typical backgrounds and bringing the consumer something a bit different.

“The Endurance is well known pub in Soho but we want it to be seen as a non-stuffy foodie destination.”

Food and feedback​

A fully-equipped kitchen, front-of-house staff, a management team, cleaning staff and a PR team are all being provided by the Berwick Street pub for chefs wanting to take over its 54-cover restaurant for a trial. 

Chefs will be expected to cater at lunch Monday to Friday and provide all-day dining on Saturday. One Sunday a month they will be given the chance to choose the type of service they want with ‘creativity’ expected to be at the heart of what they do. 

Customer feedback will be encouraged, according to The Endurance, with diners able to air their views via a dedicated Twitter feed and blog.

Blanch and Shock​

Kicking off the new initiative today is Blanch and Shock, also known as Josh Pollen, Mike Knowlden and Amy Houston, who have spent the last four years presenting their experimental style of cooking in temporary locations such as tents, warehouses, offices and fields.

The experimental trio, who met while working at an art collective, have a modernist approach to cooking, using British ingredients alongside technologically-inspired methods and have worked on a number of artistic projects such as Eat Your Heart Out where they created food for a post-apocalyptic play.

At The Endurance Blanch and Shock will cook small plates, based on simplified versions of previous dishes for daily lunches. On Saturday nights they will run ticket-only tasting-menu events featuring guest chefs and provide a snack menu to be served at the bar.