‘We’re not governed by any rules here – we can change things as and when we like.’ I’m sitting with Adam Simmonds at the counter in his restaurant The Test Kitchen, in Soho, getting to know more about the chef’s latest project. The place is pretty small – a row of stools sit alongside the central bar, which acts as a pass with chefs hard at work behind it – but this isn’t where Adam is settling down for the foreseeable future. This is, as the name implies, a pop-up development kitchen, which will close in 2018 when Adam opens his permanent venue. But what makes it stand out is that it’s open to the public.
Adam has worked in and run Michelin-starred restaurants in the past, honing his skills at places like Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and winning awards as head chef of Danesfield House in Marlow. Over the past three years he’s been working as a consultant, going into kitchens to improve both the food and the way they’re run. But his primary goal was to open his own restaurant, something that proved harder to achieve than he first imagined. Just before Christmas last year, however, he managed to raise investment for a small site on Frith Street in central London. There was just one catch – the lease only lasted one year. Rather than passing on the opportunity, he made it work in his favour, opening The Test Kitchen as a twelve-month pop-up.
‘I never envisaged opening a pop-up before a permanent site, but it just sort of happened naturally,’ he says. ‘It’s a really effective way of us gathering information from customers, so when we open the permanent place we’ll have a menu that’s already been tried and tested. It means we can be experimental without impacting the business, because people who eat here know to expect something a bit different. And if we can hit the ground running when we open next year, then that’s even better.’
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Flying colours: Adam Simmonds’ The Test Kitchen
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