Dan Doherty, Duck & Waffle, London

Dan Doherty is the Executive Chef of Duck & Waffle, the restaurant on the 40th floor of London’s Heron Tower. (note he left this position in April 2018)

• Dan Doherty to launch Chefs of Tomorrow project
• Who is the head chef at Duck and Waffle, London?
• Dan Doherty’s The TMRW project aims to highlight Front of House staff with new Switch programme
• Why did Dan Doherty leave Duck and Waffle?

As one of the UK’s first high-end, 24-hour restaurants, it has wowed diners, critics and late night revellers alike with its playful take on British and European classics.

The Staff Canteen caught up with Daniel to find out what it’s like cheffing 24/7.

How did the idea first come about to open a 24-hour restaurant?

Samba Brands Management (SBM) occupies three floors in the building – the 38th, 39th and 40^th - and originally, SUSHISAMBA (Duck & Waffle’s sister restaurant) was supposed to fill all of them. However, roughly one year before opening, SBM Founder, Shimon Bokovza, felt that the space was large enough to accommodate two, different concepts. Shimon is an amazing guy.

Not only is he super creative, but he also knows what people are looking for in a restaurant. New York, where Shimon lives, is a 24-hour city and he strongly felt that there was an opportunity to bring that element to London. Of course, everyone doubted it would be successful. Most people thought that if you’re going to do a 24-hour restaurant then it has to be in West London or Shoreditch. Fast forward two years later, and regardless of the fact that we’re located in a part of London that is most quiet A: during weekends and B: overnight - we average 1,500 covers on the weekends and 300 covers between midnight and 5am. It just goes to show that you should never take ‘no’ or ‘you can’t’ for an answer.

What was the original plan for the food offering and how involved were you in the direction that took?

SBM operates a restaurant in Miami called SUGARCANE raw bar grill, which Duck & Waffle was originally supposed to emulate. But, Miami is quite different from London: its beautiful weather, palm trees, beaches and sunshine do not ring true in London, where it’s pissing down outside and you’re a bit grumpy!

I travelled to Miami for a couple of months to better understand what Shimon appreciates about SUGARCANE before putting my own touch on things. From the outset, we knew we wanted to do sharing and small plates so we began developing a menu that incorporated both playful dishes and more traditional fare in this format.

It was a beautiful coincidence that the food I most enjoy cooking is also what Shimon wanted in a restaurant – sometimes it just comes together seamlessly.

What came first, Duck & Waffle as a name for the restaurant or as a dish?

Duck & Waffle actually comes from SUGARCANE’s menu and it happens to be Managing Partner Danielle Billera’s favourite dish. She suggested that we call it Duck & Waffle, reasoning that it’s such a memorable dish and it will standout on the menu. It ended up making a bit of a splash so I think so it was a good move.

What are the practical challenges of running a 24-hour restaurant?

 Obviously staff is a tough one. The people we look to hire are young parents. For example, any ambitious chef, who wants to cook at a high level and who’s just had a kid, doesn’t want to have to step into a sub-standard job just because it allows them to lead their life. With us, they can work overnight, cook to a high level, then finish work and take the kids to school, go home, sleep, pick the kids up, spend time with them then come back to work.

It can work and that’s what we’ve done. I figured that in a city with eight million people, we’d be able to find five or six people like that. One of the biggest challenges is that I cannot be at the restaurant 24/7. I’ll leave at one in the morning and between then and seven or eight when I’m back, we’re still open. It’s not like you’re locking the front door and going home for the night.

Anything could happen - there could be a fire, there could be a fight, Jay Rayner could come in at 3am and order Duck &Waffle. We could be judged and it would be completely out of my control since I’m not there.

How do you overcome that? Obviously your team must be very important.

Yes, we have a senior team, which consists of a breakfast sous chef, an overnight sous chef, and a production sous chef. So basically there’s a senior member of staff present at every point of the day to make sure that we’re never running out of food, that the recipes are being followed correctly, that the food – in its raw form - is amazing, and that we’re prepping it right so that the service kitchen upstairs has the best produce to work with.

The breakfast team has someone senior to report to and the same for the overnight team; then we have our normal sous chefs for lunch and dinner and then I have a chef de cuisine here as well; it’s kind of like an army!

How big is the brigade in total?

We’re at about 45-50 now. We never thought it was going to be that much!

Did you ever imagine this was something you might end up doing?

I think, like a lot of chefs, I fell into it a bit. When I was at school, one of my best friends’ mum found the advert for the Specialised Chefs course at Bournemouth and Poole College in The Times and she cut it out. When I went round to call she said, “You might be interested in this.” I just chucked it in my pocket and didn’t think anything of it really. Then my mum, when she was doing the washing, found it and applied for it on my behalf. So one morning I woke up and I had a big football game, but my mum was like, “No we’re going to Bournemouth for an interview.” I was like, “No, I’m not going to Bournemouth,” but she dragged me down there kicking and screaming and I guess the rest is history.

Is it right that you’ll be releasing a cookbook soon?

Yes, it’s called Duck & Waffle Recipes and Stories; there’s a hundred-odd recipes from breakfast, lunch, dinner and overnight dishes. Each dish has a little anecdote about how it came about, where it went wrong, where it went right and what inspired it. It’s nice to share these details with guests since every dish is part of our story. Duck & Waffle Recipes and Stories is released on 6^th October