Ben Tish is the chef director for the Salt Yard Group, including Salt Yard, The Opera Tavern and Ember Yard, a chain of modern Spanish / Italian restaurants serving simple, delicious food in a relaxed, sharing environment.
Previously Ben worked with great chefs like Stephen Terry and Jason Atherton before heading up his own operations at the Italian restaurant Al Duca and the Crinan Hotel in the West Highlands. He became head chef of Salt Yard restaurant in 2006 and rose to executive chef of the group in 2008.
Salt Yard is big on sharing, is that something that initially attracted you to the place?
At the time when I started here it was really different and really new; it was a different style of service because you were sending food out when it was ready, as opposed to having to time plates to be sent out at the same time. I was a big fan of it because I think it’s just a really sociable way of eating.
Now of course sharing has really caught on and it’s bang on trend; do you think it will be another fad that will disappear again soon?
I don’t think it’s a fad. Yes lots of people are on it but let’s not forget small plates and sharing has been around for centuries – tapas, mezze and in Asian restaurants there are lots of small plates. I don’t think there’s any question that it’s a more fun, sociable way of eating than sitting down and eating three courses so there’s no reason why it should go away. The press has pushed the point quite a lot about it so there might be the danger that people get sick of it because of that, that’s the only danger.
How does dish and menu creation work across all the Salt Yard outlets?
We have head chefs at each restaurant who are semi-autonomous so they’re also responsible for coming up with dishes for the menu. Usually I’ll come up with a dish based on seasonality and all the usual things then we’ll put it on the menu as a special and if it gets positive feedback then we’ll put it on as a regular.
What inspires your dish ideas?
With the head chefs, the process is that they’ll come up with a dish then I’ll come over and taste it and talk to them about it, or tweak it; sometimes it’s a no because it’s not appropriate for the menu but usually we’ll special it and put it on the menu. It just has to tick certain boxes; the parameters are that it's seasonal, that it works to a certain cost point, that it’s got Spanish / Italian influences and that it looks and tastes good. The process happens ad hoc; there isn’t a set time for doing it. I don’t want the guys to feel that they are confined too much. I want to give them as much freedom as possible.
Off the current menu (Ember Yard):
Oak Smoked Basque Beef Burger with Idiazabal and Chorizo Ketchup
Steamed and Chargrilled Octopus with Pepperonata and Mojo Verde Aioli
Local Organic Leaf Salad with Heritage Carrots, Radish and Cumin Dressing
Signature dishes:
Courgette Flowers stuffed with Goat's Cheese and drizzled with Honey Mini
Ibérico Pork and Foie Gras Burger
See the full menu here
It could be anything. Going out and eating at other restaurants, reading cookbooks, watching TV; even things like plates I find quite inspiring – you see an interesting plate and you get an idea for something; also getting new produce in from our suppliers is really inspiring and just talking to other chefs and talking to my guys as well; they’re all foodies so it’s a real collaborative thing.
Your Iberico ham and foie gras burger has become something of a classic; how did you come up with the idea for that?
I was in a tapas bar in San Sebastian and I was served a mini beef burger. This was quite some time ago before they became ubiquitous in tapas bars; it was served with tiny small fries and I just thought that was great. At the time I’d just been introduced to fresh Iberico pork meat and the versatility of that – how you can treat it like beef and cook it rare, so I thought about making a burger with Iberico pork instead of beef. When we were messing around with the recipe we realised we needed more fat in the burger so we
thought, why not try foie gras? It just worked and was delicious so we went with it.
What aspects of your food and cooking did you take from the great chefs you have worked with?
From Jason [Atherton] it was fundamentally about quality and making sure everything is as perfect as can be. Jason was very creative but the person who taught me even more about creativity was Stephen Terry. Before that I’d worked at The Ritz Hotel and it was all very regimental, then I went to work for Stephen at Coast and he was cooking Pacific Rim food that was quite trendy at the time. He opened my eyes to how diverse and eclectic cooking can be. After those two I moved over to Al Duca working for Michele Franzolin who’d worked for Giorgio Locatelli, which opened me up to northern Italian cooking; that got me much more into rustic food, big flavours and much simpler cuisine, less fiddle-faddling about with stuff and two, three or maximum four ingredients on the plate, totally produce-led. At the time it was quite new to me because back then nobody was talking about produce quite as much as they do now. Al Duca was all about where the produce came from and that really got me inspired. After El Duca I was in Scotland for three years at the Crinan Hotel which was right on a sea loch and the menu had to be produce-led there because it was so isolated. It was on a cliff top two and a half hours from Glasgow so you had to get all your produce locally from local fishermen and local farmers who would bring whole beasts in – all the buzzwords that everyone uses nowadays but I did them because it was a necessity. It was my first job where I was totally in control and I had to build up the whole team myself so it was a real baptism of fire but that’s where I built what you would call my style I suppose.
Top five ingredients:
1. Thick Greek yoghurt: I use this on everything, add it to curries and make a sauce with the braising liquor for North African style meatballs with greens and brown rice.
2. Fresh Indian roti: it’s the best bread around. I love it with crunchy fresh salads, grilled meats, curries and to dip into various things (see yoghurt).
3. Mackerel: for me it’s the best fish. What’s not to like? It’s very healthy, sustainable and when its ultra-fresh, it’s the best-tasting fish out there. I like to grill it over charcoal and serve it with salad, red onions, cucumber and watercress and some crispy garlic potatoes, maybe some aioli.
4. A fantastic quality chicken (Sutton Hoo, or some such): I love to marinate and roast it with lemon, garlic thyme and zattar.
5. Iberico pork: more of a restaurant-y one; it’s a stunning meat and very different from anything else out there. We use various cuts all over the group but I favour the pressa, charcoal grilled rare served with sweet/sour accompaniments but nothing too complicated.
How would you describe your food style?
Ingredient-led, big flavours, simple, rustic.
What was the vision behind your last opening, Ember Yard?
It was inspired, again, by going to San Sebastian and visiting a restaurant called Etxebarri where they cook over charcoal. I just thought it was a lovely way of cooking and I’ve always liked barbecuing and grilling. Also we were slightly jumping on a trend because there was definitely a movement towards American barbecue cooking, so we thought, why not apply our Spanish / Italian angle to that?
Is there another new Salt Yard opening coming soon?
We’ll definitely be opening something probably within a year’s time. We might go slightly off piste, maybe something on a slightly bigger scale – if you think about something like a grand brasserie but in our style and with a bit of a move away from small plates to something a bit more standard, but that’s about as much as I can say for now!
