Having launched to critical acclaim in March this year, the team at Sapling in London's Dalston has appointed Eddie Harris as the new Head Chef from today, Thursday 8 November.
Harris brings with him a wealth of culinary experience from some of London’s most celebrated restaurants including the much-loved Chiltern Firehouse, Michelin-starred Portland, The Mountgrove Bothy, and The Laughing Heart - where his love and appreciation for wine, and pairing it with food, was first ignited.
Harris is motivated by using the finest local seasonal produce and takes influence from world flavours, namely Scandinavian cuisine, having spent a lot of time there visiting family and soaking up the culture.
New dishes include:
Nocellara Olives, Sicily
Dusty Knuckle sourdough, house butter
Whipped cod’s roe, puffed rice, seaweed
Chicken wings, beetroot “ketchup”
Pesce Spada, caper berries, lemon, olive oil
Scorched mackerel, kohlrabi, horseradish buttermilk
Delica pumpkin, Cornish big leaves, honey
Bobby beans, onion, roasted smoked garlic
Carrots, harissa, almonds (pictured)
Pig cheek, celeriac, green apple
Mallard, beetroot, preserved berries
Gnocchi, butternut squash
Malt and pecan pie, creme fraiche
Coconut sorbet
To work alongside the kitchen menu and complement the wines on offer, Sapling will continue to feature a Larder menu that mirrors the restaurant’s exploratory philosophy. Sapling showcases lightly cured, delicately flavoured rare-breed meats from celebrated independent producers, such as Hackney based Black Hand, Cobble Lane, Great Glen in Fort William and Cornish Charcuterie, to name a few.
The cheese component of the Larder menu is primarily from La Fromagerie in nearby Highbury and features seasonal varieties so, as with the wine, the menu has a rotating emphasis.
The wine menu is structured around a focus list of around 30 different bottles which rotate every 3-4 weeks, including a number of grower Champagnes and other notable sparkling wines. The core list at Sapling focuses on varieties from producers who have passion for what they create and express purity of a place.
The aim is to represent a broad spectrum of inspired and inventive interpretations and as a result, most of the wines are by their very nature sustainable, organic, biodynamic or low-intervention - all available to order by the glass.