Since a rented railway arch, 2019
Three rooms, one fire, and a rule we have never broken: if it did not meet flame, it does not leave the pass.
How it started
The first Bite Cult was a Tuesday supper club in a railway arch with no gas supply and a borrowed generator. We cooked forty covers on a single kettle grill and ran out of everything by ten. Eleven people stayed until three in the morning arguing about salt.
We did it again the following Tuesday, and the Tuesday after that, and at some point it stopped being a supper club. The arch is still ours. It is where we test everything before it reaches a menu.
“We never wrote a business plan. We wrote a prep list and it got longer.”
The arch, 2019. Still our test kitchen.
Four things we do not negotiate
Fire first
If it can be cooked over coals, it is. The induction hob was sold in year one and never replaced.
Nothing leaves
Under two kilos of waste a month across a forty-cover kitchen. The number is on the wall by the door.
Called, not printed
No tickets, no printer. Orders are called across the pass and repeated back. It is loud and it works.
No turning
One seating a night. The table is yours until you decide otherwise, which is usually very late.
The people
Nine on the pass, four who never sleep
Mara Vex
Head chef
Ran the arch on a borrowed generator. Still calls every order.
Ilya Rook
Fermentation
Keeps eleven crocks in the cellar and will not tell anyone what is in the ninth.
Tomas Herd
Floor
Rehearses service like a play. Knows every regular’s drink before they sit.
Sena Okafor
Wine
Buys only from growers she has met. Pours things that frighten people.
Next
Read what is on the fire this week
See the menu