Poppin’ Fresh: The Ben Hughes Pop Up
How the Ben Hughes Pop-Up puts county culinaire at the centre of its rapidly-growing rep
The Air course is roasted breast and leg of mallard, crispy cabbage and beetroot ketchup
While we love Kent, we have to be honest, there still isn’t that much to do on a cold and dark Monday evening in the early throes of winter... or is there?
Mondays are often the day off in the restaurant trade, but not for Ben Hughes, a young chef looking to make a name for himself on the pop-up dining scene. OK, so pop-ups aren’t a new concept, but neither are they easy, and there are very few in the county taking up the task as passionately as Ben.
The hours of effort, sourcing ingredients, planning the menu, finding the venue, making sure you have enough staff, lugging equipment about, all for one night’s work before moving on.
“Yeah, there is that side to it. It’s a bit like looking forward to a mental night out, and you have to go home after the pre-drinks,” says Ben. “You know it’s going to be good, but you can’t carry on.”
Ben Hughes
Having consulted fellow chef Will Devlin of fantastically popular Cranbrook restaurant The Small Holding, Ben took on the already perpetual No Fixed Abode pop-up brand and continued it in his own direction.
“It had been an idea in the back of my head to do some pop-ups, but we didn’t really know the logistics of how to go about it,” says Ben. “Will showed us the blueprint of how to get it rolling and to get people in through the door.”
And for the fifth time in six months, Ben and his wife Portia – head of front of house – did get through the door. Around 25 of them, and the door belonged to Alberrys Wine Bar in Canterbury.
Starting out in May, the team have popped at Stag Coffee, Canterbury; Garage Coffee at Fruitworks in Canterbury; Macknade in Faversham; and Alberrys. Lily’s Bistro in Palace Street, Canterbury, is next on the cards.
A five-course tasting menu under the headings of Foraged, Sea, Land, Air and, of course, Pudding, is always where Ben begins.
“This gives us a framework to go out and choose dishes and highlight ingredients,” he explains. “The idea is, we get what is available now and from as close as we can.
“I genuinely believe that in Kent we have this perfect little formula for food in a tasting menu format. The reason we stick to that sort of structure is because we have got every element for it.
The Sea dish is a combination of mussels with smoked dashi and braised lettuce, and a side of crispy cod skin and mussel emulsion
“We live in this perfect little triangle, where we have all the coastline for fish but all the marshland for spring lamb – it is just stunning round here. We have brilliant game keepers like Stour Valley Game, Godmersham Game and Turners Game (who provided the venison shoulder on the night).
“The foraged dish is the stuff that is already out there in Kent for ‘free’. If you have got the knowledge, it’s there for you to eat it. We import seriously little.”
A sous chef at the famous Goods Shed on the other side of the city, Ben is a young start-up (25) at the head of a young start-up company; perhaps this is what has led to a couple of Michelin-starred chefs from Kent and London popping along to the pop-up. Or maybe it’s the food.
“I think it’s a 50-50 split,” says Ben. “I think we get people who already believe in locality and want to support those who also support small, local suppliers.
“And then I think you have the other half who want to go out and eat good food.
The Foraged course is a chicken liver parfait with rosehip jelly and chestnut crumb, with a warm brioche bun on the side
“I don’t think that as chefs you have to educate people or force stuff on them, but I also think that if you have got someone’s ear you have an obligation to tell people where the ingredients are coming from, and that it is so close by. It’s not begging people to avoid the supermarket but letting them know that all this is here.”
The first delivery is a spelt and rye bread with salted butter, with a refreshing amuse bouche including crisp celeriac and Jerusalem artichoke salad.
Each course is served to each diner banquet-style (at the same time) – I mean, there’s only four people in this team, two in the kitchen and two out the front, so staggering things isn’t really an option.
And Ben will serve each table at least once himself.
“You want to be out there answering questions, and you want to gather people’s feedback,” he says. “When you do the pop-up thing, it’s strange because you could be six months into it but we’re the equivalent of only being open in a restaurant for just over a week. So the amount of feedback you get is limited and the amount of opportunity you get to correct things is limited.”
The Foraged course is a chicken liver parfait with rosehip jelly and chestnut crumb, with a warm brioche bun on the side.
It was after a visit to Tom Sellers’s Michelin-starred Restaurant Story in London, an establishment that has a strong relationship with pop-ups, that Ben decided to look into it himself.
The Land course is venison shoulder, picked, pulled and put back together, with puréed pumpkin chutney, sage mayo and pumpkin powder
“We have always said we want to be accessible,” he explains. “We want the price point to be accessible and we want the food to be accessible.”
At £35 for five courses plus extras, it will certainly be on the cheaper end of any tasting menu tariff.
“Of course, everyone wants to make money, but it really isn’t the motivation here at all,” says Ben. “If someone said to me the night would be improved twice as much if we had another front-of-house guy or another chef, we would spend it on that. We’re constantly investing in new plates and things, because we’re trying to evolve it. I’m sure every chef says it at the beginning, but I just really want to cook how I want to cook.”
The Sea dish is a combination of mussels with smoked dashi and braised lettuce, and a side of crispy cod skin and mussel emulsion.
“I haven’t had any classical training as such,” says Ben, “but I have always worked in Kent and genuinely always loved cooking in this way.
“I never want to see bananas on the menu... but I’m still going to eat bananas at home.
“Yeah, you have chocolate and coffee and certain truffles that are better elsewhere, but if you want apples, these ones in Kent are the best. If you want lamb, this is the best lamb. The pumpkins are amazing, the mallard are amazing.
“I don’t know the science on food traveling, but I’m convinced that if it hasn’t, it tastes better.”
The Land course is venison shoulder, picked, pulled and put back together, with puréed pumpkin chutney, sage mayo and pumpkin powder.
There is of course a risk in pop-ups... that no one will turn up.
“There’s pressure because you really can’t f*ck it up too massively, because you’re not going to get those people back,” says Ben. “No one is going to walk past your pop-up and fall through the door.”
The Air course is roasted breast and leg of mallard, crispy cabbage and beetroot ketchup. Social media and a good reputation from the No Fixed Abode experiences are standing Ben in good stead for the coming months.
Pudding is as Kentish an arrangement as you can imagine, with apples and pears, sliced, diced, puréed and served with ice cream and crunch
“I’d like to do at least 10 next year,” he says. “But you never know, if someone says they want us to be there once a week and we think we could sell it out, then we might do that. Really, though, we wanted the growth to be organic, with the end aim of getting a premises.
“I would never hide that from anyone. But this could take six years to grow. We don’t want to rush it.”
Pudding is as Kentish an arrangement as you can imagine, with apples and pears, sliced, diced, puréed and served with ice cream and crunch. Brilliant.
Ben adds: “Anyone who eats here and tells someone about it, or even takes a picture and posts it on to social media, is a part of this story and wherever it is we end up.”
For more information, visit benhughespopup.co.uk or see @benhughes_popup on Instagram