Team hospo: The rise and rise of kitchen pop-ups and collabs
Sunday, 8 December 2024
Oops, there is no photograph of the small but perfectly delicious Welsh rarebit topped Red Leicester cheese scones because, well, confession - they were scarfed before any snaps could be taken.
The bite-sized scones, along with a flute of Nautilus Brut Cuvee, kicked off the menu at what was promoted as a Field & Green “takeover” of Wellington’s Floriditas restaurant.
The sold-out event last weekend, originally just for two nights but so popular an extra one was added, saw chef Laura Greenfield, she of the much-lamented, now closed Field & Green, cooking up a storm alongside Flo’s own staff.
The five-course pop-up menu was very much a Greenfield one; all the old staples were there, although not as former customers would have known them. Hence the three “kickshaws” that followed the famous Red Leicesters included the signature kedgeree as a croquette, with accompanying curry oil; the baccala (fried salt cod) became a mini fish sammie, while the popular goat’s cheese and beetroot borek was switched out for a Morrocan-inspired tuna “cigar” on a bed of lemony, herby chermoula.
The “meat course” was an Italian take on the Jewish cholent, a slow-cooked stew served for Shabbat - in this instance meltingly tender beef cheek with chickpeas, tomatoes and oregano. Alongside that were sage-butter soaked gnocchi Parisienne (choux pastry rather than potato), and lightly charred sweet and sour courgettes.
Greenfield and her partner Raechal Ferguson were renowned for their innovative ice cream flavours, so dessert was never going to be anything but. This one was a powerful hit of pungent stem ginger icy-ness, offset by a crunchy sheet of salty Tunisian fried pastry dripping with orange blossom syrup.
“The menu took me a while,” Greenfield explains. “I’ve really got to feel it myself, it’s about would I eat this if I came to dinner. If I saw this, would I go ‘yeah, I want this’. That’s where it has to start.”
There were some ‘what ifs’, and hopes “that it wasn’t going to be a shit-show halfway through service”.
It wasn't. F&G at Flo’s went swimmingly. “It was actually very, very smooth and fun, with really great chefs and great front of house.”
Pop-ups and collabs, while not novel, are increasingly popular. They offer diners a chance to try new dishes or ones they particularly enjoy, and provide restaurant staff ‒ both in the kitchen and front of house ‒ an opportunity to experiment with like-minded people and support industry colleagues.
For Greenfield, who closed the doors on Field & Green in November 2023 after more than eight years, they are the perfect next step in a long career.
“I don’t regret a thing. I loved Field & Green, but the relentlessness of it was exhausting. We were emotionally and physically exhausted when we closed. But I love cooking, I have to cook.”
And this way there’s less responsibility, fewer hours and way more flexibility: “It’s the best of both worlds … I don’t have to worry about staff, rent, people not turning up, dishwashers breaking. It’s great fun and it keeps things really fresh.”
The pair are also doing some menu consultancy work and catering. They’ve previously held collabs at Nara in Martinborough, and next week team up with Welly Hospo Award winner Max Gordy and the team at Graze for a pescatarian “Feast of the seven fishes”.
Floriditas’ Julie Clark says the event was the first of a programme of several the restaurant would be holding, large and small, with a focus on entertainment, community-building and staff engagement.
Hosting them allows staff to engage with different styles of delivery and is fun for both front and back of house, she says.
“As an established restaurant (20 years next March), we recognise the role we can play in fostering this trend. Whether it’s collaborating with emerging chefs, sharing expertise, or even providing venues and mentorship, we believe established players have a responsibility to support the next generation.”
The events are also a way to celebrate the vibrancy and inclusiveness of the hospitality industry and “ to let people know there is still a beating hospitality heart in Wellington”.
Beth Brash is director of Wellington On a Plate, the capital’s annual month-long food festival, which has been hosting collabs for the last five years, and says a big part of it is bringing world-class international talent back to the capital.
“Hospitality at the moment is not an easy industry, but with these everyone’s in it together, and there’s a mutual respect that happens. It’s a chance for them to kind of get together and play, and I think that’s something really magic.”
They also help spark innovation and new ways of doing things, Brash says.
Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois agrees, saying the surge in creative initiatives such as pop-ups and limited-time collabs is both a means of keeping customers engaged and a way to encourage them to dine out.
“Special themed menus and collaborations with local producers are another way businesses are keeping things exciting, giving diners a reason to keep coming back.
“This year has been particularly challenging but it’s a testament to the resilience and creativity of the hospitality industry as businesses find innovative ways to keep customers coming through their doors.'