everyone ’ s got a vision of it in a glass , some prawns , almost over-spilling . If they don ’ t get that , it could be tastier than a prawn cocktail , it could be a deconstructed prawn cocktail , you ’ ve lost the customer because they feel like that wasn ’ t what they expected . So if you give them no expectation , if you just write beef , onion like I do , there ’ s only one way to go from there . It ’ s harder from a PR point of view to get customers into the door for those sorts of menus because people sometimes want to be described what it is , what is the concept .
Jason : My favourite meal is one I don ’ t know what I ’ m getting . I love tasting menus , I love just sitting down and being told right you ’ re going to have this .
Steve : Yeah , but that ’ s where you ’ re my ideal customer . But not everyone ’ s like that and that ’ s the thing , my brother is the complete opposite to me , you know I ’ m a chef , I like to stay clean and tidy , he ’ s a mechanic and I can probably name like 10 ingredients that he ’ s used , cos he ’ s really particular , he hates onions , and he hates mushrooms , typical boy I ’ d say , he just eats for fuel so when he eats as long as there ’ s a lot of it and he feels overfull at the end he ’ s happy . He also likes to eat nice food as well and appreciates it but I don ’ t think he ’ s ever been to a pop-up , he ’ s been invited to the restaurant but he just finds it all weird how people can eat this sort of food . So it ’ s about finding your right customer and even the best restaurant in the country struggles to find its customer . I don ’ t like paying too much attention to TripAdvisor or Facebook style ratings unless it ’ s a mistake with them , if someone ’ s spilt a bottle of wine over someone then I ’ d take it seriously but if it ’ s something like “ I was expecting an al a carte option ” we ’ re just going to have to either lose that customer or hopefully they ’ ll adapt .
Jason : Well , right now there ’ s no shortage of places to eat .
Steve : That ’ s right .
Jason : And there ’ s something to fit every palate , every price , every taste .
Amber : And a lot of dietary requirements !
Jason : We ’ ve got a fair share of foibles in this city , so with that in mind , why put another restaurant in Brighton and Hove ?
Steve : I never saw it as another restaurant in Brighton and Hove ; I saw it as a different restaurant , something that other chefs weren ’ t doing . I mean the choices I had when I looked at a location of either Brighton , London or Horsham ; Horsham would have been ideal for me .
I think having cooked there for the last 7 years for me it had almost maxed out on potential . I don ’ t think you can open another restaurant in Gray for example , it ’ s got two 3 star restaurants and a couple of 1 star pubs , but it still seems to be growing but for me Horsham , Tristans has got a star , but it ’ s very similar cooking to what I ’ m trying to do and I just think it ’ s too saturated for that market . When I look at Brighton , with no disrespect , I think it ’ s a compliment to say that it ’ s hitting like 60 % of the food potential , that ’ s where I wanted to come in and want to be the best . I want to come in and really push the city forwards . Increase it ’ s potential and I ’ d much rather be in a city , I ’ m still a young chef , I ’ ve still got a bit of a buzz about me , I think Horsham ’ s almost a place to settle down which is what I have done , and go out for that fine dining whereas Brighton it ’ s nice to come , have some fun , feel comfortable , but not over pretentious and that ’ s what I wanted to create as a model , it ’ s just making sure that model fits in the area that I ’ m working in . The thing that put me off London is they ’ re doing it quite a lot in London , this social dining and I think I ’ d just be lost there , whereas hopefully I can stand out a little bit in Brighton . I chose Hove because again I think it saturated in the city . So it was either then Kemptown or Hove and I ’ ve gone with Hove luckily because my old head chef is in Kemptown , we ’ re almost like the book ends of the city with our food offering and I think we both want the same thing , we don ’ t want to compete with each other , we just want to up the game and help the city reach it ’ s potential . It ’ s not like going to a barbers or a hairdressers for a woman , people eat out in lots of different restaurants and that ’ s the thing , they ’ ve opened a Ginger Pig down the road , which works really well for me especially now they ’ ve got rooms because I do think the people who will eat here they will also eat at the Ginger Pig and stay at the Ginger Pig and vice versa , so we ’ re almost creating a little foody community down in this side of Hove . Whereas if I was the only restaurant I think it ’ d be more of a struggle for me , so because I ’ m not I think that works in my favour .
Amber : So what ’ s your favourite restaurant in Brighton and Hove ?
Steve : I always say 64 Degrees but that ’ s only because we go in early , we have great food and then we go out into town for a few cocktails after .
Jason : So you ’ ve obviously cooked for lots of people over the years and I should imagine amongst all that there ’ s been some famous people ; have you ever been star struck by somebody you ’ re cooking for ?
15