Start up of the week: ‘Small Plate Sessions’ at The Last Days of Shoreditch

The Gazette hunts high and low each week to bring you news of the most interesting and unusual new businesses in Hackney. This week we find out about the top chef who walked out of his acclaimed restaurant residency in 2012 saying he didn’t want to cook “pub grub”, who is launching a pop-up summer restaurant in Shoreditch.

Ben Spalding is working with PuzzleProjects to launch “Small Plate Sessions” at The Last Days of Shoreditch off Old Street.

Mr Spalding, who has worked at prestigious restaurants like Heston Blumenthal’s star Fat Duck in Berkshire and Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir in Oxfordshire, had been serving up dishes like “bricks coated in caramel glaze with chicken liver parfait” as part of a 12-course tasting menu at the John Salt bar and restaurant in Islington five years ago.

But he hit the headlines when he left before his six-month stint was up.

His latest venture, which launches in a week, promises “high-energy, punk tapas in a fully immersive but relaxed environment”.

“Innovative” dishes will include duck breast cooked in a chocolate salt crust, chicken skin sandwich – and the now infamous “chicken on a brick”.